Hard drive does not completely format 1

[Mike1236]

Hi,
I am new to this forum and need some help on formatting the hard drive on a Gateway 2000 laptop. The drive is a Hitachi 3.0-GB IDE Hard Disk. When I was given this laptop (by a friend) someone had tried to load Win 2000 professional from a network I think and it didn't take. The laptop came with Win 95 originally as far as I can determine. I did a disk scan and fixed 5 errors before I decided to format the drive.

I want to format the drive and remove all references to Win 2000 and then install Win 95 or Win 98 which I own legal copies of.

I can boot up using a floppy (win me) and when using the format command the program starts but seems to stop with a message "trying to recover allocation unit 2,671. I have done this a number of times and that is all it says.

When I invoke the fdisk command I get the message that this computer has NTFS partitions which may require large drive support. Going on through the menu items I see that I have a "current fixed disk drive: 1 with the following partition information.
Partition 1 is A with type NTFS 2047 MBytes and 66% usage
Partition 2 is blank under status then type is EXT DOS 1043 Mbytes and usage of 34%.

then I have a note that says "the only startable partition on Drive 1 is already set active.

First question is what is NTFS?
Second quesiton is this information on partioning correct?
Third question concerns loading Win 95 or Win 98 on this laptop. Using my bootable disk I can laod a CD driver but when I try to get it to install it doesn't recognize the CD. The laptop still thinks that I have a CD for Win 2000 professional which I don't.

Thanking you in advance for any help you can offer.

Mike1236

 

[dkdude]

Hi,

NTFS (New Technology File System) is the new HD file system that WinNT (and up) runs on.

NTFS "replaces" FAT32, that Win9x/ME uses. NTFS is supposed to be better and faster.

The diferences are that a NT (or 2k, XP ...) system can "see" a FAT32 parition but it doesn't work the other way around.

Here's what you can do with FDISK :

Delete ALL partitions. Create one big partition (or more, if you like). Set it (or the first) active. Boot from your Win9x install CD.

Good luck §;O)


Jakob

 

[Mike1236]

Thanks dkdude for the quick response. I formatted it into one large drive and made the only partition (1) as the active drive. Now I have some other problem areas. this laptop requires changing out the floppy unit with the CD unit. So to start up I booted to the floppie without CD support. Now when I try to get to C: "I get the message Invalid media type reading drive c:"
I can run fdisk /mbr and when I try to run sys a: c: it says I have too many parameters.
Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?

Mike1236

 

[edfair]

With a floppy booted up it is sys c:

Your best bet is to get the drive operating in DOS via the floppy fdisk and format and load the drivers to make the CD accessable when using the hard drive only. Then swap in the CD and boot off the hard drive and copy the install stuff to the hard drive and install from there.
This allows you to have your floppy in place and required win install stuff available regardless of which drive is installed.

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

 

[Mike1236]

After much work I think the hard drive has some errors that will not allow me to format the drive. I have tried 6 different times to format the drive and it terminates the format at different spots when trying to recover allocation units. It appears that sometimes it gets past some of the errors on the drive and then hits one that it can't recover and then it terminates the format. Any ideas?

 

[edfair]

Usually a sign that something has changed timings on the hard drive. You might want to try for disk diagnostics to see if the drive is still within specs. And sometimes a lowlevel/zero fill will clean things out enough that it will come back to life when fdisked and formatted.

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

 

[TekTippy4U]

Get "your friend" to give you the oem cd which has a write zeros to disk LLF

TT4U

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions....I try very hard to impart correct info at all times.

 

[Mike1236]

Thanks Edfair for your response. Can you clarify what you were saying about runing something on this unformatted disk. Without the c: drive being formatted is there a way to run disk diagnostics to see if the drive is still within specs. As for a lowlevel/zero fill I don't know where I could get that software from. Is that something that has to purchased or is there a place out there on the web that will let you download it for free?

Regards,
mike1236

 

[diogenes10]

http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Here's Hitachi site-they show software called drive fitness test-you'll have to see if it's ok for your specific hard drive.

 

[edfair]

zero fill and diagnostics should both fit on a floppy. May take 1 each. You create bootable floppy and copy the utility to it.

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

 

[Mike1236]

TT4U I am trying to get my friend to locate the oem cd but so far it is a no show. I have another OEM CD from a Dell laptop. Would that work on a Gateway?

diogenes10 I tried the software previously but couldn't get it to run. I downloaded it from the Hitachi site and put it on a floppy. Then I booted up to the A drive and then inserted this new floppy. The a drive prompt did not recognize it and wouldn't execute it. Since the C drive is not formatted I am thinking this program requires an operating system before it will execute.

thanks,

Mike1236

 

[diogenes10]

Yes diskette creation program does require an operating system, you will have to do it on another computer.
Page 4 of the users guide (under additional documentation) gives you specific instructions on how to create the diskette.

 

[TekTippy4U]

I am trying to get my friend to locate the oem cd but so far it is a no show. I have another OEM CD from a Dell laptop. Would that work on a Gateway?


No,no,no....It's a different HDD, the LLF utility is drive manufacturer specific...and model# specific also..

TT4U

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions....I try very hard to impart correct info at all times.