Trying to reformat from ME to 95 -Problem-help pleaseTRy

[Davbaron]

Help Please!!
My system is at the moment running Windows ME. Iwant to do a format so that
it is cleared from the hard drive, and i have a windows 95 cd to load . When
windows 95 is loaded I have a windows 98SE cd to upgrade with- thus leaving
me with windows 98SE .
I have got a Windows 98 startup floppy disc, which should have the cd drivers
on it.
So I followed these instructions and it went wrong.
What do I do now please
?STEP TWO
Insert your boot disk in the floppy drive and start the computer. Once the system has completed booting
and an A: prompt appears we are ready to start.
Type: format C: /s [press Enter]
This statement tells the system to format your "C" drive and when it is finished to copy the system files
to the drive, (the /s switch for 'System'). You can format a different drive this way by using a different
drive letter.
Format should display: WARNING, ALL DATA ON
NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST!
Proceed with Format (Y/N)? Type [Y] [Press ENTER]

Your screen should display the size of your drive and a countdown in percentage of formatting
completed. Depending on your computer's speed and the size of the drive it can take from a few minutes
to over 15minutes."

But it doesn't complete apparently - now I get the following

?Checking existing disk format.
Recording current bad clusters
5 percent completed.
Insufficient memory.?

Below it is the A prompt.

 

[RPB]

if your system is still running ME make a ME startup disk. Now try to format (i would fdisk as well) and if it still won't run thru you may have a bad drive.

 

[Buz2b]

Just do an FDISK first and then you should be able to format with no problem. BTW, there really isn't a need to load 95 first. Just start with the 98 disk and it will ask you for a "qualifying" MS product during the install. That will be your que to put in the 95 disk so that it can check it. Then you will be able to (after removing the 95 disk and replacing it with the 98 CD) proceed with the OS load.

Hmmm, after re-reading your post you only mention 98SE; not regular 98. Not sure if the process will work like this. In fact, you probably won't be able to "upgrade" to SE without having 98 on there first ( or possibly by using the technique I mention above).

On another note, there really isn't a need to format with the /s condition on it. Not as long as you have a Win98 boot disk anyway. It has the CD drivers on it so the process is redundant of loading the sys files to the HDD. Just do a regular format (Format C.

 

[DaiShan]

arggg wish andyhui would go ahead a load up the FAQ on how to do this, but anyways here goes.

1. set in bios the first boot device to be CD-ROM
2. place your windows 98se disk in the cd rom drive
3. boot the computer, it will ask you if you want to start the computer from the hard disk or from cd-rom
4. select cd-rom
5. select start computer with cd-rom support
6. at command prompt type the letter of your cd-rom drive (if the drive letter is d it will look like this D:\) and hit enter
7. Type FDISK at the d:\ prompt
8. select the option in the fdisk menu to delete primary dos partition
9. back at the main menu on FDISK select the option to create a primary dos partition
10. run through the instructions, making sure you enable large disk support
11. once you have exited FDISK restart by pressing ctrl+alt+del
12. repeat steps 3-6
13. at this point you will type setup, this will bring up the 98se setup wizzard
14. you will first have to format you drive (it will ask if you want to you will say yes)
15. run through the wizzard following all of the instructions.
16. You will have to restart the computer several times as windows will be updating itself when it installs all of the hardware, when it restarts the first time make sure you say boot from hard disk

Note: you will have to enter a 95 cd key into the 98se install wizzard to prove you own a qualifying product for upgrade, you don't have to use the 95 cd then upgrade to 98se, hopet this helps you!

 

[Davbaron]

Thanks for your replies. Since posting I have (several times ) FDISKED during which i have deleted the primary drive ( only got one ) and then created such a drive- then I have formatted and then during that format i have got the error message as aboce , ie Recording current bad clusters 5 percent completed. Insufficient memory.?
I think this is telling me that only 5 per cent of the HD has been cleared and that is because of the bad clusters - (isn't that physical damage to HD?)
Therefore I am loading the windows system on to a 95 per cent loaded system - ( The whole reason for doing this is to clean out the system ). I have several times loaded win 95 ( and now 98SE direct ) but each time i am warned that i may have to re do the setup of windows because of missing files !!
I am coming to the reluctant conclusion that I need to buy and fit a new hard drive , yes ?
( I can take the bad news , Doctor!!)

 

[Abzstrak]

yea, buy a new drive, or send that one in under warranty