7 replies to this topic

[royjrvic]

I have been very anxious in making an fdisk and finally made one. I have an old comp with just 10gig hdd and wanted to install win98 on it,it now has winpro. I went to bootdisk.com and downloaded the updated version.I send it to C:\program files. I inserted a floopy disk and right-click and send it to 3/5floopy,I could see the status bar copying. Then I left-click and then clicked open. I got a blue window with nothing on it, at left top it said something like a:\prompt (I should have written it down). I always thought I was suppose to see a whole bunch a lines OR does that happen when I start to fdisk?? I thank you all in advance. P.S.Does anyone know of a program that can guide you throughout the whole process?? pictures would be of great help.

[Budfred]

You are supposed to get an A: prompt with a bootdisk. You then run Fdisk which will give you more options. However, if by WinPro you mean WinXP Pro, you can use the CD to partition and format the hard drive, although a 10 gig drive is pretty small for WinXP.

Here is a Google search of DOS commands which can tell you how to use Fdisk:

http://www.google.co...G=Google Search

[royjrvic]

Thanks Budfred. I did get an a:prompt. The links are great for us newbies. Thanks again. I also found a step by step tutorial for those interested. http://fdisk.radified.com/

[royjrvic]

Hello again. I found another site that takes you step by step with images. I really hope this helps out those just learning like me. royjrvic http://www.blackvipe...disk/fdisk1.htm

[royjrvic]

Hello again. I encountered a big problem . I have winxp pro and would like to return to win98. I made a win98 boot disk but the comp reads: Non-system disk or disk error. Was I to install a winxp pro boot up disk instead of win98?? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Budfred]

WinXP doesn't use DOS, so it is not able to work with it. If you are getting to an A: prompt, you can probably still use Fdisk to remove any partitions and then refomat, but you will lose ALL data on the hard drive.

If you can't get to an A: prompt, you will probably need to go into the BIOS and set the boot order for the Floppy drive first. When you first boot, the opening screen has a message that says something like "to enter Setup press DELETE" or some other key. Press whatever key it says to enter the BIOS. Once in the BIOS, you will need to find the section on boot order. This determines which drive the computer looks at first to boot. Set it so that the floppy is first and then Save/Exit from the BIOS (usually F10). Don't mess with any other settings unless you know what you are doing. Make sure your bootdisk is in the drive and it should take you to an A: prompt where you can repartition and reformat as much as you want.

It is also possible that you just have a bad boot disk. You can go to BootDisk.com to download another. Make sure you get a Win98SE version with CD support....

If I am not understanding what the problem is, please post back with more detail....

[royjrvic]

Hello Budfre. "WinXP doesn't use DOS" phrases like this is what I need, I'll look into that to get a general picture. Yes, you understood my question perfectly well. I really appreciate this. I'll go back to bootdisk.com and make another with cd support. I'll go slow throughout the week and hopefully I'll post again next week-end with positive results,I hope. Thanks again Budfred. royjrvic

[Budfred]

Post back if you run into any more roadblocks or if you don't understand what is suggested. I can always find another way to say it and I have been at the stage you are with different aspects of working with computers many times myself....