need help formatting

[Wiggy1]

I just built my first P.C. and installed WIN98SE. Before it formatted my new hardrive it reccomended I let it improve the performance of the drive by partitioning it,this sounded reasonable so I let it.Now I found out its its something called FAT32,which wont let you use most compression methods,wont let you have a dual O.S. , wont let you uninstall WIN98,wont let you format the Hardrive.

I kinda feel like it ruined my brand new 40G Harddrive,as 1 of the things i wanted to do was to put WINxp on it in the future,is there no way to format it? I've havent been using P.C.'s very long so please spell it out for me if anyone has a solution, Thanks.

 

[whitelight]

if you upgrade to winxp in the future, winxp will give you the option to format your harddrive in ntfs instead of fat32.

 

[LoneWolf1]

If you don't already have one, you need to make a bootable floppy. You can either download the files from bootdisk.com and extract them to a floppy or make one using W98se by: control panel > add/remove programs > startup > create disk. Make sure fdisk.com and format.com are on the discs. Next thing, insert the floppy, cold-boot (shutdown then restart). After the disk initialises(sp?), it will give you three options in which to start windows thru. Ignore those and hit either ctl+F5 or shift+F5, I can't remember which one it is but there should be a menu at the bottom of the page telling you, to get to A:\. Once at A:\, type in fdisk. From there you will be able to add/remove partitions from there. You will need at least a primary dos partition set to active to install windows on. Once you decide on that, you will need to cold-boot again and repeat the steps to get to A:. Once at A:\, type in format c: to format the drive and follow the on screen prompts.

Also, the hard drive, if retail, should have come with a floppy. This can also be used to FDISK and FORMAT the drive.

Hope this helps and I didn't confuse you too much. I'm sure somene more knowledgeable than myself will come along in the next day or so to help you out some more.

BTW: welcome to AnandTech

 

[Wiggy1]

Thank's for taken the time to help,got you're instructions printed here.gonna try this with the boot disk,that came with WINDOWS.I did try it before with boot disk,but didnt know about ctl+F5. I'll post back how it goes,thanks again.

 

[Wiggy1]

I tried it,but when I get to the A prompt and type in FDSK it tells me its a bad command.Could be me. I tried it with the boot disc that comes with WIN98 and the disc WIN prompts you to make during the install.Gives the same bad command prompt.

 

[SilentRunning]

I tried it,but when I get to the A prompt and type in FDSK


The command is FDISK


Edit: Might want to read this information about FDISK

 

[Wiggy1]

I used the link provided.Sounds like FAT32 is better,but more limited.They stop using it after WIN/ME.How are the majority of people setting up there HDD's that use WIN98 ? My thing is I'd like to upgrade my OS someday to XP,if it proves itself a winner (and its not a hassle to upgrade my newly built P.C) while keeping WIN98SE for games.Also, it said something about FAT32 not working with other compression codecs.This doesnt mean winzip or Mp3's does it? Any advice? Well,now i'm less sure what to do,I guess if I want another O.S. I have to change it.Still not exactly sure if I should add another partition and what type,before I delete the existing one.

 

[Jiggz]

Alright, let's clear the air on this one. FAT32 is probably the most common FAT system used in the computer world, except probably for the servers which mostly used NT's/W2K NTFS. FAT32 is the most versatile and effective FAT system except for security measures it lags behind NTFS. You can always partition a FAT32 anytime with a partitioning software like Partition magic. You can also fdisk, format and low level format it anytime you want without even uninstalling any installed software on it. Compression? You do not need compression when using FAT32 because it's already as efficient as any hdd software compression can do. You can try to compress it but you're just wasting time and money since the end product is only about 10-15 percent more than the original size. But the performance will be a lot slower. Zip, MP3 are file compression programs. They do not have anything to do with HDD compression like Drivespace. You are well and sound with your system. When you decide to upgrade to XP then cross that bridge when you're there. XP will give an option to either keep your current system or go to NTFS. NTFS is much secured and efficient but a bitch to handle. If you want to Fdisk your hdd the command is: FDISK. To format: Format C: remember either of these commands will erase all your data. And if you decide to stay on Win98SE you actually do not have a choice except to go either with FAT16 or FAT32. Your post makes it sound like you have a lot of choices when you installed Win98SE! No sir, actually you're only choice was FAT32 unless you want to go with FAT16 and then you will at least have 20 partitions since it's limited to 2GB. So stay cool and learn the ways instead of whining and not understanding.

 

[Dhawk]

Your HD is not ruined. For Win9x, what you want is FAT32. If you upgrade later to XP, you can change it to NTFS. I would not worry about it now, until you are actually ready to upgrade. When you install XP, it will give you the option of leaving the drive as FAT32 or changing it to NTFS.

From what I understand, FAT32 and NTFS will not coexist on the same drive togeather, evan on different partitions. So if you are planning on a dual boot system, I think you need to stay with FAT32 anyway.

EDIT:Jiggz beat me to it, and did a better job of explaining it.

 

[exorr]

Ummm...I've never seen an install of win98 that wasn't FAT32. You can always format the drive later when installing XP or something. No worries.