hi everyone,
    I have a problem with installing windows 98. I formated the c drive and every time i try to install 98 it says that the setup requires 734000 bytes avalable on the c drive. Please help

thanks,
Tech385474(Don)

  Sounds like windows install is not seeing the HDD as C:. Did you do a fdisk? than a format? What size is the hdd? what did you use to format? need more info, tell us the steps you are doing, and with what tools, and on what hardware specs, then we will try to answer the questions.

What filesystem did you format the drive to?

Only FAT16 or, preferably, FAT32 will be recognised by Windows 98.

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And just how big is your hard drive? How short of space were you?
Pop into FDISK and have a look at the primary DOS partition size just to check all is as you expect.

This sounds wrong anyhow, as 1Mb certainly isn't enough.
You must be directing the installation to the wrong drive - I can't think of anything else.

Regards, Andy.
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I did an Fdisk My hdd is over 2 gigs and right now i've been using a strtup disk to get as far as the setup.

how about giving the entire line from fdisk

should show drive and partition
            status
            type
            label
            size
            system
            usage


It is possible that the hard drive has problems in the partition table. Might be advisable to download the disk manufacturer's diagnostic and run it.

You could also install the operating system from the floppy onto the hard drive, copy the install stuff from the CD to the hard drive, and then install the full system from there.

Installing from the hard drive is my preferred method.  I have the install stuff right at hand when I require a reload.

 

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

So as to eliminate the obvious, you have formatted the drive, haven't you, and made the partition active in FDISK?

It's as if Windows setup is not seeing the HDD and defaulting to the floppy. I've not known it do that but with Microsoft I suppose anything is possible...

Regards, Andy.
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Some questions:

are you talking about W98 or W98se?

is it a SATA drive or IDE? what size of drive is it? how large is the partition you are trying to install to?

{b]Some answers:[/b]

if it is a SATA drive, then check the BIOS for a setting as to the emulation, e.g. IDE or LEGACY, this will mask the drive to the OS as an IDE device...

partition the drive, and make the C: partition no larger than 2 GB (FAT16 limitation) and all other partitions also no larger than 2GB... on FAT32 the limitation is theoretically 2TB, but some drives act weird and you should stick with a partition size of under 7.8 GB...


see:

How to Install Windows 98 on a Computer with No Operating System
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/221829
 

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

i am talking about 98se

i do believe that it is an IDE dirve but i will get back to you guys on that.