Impossible to make a partition, or to install an OS after formatting 1

[PijnLoos]

My girlfriend's old pc s causing trouble. Windows 98 was installed on it. But, because the pc was disfunctioning lately, she decided to format the 8Gb drive. After formatting, she wanted to make a partition, it isn't allowed cause there s something up with her bootsector [ dunno the real message ]. So, she tried to install Windows 98, and later Linux, but they both failed. She bought another drive, with the same results. What can cause this ? The motherboard ? And how to solve ?

greetZ,

[T]

 

[wolluf]

suggest you get the real error message - its very difficult helping without it. Some symptoms of what was going wrong with PC before she reformatted would also be useful.

 

[edfair]

And she tried to create a partition after she formatted she should have got an error message. Can't create something out of nothing. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
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.

 

[rockerfellerz]

I think you need to run fdisk, create a partition, and then format?

 

[ceh4702]

You probably should try the command
fdisk /new

Before doing anything. This attempts to remake the old partition.

Some hard drives have drive overlays like Max-Drive or EZ-Max Plus, etc. If this is the case use that software to resetup the drive. This is used for hard drives too large for your bios. Progarms like this can also be used to setup new drives and run diagnostics. Most of the drive manufacturers have utilities you can download to set up a hard drive.

If a Drive was setup with Windows XP, I reccommend using Windows XP to change it.

Try just removing all of the old partitions before you try to add any new partitions. Sometimes these drive overlay programs have a message that says &quot;press CTRL to boot from A<:&quot; or something similar.

Good Luck. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[garebo]

To Pjnloos:

you are obviously working in win 98, I am guessing that its win98SE but you didnt specify.
Also, what is the make and model of your motherboard and what bios is it using.
You need to make a win98 startup disk. go to start\control panel\add/remove\startup disk and make a startup disk.

Then put the startup disk in floppy drive and turn machine on. When it asks if you want cd support you can enter yes or no.
Then wait til it is all done and enter:
fdisk
when you are asked if you want large disk support press y for yes.
fdisk will then come up. use the delete functions in fdisk until there is nothing.
Then use the: create dos partition
then when it asks you if you want to make it active say yes.
then reboot and enter this command.
format c:
or format d: (if the format c: doesnt work)

That is what you need to do.

 

[wirlybird]

After you make a start up disk and before you wipe the drive, make sure that &quot;format.com&quot; is actually on the start up disk. This file is not included when 98 makes a start up disk so you will need to copy it over to the disk or have your 98 cd available.

 

[garebo]

thanks, I forgot that!!!

And dont use some really old format.com from some old dos disks. Use format.com from win98 or 98SE

 

[PijnLoos]

Guys, thx for your tips. My gildfriend thought her bios was the cause, and i told her to d/l sisoftware sandra, to find out more details about the hardware. The tool displayed the biosversion, from which there was an update available. She tried to update the bios, but it failed. She xplained her problem to a computershop nearby, and they will upgrade her bios for her, at a certain price, of course.
Btw, the day after the start of this thread she was able to make partitions at once.
Anyway, thx !

 

[PijnLoos]

And i forgot, indeed, she uses Windows 98 SE.

 

[tommarsh]

MaxBlast is the best 3rd party overlay for older systems.
it works effortlessly (?) with any brand hd.
if you can't find it to download i have one on my ftp site in a folder that you can download and save to a diskette.
i used it often when working with 98 and nt4 on older machines.

http://www.tommarsh.issmart.com

look in the utilities folder.
good luck & don't give up.
Tom