Formatting Help

[bobdobolina]

I have been trying to format my folks old computer and clean install win98 so they can give it to a friend. Unfortunately, the drive has somehow become corrupted and I'm at a loss on how to fix it. I have tried to format it in the 98 setup, but it says the drive is unuseable. I then tried fdisk, but when I try to delete the partition so I can build a new one it asks me to enter the old partition name. The trouble is that the name is a bunch of strange characters I've never seen before. Is there a way for me to get around this?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated...

Thanks!

 

[montag451]

Try a new IDE cable.
That might fix it - or even just the action of taking off the connectors and putting them back on again MIGHT do it.

But definitely try a new IDE cable

 

[jjsbasmt]

How old is the HD?? Also, you might want to download a diagnostic utility from the Drive maker to ascertain the condition of the drive.

 

[bobdobolina]

The drive is pretty old. I was trying to run the win98 setup and it found some files that were causing errors. I deleted them, since I was planning on formatting the drive, but now I think maybe the MBR got deleted by mistake. Are there any programs that would let me make a dos disk to force a new MBR and format the drive?

Thanks again

 

[wpshooter]

Are you trying to do this using a WIN98 bootable diskette ? If not, do a google search on WIN98 bootable disk and find yourself a site which will allow you to download and make a WIN98 bootable diskette.

Then if after trying to do an FDISK and that does not work, just use the diskette and try the format command to format/erase the hard drive. Then go back and do FDISK and then format it again.

 

[bobdobolina]

I booted from the 98 CD and then used the format and fdisk commands that are in the win98 folder on the disk. Is there any difference between using the utilities on the cd and booting from a win98 diskette?

 

[montag451]

fdisk is fdisk

For what you require there is no problem.

 

[wpshooter]

What brand of hard drive is it ?

Have you tried downloading and running the diagnostic software from the drive manufacturer's website. You may have a damaged hard drive !!!