Windows 98 Reformatting Problem

[scottwile]

I have reformatted my hard drive. I am running windows 98. After the drive was clear I tried to reinstall windows and it said invalid system disk. I borrowed a copy from a friend and it still gave me the same message. I also tried Windows 95. Could someone please tell me what’s wrong or send/tell me how to get a bootable disk?

[wenze1]

Sounds like your hardrive is screwed. :helpsmile:

[balamm]

Sounds More like you wiped it but haven't set an active partition or formatted properly.
Use the start up disk and a: fdisk
then after a restart, a: format c /s

[wenze1]

This site has boot disk's you can download Bootdisk's (http://www.bootdisk.com/) :beerchug: :pimp: :smoke:

[scottwile]

hmm. i have made the boot disk, thanks for you help, but now it doesn't seem to be reading my a drive(disk) my cd drive seems to be working but i'm not sure. could i burn it on a cd and boot it or anything?

[balamm]

You know how to clear CMOS? Do that first.
Is your drive even recognized on that board without easy bios installed?
If it's a large drive you may have to reinstall easy bios to have it recognized after a complete format.

[sparsely]

I still think balamm was right the first time:
fdisk

[scottwile]

Sounds More like you wiped it but haven't set an active partition or formatted properly.
Use the start up disk and a: fdisk
then after a restart, a: format c /s

What is this
and this? CMOS

thanks alot guys

[balamm]

Google is your best friend at times like this.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=how+to+fdisk...n&ie=ISO-8859-1 (http://www.google.ca/search?q=how+to+fdisk&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1)

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8...lear+CMOS&meta= (http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=how+to+clear+CMOS&meta=)

[scottwile]

alright, thanks i'll look at them tomorrow, merry x-mas
goodnight

[camille]

Originally posted by scottwile@25 December 2003 - 12:36

What is this
and this? CMOS


Complimentary Metal Oxide Semi Conductor

[scottwile]

sorry i was try to say i don't understand this


Sounds More like you wiped it but haven't set an active partition or formatted properly.
Use the start up disk and a: fdisk
then after a restart, a: format c /s

[skelley521]

Read up on the Fdisk utility.

You need to use Fdisk to set the partition, you can have your entire hard drive be one partition or set up different partitions so the hard drive will be in 2 or 3 different sections, so to say.

If its a small HD then set your maximum partition to include your entire HD.

Now you need to format it.

a: means when you are at the A: prompt you need to type in:
format c/s

Where C is your hard drive letter.

Do a little reading on google as it doesn't get any easier to explain really.


edit: We are talking about using a boot disk to start your computer with cdrom support then you will get the A: prompt.
If you fdisk and format and all went well and your system still doesn't recognize the hard drive then it is probably 'fried' / needs to be replaced.

[scottwile]

i have already formatted my drive, when i start up my computer it says invald startup disk. i have tried the 98 and 95 windows cd and none of those work. i have make a boot disk from bootdisk.com and no luck. i can't type or do anything except the enter or anykey and it just says again invald startup disk please remove and try again. the cd rom drive flashes so it looks like its reading that but it doesn't appear to be reading the boot disk i made because the floppy drive isn't flashing it know know what to do please help. thanks

[skelley521]

Go into you setup before the computer tries to start, most of the time its F8 and set the boot devices to boot from floppy first, cdrom 2nd, HD 3rd.


edit: how did you format it?

[skelley521]

Formatting Hard Drive 3 pages step by step (http://pcsupport.about.com/library/weekly/aa082602a.htm)

[scottwile]

i tried f8 and all the other f's nothing happens it says hit del to enter setup so i do and there is an old passoword setup on there and i ahve no idea what it is.

i didn't format it a friend did who had no idea what he was doing. he went to dos prompt and just put in reformat c or whatever and went from there without making a startup disk or anything.

[scottwile]

i have tried f8 and all the other f's. nonoe work. and whent he computer started it says press del to enter setup but there is an old password and i don't remmber.

a friend formatted it not knowing what he was doing. he used dospromp and put in format c and went from there

[skelley521]

I believe that if you remove the cmos battery (open case, it looks like a watch battery) and leave it out for awhile (some puters can take up to 12hrs.!)
It should reset everything back to the factory default settings and the password should be removed. I have dont this on several systems, some worked in 5 min. and 1 actually took 12 hrs.

[scottwile]

alright, i will try that, is it easily visable or where is it? if you show me a picture that would be great, thanks alot for the help

[muchspl2]

just switch the jumper to clear the password, when I managed a RTO dumb ass would Password protect the bios, so when we would repo it we constantly had to clear the cmos because they wouldn't give us the PW

[scottwile]

i talked with my dad and now i have the password a blue screen comes up saying

Rom PCI/ISA BIOS (((TXP4)))
CMOS SETUP UTILITY


STANDARD CMOS SETUP SUPERVISOR PASSWORD
BIOS FEATURES SETUP USER PASSWORD
CHIPSET FEATURES SETUP IDE HDD AUTO DECTECTION
POWER MANAGEMENT SETUP SAVE & EXIT SETUP
PNP AND PCI SETUP EXIT WITHOUT SAVING
LOAD BOS DEFAULTS


ESC: QUIT UP/DOWN/RIGT/LEFT: SELECT
F10: SAVE AND EXIT SETUP SHIFT F2:CHANGE COLOR

blue are things that can be opened

[scottwile]

i talked with my dad and now i have the password a blue screen comes up saying

Rom PCI/ISA BIOS (((TXP4)))
CMOS SETUP UTILITY


STANDARD CMOS SETUP SUPERVISOR PASSWORD
BIOS FEATURES SETUP USER PASSWORD
CHIPSET FEATURES SETUP IDE HDD AUTO DECTECTION
POWER MANAGEMENT SETUP SAVE & EXIT SETUP
PNP AND PCI SETUP EXIT WITHOUT SAVING
LOAD BOS DEFAULTS


ESC: QUIT UP/DOWN/RIGT/LEFT: SELECT
F10: SAVE AND EXIT SETUP SHIFT F2:CHANGE COLOR

[scottwile]

sorry, the red font is there to show the two seprate lists

[skelley521]

lol, I ate to much and had to take a nap :P

ok, first of all, be careful and make sure you pay attention so you dont make any changes that you dont want.
You can always hit Esc on the keyboard to back out of any screen if you dont see what you are looking for.
It will be in the Bios setup, look for boot sequence.
Use the arrow keys to get to it and the page up/page down to select the different options. Try and make A the first option, then cdrom and then C if you can.
Or cdrom,A,C..............If not just get A and C in there for now.

Once you do this make sure you save and exit setup.
Now reboot with the floppy and select: with cdrom support.
and follow the steps we mentioned earlier.

Hope this helps.
Steve

[scottwile]

steve, i am trying it all right now it seem to be going good. it said wait a few minutes so i thought i would thank you for everything. you are the most helpful person i have ever talked to, thanks a million
hopefully i won't have any more question but if so i'll post them
thanks
scott :D

[skelley521]

Glad to hear all is going well :D
I am going out of town for a month so if you have any more questions and I dont respond you will know why....lol.

Just remember that once the partition is set and format is complete you will be back at the A:
Just type autoexec or setup and it will start the windows installation from the cdrom (dont forget to have it in...lol)

Glad to of helped,
Steve