format hard drive

flower8099 · 11-10-2003, 05:50 PM

I am having problems with fdisk and formating my hard drive.. it is a 40 GB hard drive and it already has a primary DOS partition and an Extended DOS partition.

I want to format this drive completely!! When I went to create a new primary partition it told me that there was already one... Then I went to delete the extended partition and it told me I can't! Help me! I just want to use the 40GB drive as my C Drive with no partitions on it!

Volt-Schwibe · 11-10-2003, 06:18 PM

ok, first you have to choose "delete logical drives on extended partition"

delete the d and e and others if they exist, you will have to enter it's name and choose yes on this.

then, go back and delete the extended partition, then delete the primary dos one.

then choose create primary dos partition, and say yes when it asks if you want to use it all and make it active.

then you will need to exit the fdisk program, and reboot.

reformat drive c, and you are good to go.

~BoB~

flower8099 · 11-10-2003, 07:52 PM

Great that worked! but I restarted my computer and it said:

Boot Record from CDROM...Not Found
Boot Record from Floppy...Not Found
Boot Record from IDE-0...OK

Microsoft (R) windows 98
(c) Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1999

C:\>

And when I type in dir
Commom com 93,890 04-23-99 10:36p
1file 93,890 bytes
0dir 3,866,177,536 bytes free

AHHHHH help =)

flower8099 · 11-10-2003, 07:56 PM

oh yeah I had the 98SE CD in too!

Volt-Schwibe · 11-10-2003, 10:54 PM

i am not sure what type of boot disk you are using, but mine says this after i reformat:

C:\dir

Volume in drive C: is SYSTEM
Volume Serial Number is xxxx-xxxx
Directory of C:\

File not found
3,994,279,744 bytes free
C:\

maybe you should go to www.bootdisk.com and download a correct boot floppy for your version of win 98 (FE and SE are different) then you will need to stick it in the a drive, and reboot, it should start and ask you to choose if you want cd support or not.

then, go to your cd-rom drive, mine is h:, but with a single hard disk in one chunk, then i would expect your cd-rom to be d:

so type:

d:
setup

it should work...

~BoB~

11-11-2003, 06:41 AM

If that doesn't work try E setup. D may now be your RamDrive...

flower8099 · 11-11-2003, 01:03 PM

Okay sorry since my computer is formated I have had to go to another computer.

I got this message after I choose Y for a large drive.

"Your computer has NTFS partitions which may require large drive support. If you are using another operating system, such as windows NT, which supports large drives you should enable treating these partitions as large." Then I chose Y.

Then I deleted the partitons and formated my computer, rebooted and got the above message I posted before this. I hope that was the right choice "Y"! just making sure.

So I couldn't access my CDROM so I decided to go with CDROM Support instead of Without! And I finally got my CD ROM to work but I had to find the file setup.exe in my win98 CD. When I ran the setup it started up fine, but I got this error message:

"Caution sU0015
Setup dectected a windows NT file system partition on your hard disk. Files on this partition will not be available when you use Windows 98."

I was wondering if this had to do with my other hard disk in my computer? It has Windows NT on it but I don't use it and want to format it too later...
Because when I checked the partition in Fdisk it said that my C: was Primary DOS, 38162Mbytes and the System was FAT32. And this is the drive I was installing Win98 on yet it gave me the error.

any ideas?

flower8099 · 11-11-2003, 01:04 PM

I used my Win98 SE Bootdisk I created from my computer.

should I download the bootdisk online and start over?

11-11-2003, 01:59 PM

What I usually do in these situations is write zeros to the hard drive! Then you are sure all the data has been destroyed as best as can be.
Then you can fdisk and format the drive using the boot floppy that you created.

What brand is your hard drive that you want to clean off?

11-10-2003, 05:50 PM	#1 (permalink)
flower8099 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 8 OS: WIN98SE	format hard drive I am having problems with fdisk and formating my hard drive.. it is a 40 GB hard drive and it already has a primary DOS partition and an Extended DOS partition. I want to format this drive completely!! When I went to create a new primary partition it told me that there was already one... Then I went to delete the extended partition and it told me I can't! Help me! I just want to use the 40GB drive as my C Drive with no partitions on it!

