Thread: Im out of ideas...

  1. #1
    i dont know Vicious's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    1,200

    Im out of ideas...

    I have an old PC here ive been trying to fix for someone.

    It was run down with viruses and the like so I was trying to use a Win98 cd to restore it.
    The PC crashed in the middle of this restoration and left the C: drive blank.

    So I used a boot disk (floppy) and booted it up with the Win98 CD, now ofcourse, it says that drive C: is not a valid FAT or FAT32. So I try to create a dos partition with FDISK and it says that thee are no "Fixed Disks", I also cannot use FORMAT on drive C:. So now drive C: is blank and I cannot install Win98 onto it.

    Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do to create a dos partition on C drive (or install Win98 for that matter).


  2. #2
    PC Fixer-Upper Waldo2k2's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    2,001
    Well there are 2 possibilities, for some odd reason, the media descriptor of the drive is messed up and you can run a low level format (which requires downloading a tool from the drive manufacturer and running it from a boot disk). The other possibility is that the drive was on it's last leg when you attempted to reinstall 98 and it finally died.

    But I'd try the low-level format first.
    PHP and XML
    Let's talk about SAX

  3. #3
    i dont know Vicious's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    1,200
    Do you think it would be difficult to make a program that writes directly to the HD? Just blank it out with 0's....

    How would you write directly to HD? Question for C++ forum? lol

  4. #4
    PC Fixer-Upper Waldo2k2's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    2,001
    that wouldn't work, the media descriptor needs to be re-written, that's why you need the low-level format utility specific to that hard drive, what brand is it?
    PHP and XML
    Let's talk about SAX

  5. #5
    i dont know Vicious's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    1,200
    I found one, it is a Quantum. Thanks for the help

  6. #6
    PC Fixer-Upper Waldo2k2's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    2,001
    let me know if it works or if the drive was dead
    PHP and XML
    Let's talk about SAX

  7. #7
    i dont know Vicious's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    1,200
    Ok heres what I did.

    I found a program the did what I mentioned earlier (zero out the HD, Its not that I didnt believe you Waldo, its just I had already started that before your post). When that was through I ran FDISK and created a dos partition, then I used "FORMAT C: /s" THen I was able to install Win98 on it.

    Like I said I had already started the ZeroDrive program when I saw your post, lol, I was thinking "oh crap".

  8. #8
    PC Fixer-Upper Waldo2k2's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Posts
    2,001
    well im glad it was a smaller problem than I thought
    PHP and XML
    Let's talk about SAX

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Ideas, how do you get them? xD
    By Akkernight in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 01-22-2009, 03:53 AM
  2. cool ideas for a game
    By Shadow12345 in forum Game Programming
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 05-18-2004, 08:37 PM
  3. idea's idea's idea's
    By mithrandir in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 04-29-2002, 12:30 AM
  4. Small app ideas
    By dirkduck in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 02-15-2002, 08:57 PM