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98/ME Crash Before Install On Formatted Drive

C

Chinabox

Senior member
I have an old computer than I'm trying to *downgrade* to Windows 98. I had been using it as a 2000 box fine.

Just last night, I formatted the box and tried to install 98. It copied all of the files necessary for setup, and then crashes every time. I thought I had a bad 98 CD, but ME had the exact same problem. Again, I would think it's a bad HD or mobo or processor if I hadn't just used the computer...

Zach (chinabox@rochester.rr.com)
 
Yeah, my bad.

The system hangs for a second before freezing. There is no error message but an alert box outline shows up. The alert box is about 2" high and 6" long if that helps somehow 😉

The one time I was able to get an error message it said that there was a SUWIN Not Present Fault @ SYSTEM.DRV at 0001:0231. I'm not sure if that's related to the actual problem or a symptom of the computer hanging before crashing.

Anyone?
 
That's a good point, but I wonder why it crashes at the same point on *both* OSs (98/ME). The CD spins up and seems to be working well 🙁 I think it's somehow related to the HD (which *was* working). It's an old 3GB Quantum.
 
You still have a boot manager present or some other partitioning problem. Check the Microsoft Knowledge Base for SUWIN or SU error. Run Fdisk first and see what's there. Try to delete the offender. A surefire cure would be a low-level format if all else fails.
 
How can I be sure to kill the boot manager? I've formatted about 4 times since yesterday and still no luck...what can I do to make this drive OUT OF THE BOX bare?
 
Hi, I think most windows boot floppies have scandisk on them, so you could try that. Also, maybe try: fdisk /mbr to make sure nothing is left on the boot record from w2k. Just a couple of things I would try...🙂
 
If the system is "old" in your cmos there should be an option for a low level format. All info on your disk is binary "1'S" AND "0'S" This will fill your disk with 0's...
good luck
 
Go to Maxtor's website and download the Quantum disk tools. There is an option in there to wipe the drive.
 
Formatting just clears the data area in existing partions. Fdisk may or may not delete partitions altogether depending on how they were first created. Low-level format writes all zeros to the data area of the drive and puts it back to from-the-factory condition. You should be able to get a low-level format routine from the drive manufacturer.
 
I did the low-level format yesterday. Took an hour! Good news: I got a new error 🙂

Runtime Error R6003

I'm going to do some research...arg.
 
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