11-10-2003, 06:18 PM	#2 (permalink)
Volt-Schwibe Asst. Manager, Automotive Forums; HJT Trainee Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Behind you, watching you as you type. Posts: 7,372 OS: Click "My System" to view details My System	ok, first you have to choose "delete logical drives on extended partition" delete the d and e and others if they exist, you will have to enter it's name and choose yes on this. then, go back and delete the extended partition, then delete the primary dos one. then choose create primary dos partition, and say yes when it asks if you want to use it all and make it active. then you will need to exit the fdisk program, and reboot. reformat drive c, and you are good to go. ~BoB~ __________________ <signature> TSF is funded by our Admin's pocket, care to help? Power Tip: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. New Members: Creating a single new thread in the correct section is the best way to assure your thread will receive a reply. </signature> Last edited by Volt-Schwibe; 11-10-2003 at 06:19 PM.

11-10-2003, 07:52 PM	#3 (permalink)
flower8099 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 8 OS: WIN98SE	That worked but! Great that worked! but I restarted my computer and it said: Boot Record from CDROM...Not Found Boot Record from Floppy...Not Found Boot Record from IDE-0...OK Microsoft (R) windows 98 (c) Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1999 C:\> And when I type in dir Commom com 93,890 04-23-99 10:36p 1file 93,890 bytes 0dir 3,866,177,536 bytes free AHHHHH help =)

11-10-2003, 07:56 PM	#4 (permalink)
flower8099 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 8 OS: WIN98SE	oh yeah oh yeah I had the 98SE CD in too!

11-10-2003, 10:54 PM	#5 (permalink)
Volt-Schwibe Asst. Manager, Automotive Forums; HJT Trainee Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Behind you, watching you as you type. Posts: 7,372 OS: Click "My System" to view details My System	i am not sure what type of boot disk you are using, but mine says this after i reformat: C:\dir Volume in drive C: is SYSTEM Volume Serial Number is xxxx-xxxx Directory of C:\ File not found 3,994,279,744 bytes free C:\ maybe you should go to www.bootdisk.com and download a correct boot floppy for your version of win 98 (FE and SE are different) then you will need to stick it in the a drive, and reboot, it should start and ask you to choose if you want cd support or not. then, go to your cd-rom drive, mine is h:, but with a single hard disk in one chunk, then i would expect your cd-rom to be d: so type: d: setup it should work... ~BoB~ __________________ <signature> TSF is funded by our Admin's pocket, care to help? Power Tip: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. New Members: Creating a single new thread in the correct section is the best way to assure your thread will receive a reply. </signature> Last edited by Volt-Schwibe; 11-10-2003 at 10:56 PM.

11-11-2003, 06:41 AM	#6 (permalink)
SPEEDO Guest Posts: n/a OS:	If that doesn't work try E setup. D may now be your RamDrive...

11-11-2003, 01:03 PM	#7 (permalink)
flower8099 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 8 OS: WIN98SE	Okay sorry since my computer is formated I have had to go to another computer. I got this message after I choose Y for a large drive. "Your computer has NTFS partitions which may require large drive support. If you are using another operating system, such as windows NT, which supports large drives you should enable treating these partitions as large." Then I chose Y. Then I deleted the partitons and formated my computer, rebooted and got the above message I posted before this. I hope that was the right choice "Y"! just making sure. So I couldn't access my CDROM so I decided to go with CDROM Support instead of Without! And I finally got my CD ROM to work but I had to find the file setup.exe in my win98 CD. When I ran the setup it started up fine, but I got this error message: "Caution sU0015 Setup dectected a windows NT file system partition on your hard disk. Files on this partition will not be available when you use Windows 98." I was wondering if this had to do with my other hard disk in my computer? It has Windows NT on it but I don't use it and want to format it too later... Because when I checked the partition in Fdisk it said that my C: was Primary DOS, 38162Mbytes and the System was FAT32. And this is the drive I was installing Win98 on yet it gave me the error. any ideas?

11-11-2003, 01:04 PM	#8 (permalink)
flower8099 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 8 OS: WIN98SE	I used my Win98 SE Bootdisk I created from my computer. should I download the bootdisk online and start over?

11-11-2003, 01:59 PM	#9 (permalink)
SPEEDO Guest Posts: n/a OS:	What I usually do in these situations is write zeros to the hard drive! Then you are sure all the data has been destroyed as best as can be. Then you can fdisk and format the drive using the boot floppy that you created. What brand is your hard drive that you want to clean off?