I am working on HP 8260 PC. It had 2 HD's and I took one out. The HD I want to use was partitioned so I ran Fdisk and deleted the partitions, then created new primary DOS partition and made active. I run the Win98 CD and PC boots off the CD and goes into setup to the point that it wants to format the drive. Then I get error message that Windows cannot format the drive. I put the same HD in another computer and sucessfully ran setup. Then transferred HD this computer - won't work- won't boot- says Op Sys not found. Have formatted again in other PC and run Fdisk again - still have same problem when setup wants to format the drive.
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Cannot get HP Pavillion to run setup.
- Thread starter fin33
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- #3
How about trying it with a floppy from the same version. Fdisk , delete, create, reboot and format /s. See if there is any difference.
Might try a cable of different length.
And how about doing a sys c: from a boot floppy.
You might need to do a zero fill and then repeat. All sorts of wierd stuff on the drive can frustrate you.
Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
Might try a cable of different length.
And how about doing a sys c: from a boot floppy.
You might need to do a zero fill and then repeat. All sorts of wierd stuff on the drive can frustrate you.
Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
mmmmmmmm....... I put my copy of 98 se on a HP that had Me on it origionally and it worked just fine. Actually alot of HP's problems come from the crap they do to their OS's.
I know I'm about to chuck my new HP out the window but once you get rid of all the HP stuff it runs pretty good. Again I'm going to repeat myself HP doesn't control what you put in your box. (Well besides their bus speeds.) I have to spend 45 dollars for 128mb ram in my hewlett peice because it will only take pc100 it won't even recognize pc133. (Don't get me wrong I love my box.)
I know I'm about to chuck my new HP out the window but once you get rid of all the HP stuff it runs pretty good. Again I'm going to repeat myself HP doesn't control what you put in your box. (Well besides their bus speeds.) I have to spend 45 dollars for 128mb ram in my hewlett peice because it will only take pc100 it won't even recognize pc133. (Don't get me wrong I love my box.)
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- #8
I have tried to use a start up disc and "sys c:" but the PC is seeing my CD as drive A: if I start "with CD support." If I start "setup" off the CD then I'm permanently in virtual drive D: - in other words either way I cannot change to any other drive - says invalid drive specification. My thought was if DOS is incorporated into Win98 then could my problem be the absence of DOS. Tried installing DOS 6.0 first but then setup wants to format the drive (which is the whole problem it won't do that)(which would just format DOS out????) and again I'm back to the start. Also thought maybe I wasn't getting the Bios cleared because a couple of times it seemed to show the HD that I took out in the ROM messages. I have heard of this happening and clearing using jumper across pins on the MotherB to clear. But later ignored when current HD did show up correctly and still can't get past formatting the drive. I'm still bound and determined but is there something I'm missing as far as booting or a boot image on the drive??? Thanks for any advice - KEEP IT COMING!!!!
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- #9
Fill the drive with binary zeroes (to initialise it - wipe it clean). Drive manufacturer often uas a utility to do this - or you can use this -
PS. Have you tried formatting the drive elsewhere - then just installing 98 in place? (installing 98 on another machine is always asking for trouble, unless machines identical).
Also - check cabling all ok & properly connected, and jumpers set correctly on drive (you said there were 2 - so drive is now sole master where previously it was either master with slave present or slave to master. sole masters and ones with slave present sometimes have diffeent jumper settings.
Finally - no virus checker enables in bios?
PS. Have you tried formatting the drive elsewhere - then just installing 98 in place? (installing 98 on another machine is always asking for trouble, unless machines identical).
Also - check cabling all ok & properly connected, and jumpers set correctly on drive (you said there were 2 - so drive is now sole master where previously it was either master with slave present or slave to master. sole masters and ones with slave present sometimes have diffeent jumper settings.
Finally - no virus checker enables in bios?
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- #11
No virus checkers in Bios - cables seem to be right and jumper on HD as well - HD is primary master and CD is secondary master. I had problems creating the primary DOS partition. See after "setup" refuses to format the drive it gives a message to create pri DOS partition. At that point I have to exit setup and am at a D:\ prompt. I run Fdisk and choose to create pri DOS partition (it checks the drive) then asks if I want to use all available space for the partition and make active. I choose OK and it appears to create the partition and says I have to reboot for the changes to take effect. But when it reboots (off CD again) Even if I choose to just start with CD access - I end up at an A:\ prompt, run Fdisk and there is no pri DOS partition. So I put the drive in another PC did same thing and got the drive partitioned. But running "setup" ends up the same as before - Windows cannot format the drive.
I'm jumping in again without understanding the full ramifications of what has gone before.
Can you get to the BIOS to change the boot order? Think it was [F2] on the HP.
Would get the floppy as top in the boot order, then C:, then cdrom. Then try it with the bootdisk again.
And if not that way, then would put the drive on another machine for a minimal install of dos but with himem activated thru config.sys and put the 98 install stuff in a directory separate from where windows will install to. Then transfer it back. DOS should boot. Then delete the config.sys and go to the install directory and run setup.
HP is somewhat like the Compaqs" When they are good, they are very, very good. When they are bad, they are very, very bad. Based on the problems I've had with both I think it was a match made in heaven.
Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
Can you get to the BIOS to change the boot order? Think it was [F2] on the HP.
Would get the floppy as top in the boot order, then C:, then cdrom. Then try it with the bootdisk again.
And if not that way, then would put the drive on another machine for a minimal install of dos but with himem activated thru config.sys and put the 98 install stuff in a directory separate from where windows will install to. Then transfer it back. DOS should boot. Then delete the config.sys and go to the install directory and run setup.
HP is somewhat like the Compaqs" When they are good, they are very, very good. When they are bad, they are very, very bad. Based on the problems I've had with both I think it was a match made in heaven.
Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
On several HPs I have seen there is a FAT12 or FAT16 partition (It is 8 gigs. on an XP Home or Pro install) that contains an image of the OS files as well as recovery utilities.
FDISK usually does not see it. I would get as Ed Fair recommended the manufacturer's diagnostic utility for the drive from their website and do a destruction test of the drive (the zero fill). Thats one way of getting rid of it.
FDISK usually does not see it. I would get as Ed Fair recommended the manufacturer's diagnostic utility for the drive from their website and do a destruction test of the drive (the zero fill). Thats one way of getting rid of it.
[tt]are you using a ata66 or ata100 hdd? from what i found out from the HP website, the motherboard supports only up to ata66. if you are using an ata100, comes with the PC when you bought it? then most probably it is using a PCI IDE ATA100 card. that complicates matters. i had a similar problem when i tried to fix a friend's PC, i didn't know his PC had such a card installed and it took me a while to understand it. use the CD that came with the PC, reinstall everything as HP wanted to do. Then you upgrade the OS to whichever version you'd like to have on it.
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- #17
Ok thanks for all the suggestions -I finally cured my problem by going to see my local used equip store and got another HD (incindently same brand and size)- I was told there to "low level format the disc" and that should fix my problem. Got a program similar to DiscKill from him called PowerMax, I believe. I haven't tried them yet but put the HD I got from him -in and Windows ran setup just fine. When I do run those programs on that first HD I'll probably post my results. Had a similar problem on old 286 loading Win3.1 - maybe DiscKill will fix that one too. Thanks again to everyone.
Pharaohseti
Technical User
Agree with Ed Fair. Try booting from boot disk. select option to run with CD support. then try everything again in the DOS shell. It usually works for me.
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