fdisk and format

[neveryona]

I've got a hard drive that I tried to fdisk and then format and have run into problems. Someone told me that the problem that I had prior to starting from scratch, sounded like a monkey virus had gotten onto the hard drive. They told me this after I started trying to reinstall windows 98 the first time. The original system failure was due to a missing himem sys. I tried to copy the system files from the start up disk, with no luck. This person who told me about the monkey virus told me to try a low level format using the command format /mbr...which didn't seem to do anything. When you try to format the hard drive, it stops at the file allocation table, saying "trying to recover file allocation unit", and then eventually aborts attempt. Now, I am wondering if I messed up on the fdisk, because there doesn't seem to be any operating system left on the hard drive. in fdisk, there are the options
1.) Delete primary dos partition
2.) Delete extended dos partition
3.) Delete logical dos drives in extended dos

I picked the first one. Was I correct? This was the one I wsa told to use.

Now, have I messed up the hard drive entirely, and how do I go about repartitioning it properly...please help http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

[Supa Dupa]

Hey neveryona, you haven't messed up the drive, you've just completed the first step in repartioning it. Next you'll want to create a primary partition. Run fdisk again and choose "1. Create primary partition." After this is complete, you'll have to format the drive and voila, you have an hard drive that's ready for Win98. Boot with your boot floppy and choose the option to have cd-rom suppport and install Win98. That's it.

Cheers,

Supa Dupa.

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There's a hole in my memory, dear Liza, dear Liza, there's a whole in my memory, dear Liza, a hole.
Then disable it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry, then disable it, dear Henry, dear Henry, disable it.

[neveryona]

Thanks for the quick reply. I should have mentioned that I actually did that. However, when I try to format it won't. Perhaps I was mistaken, and I got too trigger happy with the old keyboard, and pressed number 3, which is apparently a bad thing to do. I was just reading that there is a utility that I can use caused maxblast that will solve all my problems. Did I mention, that when you boot up the computer, it now says there is no operating system.Ouch! Does this mean that I could have accidentally dleted the operating system...or it is just unaccessible?

[mjc]

If all you did was fdisk it may still be there, you can try the fdisk /mbr again and see if it rebuilds the master boot record, but if you did run format and you received the lost allocation error then the drive may actually have been damaged and everything is now gone (at least gone enough that it would cost more than a new drive to recover), which could have been the cause of the original failure.

If the drive is a Maxtor drive the Maxblast should have a diagnostics program with it, the other major drive manufacturers have the same kind of software. Run the diagnostics for the drive and see what it says, usually when you come across the lost allocation units there is physical damage to the drive...and if the bad sectors include systems files then you will end up with an operating system that won't boot.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Dinosaur]

I doubt that this is the problem, but thought I should mention it.

The Fdisk utilities from different operating systems are not compatible.

Did you use the Fdisk Utility from the Windows 98 Install diskette or from a bootable diskette created via Windows 98?

If not, use Fdisk and the Format utility from Windows 98 bootable diskettes the next time.

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Gouverneur
Eschew Obfuscation!
If one hundred million people believe a foolish idea, it is still a foolish idea.