I fdisk my HD due to errors trying to get to it.
Made one primary partition.
Loaded a start up floppy to the HD
98s startup disk for the start up diagnostic tools to enable your CD rom drive.
Now at this point when I tried in DOS mode for a DIR command of the C: drive it changed to D: drive and all the diagnostics were there.
When I tried to load win98s it started as at first to scan the registry files as per normal and then it stop messaging Win requires so many bytes etc.
In my DOS the HD drive showed 6.0 Giga. but again this was D: drive.
Win98s was refering to C: which is normal because this is a destignated drive letter for your primary HD.
I went into BIOS setup and I have IDE Auto detect. When I enter that I get a Primary master with no parameters >> How do I set this to auto detect for my boot up then CMOS can then recognize my HD?

Did you format your primary afterwards? Please do so if you haven't. Do it by the A: prompt typing format C: Then:

Boot to your 98SE floppy. Click 'with CDROM support' (make sure 98SE disk is in). Let it fully load. At A: type setup The rest should be self explanatory. If not, one of us is bound to see your distress...

I tried to format as from your info>
But the message received was >> Format not supported>
I also went into CMOs and configured my HDD to Auto for it is an IDE drive. The reason for this is because every time I booted the PC I would get a negative for my Primary Master IDE HDD it shows zero Master
and zero for slave.
Although when I scan the C: drive it does scan successfully through DOS mode. I also can bring up a DIR of C >>
When it boots up with CMOS IDE HDD selected to AUTO should it not register while going through the boot phase?
Somewhere there is a problem and I do believe it is my settings through
BIOS settings as to whether I am screwing it up or I must do something else, maybe just buy a new HDD but I rather wopuld continue this as a challenge> again thank you for your support>>

Please I urge you and all others:

------------------> DON'T USE FDISK <-------------------

I know its is supposed to work. But if you do not know all of the DOS commands, it is easy to screw it up. So here is the best way to partition and format a hard drive.

Download the software from the manufacturer of the hard drive. It will allow you to partition and format the drive any way you would like. It also has diagnostic software which can test the drive.


I know how to use FDISK and FORMAT and I don't do it anymore. You shuldn't either. Go the easy route and use the software provided by the hard drive manufacturer.

Please I urge you and all others:

-----------------------------> DON'T USE FDISK <-----------------------------

I know its is supposed to work. But if you do not know all of the DOS commands, it is easy to screw it up. So here is the best way to partition and format a hard drive.

Download the software from the manufacturer of the hard drive. It will allow you to partition and format the drive any way you would like. It also has diagnostic software which can test the drive.


I know how to use FDISK and FORMAT and I don't do it anymore. You shuldn't either. Go the easy route and use the software provided by the hard drive manufacturer.

If the BIOS is not seeing the drive then neither is DOS...you are seeing either your CD or the RAM drive the bootdisk creats as C:.

That is why you are getting the "format not supported" message, as neither can be formatted.

Try to get the drive recognised at the BIOS level, first. This means making sure the jumpers are correct, the cable is insterted propelry (both power and ribbon cable), that the cable is good (try new IDE cable) and the the drive is actually working (try the drive in a known working system to see if it is recognised).

Yes i removed the HD and installed in another system, booted the PC and the HD was recognized.
Reinstalled back into the existing system using the ribbon from previous, { that is the one that recognized my HD}
Again it did not recognize any drive even the cd rom drive.
So I cleared the CMOS through the jumpers.
Went back into setup to make sure that the IDE was set to auto.
Then reboot, at this time I notice that all drives were recognized.
Ran my start up floppy to get to the cd rom drive, all was recognized.
Through the A: prompt I did a FDISK> To see if my HDD was the right one via mode 4 FDISK it read out that C: drive disk and the size etc. was the right size of the installed HDD.
Went back to A: prompt then E: prompt to install my OS system which is 98s It started OK and then the message read scanning registry files and then it stipulated that win needs so many Mb, that is wshere it stop. So I assume that it could not scan my HDD or is it possible that my registry files are non existant. Could this also be my power source connector to the HDD which has 4 prongs 4 wires from power source?
Is there a way to check via volt meter? Thank you again for your support.

Originally posted by atc_traffic856
Yes i removed the HD and installed in another system, booted the PC and the HD was recognized.

Was this in the BIOS, or by the operating system? If it was only the BIOS, have you formatted the drive?


Then reboot, at this time I notice that all drives were recognized.
Ran my start up floppy to get to the cd rom drive, all was recognized.
Through the A: prompt I did a FDISK> To see if my HDD was the right one via mode 4 FDISK it read out that C: drive disk and the size etc. was the right size of the installed HDD.

Did this show any partitions on the drive?

Went back to A: prompt then E: prompt to install my OS system which is 98s It started OK and then the message read scanning registry files and then it stipulated that win needs so many Mb, that is wshere it stop. So I assume that it could not scan my HDD or is it possible that my registry files are non existant.
Could this also be my power source connector to the HDD which has 4 prongs 4 wires from power source?
Is there a way to check via volt meter?


The registry files are generated by the install process, as hardware is detected, and parts of Windows installed. The fact that it reports there is not enough space sounds as if the install process is trying to install on the RAMdrive setup by the boot disk, another indication that the hard disk is not being recognised by the operating system. This again suggests that the drive has not been formatted.
If the drive is recognised by the BIOS, than it getting power. Checks on the power supply are probably redundant at this stage.

David

Yes you are right the Bios recognized the drive not the operating system.
And through the FDISK display of system it reiterated that there was 1 Drive C: with the correct amt. of MB as to the installed HDD.
Here is the other problem, knowing that the power is good, and knowing that the BIOS recognizes my HDD I tried to do a FORMAT from the A: prompt A:\> FORMAT C: This what I get a warning of crse that all files will be wipe out or what ever. Then it begins it gets to 0 % and gives me a message: Retreiving Allocation Unit> and then you see a numerical number something like 4668 and after waiting for 4 to 6 min the number changes to approx/ 5078 and then it stops and gives another message saying Formatting terminated, so I am stuck too format this disk>>
Thank you for your excellent support>

Bad sectors and 'format not supported' are VERY different!

What it is telling you is that you have some bad sectors on your drive. At this point the only hope for it is if you download the drive maker's diagnostic utilities and use them to try to repair the bad sectors.

If too many or they are found too near the beginning of the drive, you cannot use the drive. This is what is happening to this HD. If it won't repair, you might try using it as a secondary drive to access some files BUT you have already fdisked it so as an option that is very dim. Sorry but it might be toast.

So do as classicsoftware has suggested and download the drive's software. Put it on a floppy and then run it in the pc with this affected drive.

Good luck.

Thank you Fuss Tray.>
Yes I am starting too believe you are correct, otherwords it would FORMAT under the DOS OS.
Nevertheless I am now ending this long thread and thank every one for there patience and support. My next step is a new drive>>