Can't format Hard Drive on laptop 3

[spenser333]

Ok, here's the deal. Have just bought a used compaq armada 7380dmt laptop. Had win ME on it - hate ME so wanted to format and do a fresh install of 98.
formatted, and then somewhere along the line - things got screwy.

I ended up deleting the partitions.
Then I used a friend's win98 boot disk, renewed partitions, but now floppy isn't reading - somehow boot disk is missing several things.

Have tried multiple boot disks - and none are recognized by the system.

Using my friend's "corrupted" disk - i can fdisk - but can't format.

His disk will get me to the win startup menu - my machine has swap drives - so i choose w/o cd support.
Then fdd catches, and stops reading.
Now, "dir" works at a:
can read what's on the floppy just fine

But now it's saying "error in exe file" when i try to run format from floppy.

It DEFINITELY will NOT let me format c:/s from either floppy or d: (virtual ramdrive).

Tried extract format.com from ebd.cab
No luck there. i get a data error reading drive a
says cabinet file ebd.cab is corrupted.
Ran scandisk on a: including surface scan - system hang around 79% of the way through.

Any help?

 

[wolluf]

Your laptop may have some bad hardware - other than possibly defective floppy.

But - have you tried booting from the win98 install CD instead? If you have successfully created a partition, choose the install 98 option from the menu - it will offer to format the partition for you. If this formaat doesn't work, I'd suggest you have a defective machine.

(Ps - booting from win98 install CD also gives option to boot to a boot floppy like A: prompt - where fdisk is available, but format is not - presumably because you don't need it)

 

[spenser333]

laptop may have some bad hardware - What specifically would be bad on it?
Originally (before I messed w/ removing ME, it was working well).

Please remember, it's on a "swap" drive - floppy and cd are not in machine at same time.

Also - here's a question - doesn't compaq actually store bios on its older machines on the hdd?

If so, any chance i screwed that when i repartitioned?
Thanks.

 

[wolluf]

Yes compaq does do that on some machines - have you checked website for details of your machine? (but if its booting well enough to run fdisk...). Have you tried my suggestion/can you get into the bios settings?

As for what hardware is bad - laptops are just a number of components, integrated together - could be any of them, but harder to troubleshoot than PC as you can't really take them apart. RAM is obvious one - but as you say, it was working with ME (you're sure of that - I mean running for reasonable length of time without spurious problems, like blue screen, reboot, registry errors?)

 

[spenser333]

Hi, Thanks for the reply:
I have checked compaq site, downloaded compaq diagnostics, setup, and bios softpaq's.
Cannot boot from any of these - but i've heard of an issue of these compaq's not recognizing other "boots" after non-system disk message.

I cannot get into bios - other than the little box in the right corner, and it won't let me in there - just let's me read it.
Apparently, compaq used to store bios on a "diags" partition on the hdd - which is gone now.

Took hdd out, attached it to my pc via a usb external hd connection, and can partition and unpartition in "manage" function of my computer under XP.

Machine's in the shop - but not everyone knows about the older one's. Before i took it in, got it back to square 1 - booting w/ my friend's corrupted win boot.

I know it's an ignorant question - but can cmos affect this? Before I erased hdd w/ WinME on it, it was having a problem w/ the time & date.

As to RAM- When i boot w/ the corrupted win98 disk - first thing to come up is ram. Then boots from floppy. As to Win ME running - did not have it on long enough to figure that out.
Thanks - Tom

 

[micker377]

Time and date is a part of the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). Actually, there is a chip that feeds the BIOS chip (may be all on the chip by now). Also, a bad CMOS battery can cause loss of time settings (and hard drive parameters), causing many different "boot" problems.

 

[hargy]

My colleague has just had the same issue and I came on here to post the problem and found your thread

He used a utility called DELPART which removes NTFS partitions. Prior to using this the hard disk in the Compaq PC would not fdisk without hanging and would not format. Now all is working OK

http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm

 

[spenser333]

Pro-fesshinals -

Took my laptop to a computer store - where they promised to try several things cheaply - then reneged on the offer -
The laptop pro would not even look at it, telling me it was not worth it.
I'm going to do what i can with this or another hdd, and keep you guys posted.
i just HAVE to believe there's a solution to all this -
I got the troubleshooting guides, and my either insert a new hdd, or maybe adapt one for the multibay, and see if that works. I appreciate you all, and all of your advice!!!
You're a lot better than the "pros" - no matter what happens with this laptop.

 

[micker377]

We ARE the pros! Actually (I'm a retired T.V. repairman), what the tech was saying was that it could be repaired, but it would cost more than the laptop was worth. Back 10 years ago, any piece of equipment that hit the bench was automaticaly $100.00 (on up). I can imagine what they charge now! As for your problem, can you boot from a GOOD Win98 Emergency Boot Disk? If so, use fdisk to see what partitions are listed. I think number 4 is "view partitions". If you see a "non-DOS" partition, you go back to the initial fdisk screen. On the list of actions is "remove non-DOS partition". Then remove the rest and create a new partition, reboot, and format. You can also get an adapter ($5 - $10 USD), and hook up the hard drive as a slave in a desktop. Easier to work on.