Cannot format hard drive

[doanster]

I am trying to install Win98SE on an old hard drive which I 'wiped clean'... after creating the new partition (I only chose to have one) I can't seem to format it with fdisk... when I type in 'format C:' I get the error message: 'format not supported on drive C:'... what's going on??

 

[JonnyBlaze]

you used fdisk to create the partition? is it active?

 

[doanster]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
you used fdisk to create the partition? is it active?

yes and yes

 

[JonnyBlaze]

are you booting from a 98 cd?

 

[JonnyBlaze]

also, how big is the partition?

 

[Bozo]

Tyr running 'fdisk/mbr' and then format.

Bozo

 

[doanster]

Originally posted by: Bozo
Tyr running 'fdisk/mbr' and then format.

Bozo

hmm... what does that command do? not too familiar with fdisk...
I also used UBCD to clear out my MBR too btw... maybe thats the problem lol

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Originally posted by: doanster
I am trying to install Win98SE on an old hard drive which I 'wiped clean'... after creating the new partition (I only chose to have one) I can't seem to format it with fdisk.

There is no formatting inside of Fdisk. Also, the original Format that came with Win98 has a limit on how large of a partition it can handle. Not sure any more what the limit is, but there is a replacement Format to download and use with Win98 that doesn't have the limitation.

.. when I type in 'format C:' I get the error message: 'format not supported on drive C:'... what's going on??

What kind of partition did you make? There is more than one kind, as I recall. I've used PQ Partition Magic too many years now to remember the last time I had Fdisk running!

 

[doanster]

Originally posted by: Kiwi

Originally posted by: doanster
I am trying to install Win98SE on an old hard drive which I 'wiped clean'... after creating the new partition (I only chose to have one) I can't seem to format it with fdisk.

There is no formatting inside of Fdisk. Also, the original Format that came with Win98 has a limit on how large of a partition it can handle. Not sure any more what the limit is, but there is a replacement Format to download and use with Win98 that doesn't have the limitation.

.. when I type in 'format C:' I get the error message: 'format not supported on drive C:'... what's going on??

What kind of partition did you make? There is more than one kind, as I recall. I've used PQ Partition Magic too many years now to remember the last time I had Fdisk running!

Hmm... it's a 10GB hdd so I don't think that partition size is an issue. It's a Seagate, so I tried the Seagate utility to do the partitioning/formatting. It works, but when I try to install Win98SE or WinME (i tried both to see what happens) I get the same error and it won't let me install, saying how my hdd uses a compressed file system and whatnot (even though I just formatted using plain vanilla FAT32). So I turned to good ol' fdisk and I get that error in the beginning of this thread. *sigh*...

 

[gibno1]

 

[gibno1]

Well as you can see above , I punched a wrong button and put a blank up.

Not long ago I had a formatting problem and in my case I thought that my Disk had gone bad, so
I called up Maxtor and talked to a real person that spoke my brand of English. and he told me to go
to the Maxtor.com site and download a file named Max-Power. And then he told me to make a
floppy(heard of those?) of this file and reboot and choose Low Level format full version not quick and
when that was done go back to the usual FDisk and Format routine and my problems would be solved. It worked fine for me and I am sure Seagate has a similar version of this and if not I would
bet the Max-power file would work on yours. All it does is write all zeros to every byte of the disk.
I doubt seriously that this software cares what brand of disk it is going to lobotomize.

Hope this helps, Gib

 

[doanster]

Originally posted by: gibno1
Well as you can see above , I punched a wrong button and put a blank up.

Not long ago I had a formatting problem and in my case I thought that my Disk had gone bad, so
I called up Maxtor and talked to a real person that spoke my brand of English. and he told me to go
to the Maxtor.com site and download a file named Max-Power. And then he told me to make a
floppy(heard of those?) of this file and reboot and choose Low Level format full version not quick and
when that was done go back to the usual FDisk and Format routine and my problems would be solved. It worked fine for me and I am sure Seagate has a similar version of this and if not I would
bet the Max-power file would work on yours. All it does is write all zeros to every byte of the disk.
I doubt seriously that this software cares what brand of disk it is going to lobotomize.

Hope this helps, Gib

Yeah Seagate does have a similar utility. And I did exactly what you suggested... did a low-level format as opposed to the quick format. I'm out of ideas...

 

[reallyscrued]

Do you have a copy of XP/2000 laying around? Just boot from the CD, format the drive when you are setting up windows, you can partition it there too, all the dirty stuff, do a full format with FAT32. After that finishes and you see the files being copied, cut the power. If you dont want to take the risk of damaging something, (yeah, right) then wait until the file copy finishes and the computer reboots, during POST, cut the power, which is not harmful. Then try your format C: function again, if it fails, try to install 98 anyway, maybe the format you did with XP/2000 will still work with it.

 

[doanster]

Cut the power? lol
have you tried it before?
yeah I do have a copy of WinXP lying around. I tried formatting with that, except minus the cutting the power part... still no luck.

 

[wpshooter]

Originally posted by: reallyscrued
Do you have a copy of XP/2000 laying around? Just boot from the CD, format the drive when you are setting up windows, you can partition it there too, all the dirty stuff, do a full format with FAT32. After that finishes and you see the files being copied, cut the power. If you dont want to take the risk of damaging something, (yeah, right) then wait until the file copy finishes and the computer reboots, during POST, cut the power, which is not harmful. Then try your format C: function again, if it fails, try to install 98 anyway, maybe the format you did with XP/2000 will still work with it.

I would repartition and reformat drive using FAT32, but I would let installation of Windows XP/2000 complete and then go back to do FDISK and FORMAT with WIN98SE, I WOULD NOT CUT POWER IN THE MIDDLE OF INSTALLATION.

 

[Bozo]

A low level format is not the same as a regular format. After you low level format you must create a partition and then do a regular format.
Also, Win98 will not recognize a partition over 2GB (memory is a little foggy on this)

Using the '98 boot floppy I would run fdisk. Delete any partitions. Create a 2Gb partition and make it the primary. Reboot. Then run format c:

Bozo

 

[JesseKnows]

Before cutting power you can eject the CD. That will pause the Win2K install and bring up a dialog complaining that the CD went away. Wait until the HDD activity LED goes dark, then cut power.

 

[notoriginal]

It has been a long time, but I think Bozo is right. 2GB partition cap in 98.

 

[Slowlearner]

No there is no 2GB partition cap in Windows 98, that was for DOS. This looks like a hardware problem - bad drive, jumper set wrong, bad cable, bad connector on mb.

 

[wiin]

It has been a long time, but I think Bozo is right. 2GB partition cap in 98.

Not true. I reformatted a 20gig maxtor 3 days ago to remove spyware from 180Solutions and reinstall Win98SE
I did a Setup with help from cd. You will then get an a:\ prompt. fdisk the drive and you will get the option to delete/create partition. After all this is done, exit fdisk and reboot.
Windows will then format the drive and run setup. Took about 30 minutes to install.