format question

This does not have to do with VISTA but I am sure someone can help me.

I am trying to format an old hard drive with my WIN 98 boot up disk. When I
get into the DOS A: prompt it will not see my C Drive, which is the hard
drive.

All I want to do is wipe that hard drive clean? Can I do it? or am I out of
luck until I get a new operating system on it. I have Windows 2000 on the
PC but now I can't get boot into that now as it keeps looking for the start
up disk

Any commands I can use? I am not the best with DOS.

thanks

Kevin

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"Kevin Oye" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> This does not have to do with VISTA but I am sure someone can help me.
>
> I am trying to format an old hard drive with my WIN 98 boot up disk. When
> I get into the DOS A: prompt it will not see my C Drive, which is the hard
> drive.
>
> All I want to do is wipe that hard drive clean? Can I do it? or am I out
> of luck until I get a new operating system on it. I have Windows 2000 on
> the PC but now I can't get boot into that now as it keeps looking for the
> start up disk

Sounds like the drive is currently formatted with NTFS, which your Win98
Boot disk isn't going to see. Run FDISK at your A: prompt and delete the
existing partition, then create a new one. Reboot again with your Win98
boot disk and you should then be able to format it.

it tells me "no fixed disks are present"

never seen that before?

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"Bob Campbell" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "Kevin Oye" <> wrote in message
> news:%...
>> This does not have to do with VISTA but I am sure someone can help me.
>>
>> I am trying to format an old hard drive with my WIN 98 boot up disk.
>> When I get into the DOS A: prompt it will not see my C Drive, which is
>> the hard drive.
>>
>> All I want to do is wipe that hard drive clean? Can I do it? or am I out
>> of luck until I get a new operating system on it. I have Windows 2000
>> on the PC but now I can't get boot into that now as it keeps looking for
>> the start up disk
>
> Sounds like the drive is currently formatted with NTFS, which your Win98
> Boot disk isn't going to see. Run FDISK at your A: prompt and delete the
> existing partition, then create a new one. Reboot again with your Win98
> boot disk and you should then be able to format it.

In article <#>,
Kevin Oye <> wrote:
>
>I am trying to format an old hard drive with my WIN 98 boot up disk. When I
>get into the DOS A: prompt it will not see my C Drive, which is the hard
>drive.
>

Check the jumpers. Old IDE drives had to be set for "master" or
"slave" roles. If it's the only drive move the jumper to the master spot.

Also, use the "fdisk" command to make new partitions. It's in
windows\system32 somewhere I think.

jumper has not changed in 10 years. It has always been on Master. I was
just running 2000 on this PC an hour ago. Then I put this stupid boot disk
in, instaed of typing in CMD for the DOS prompt. Now I can't WIN 2000 back.

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____________________________________________


"the wharf rat" <> wrote in message
news:fr6v4d$ibd$...
> In article <#>,
> Kevin Oye <> wrote:
>>
>>I am trying to format an old hard drive with my WIN 98 boot up disk. When
>>I
>>get into the DOS A: prompt it will not see my C Drive, which is the hard
>>drive.
>>
>
> Check the jumpers. Old IDE drives had to be set for "master" or
> "slave" roles. If it's the only drive move the jumper to the master spot.
>
> Also, use the "fdisk" command to make new partitions. It's in
> windows\system32 somewhere I think.
>

"Kevin Oye" <> wrote in message
news:...
> it tells me "no fixed disks are present"
>
> never seen that before?

Then either the drive is really dead or it is connected or jumpered wrong.
What kind of drive is it? Master/Slave jumpers set correctly? Does the
computer BIOS see it?

BIOS does see it as the primary master


--
____________________________________________


"Bob Campbell" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "Kevin Oye" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> it tells me "no fixed disks are present"
>>
>> never seen that before?
>
> Then either the drive is really dead or it is connected or jumpered wrong.
> What kind of drive is it? Master/Slave jumpers set correctly? Does the
> computer BIOS see it?

I just figired it out. I had to change something in the CMOS. It is now
formatting. thanks for your help.

I will probably be back with Vista questions.

--
____________________________________________


"Bob Campbell" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "Kevin Oye" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> it tells me "no fixed disks are present"
>>
>> never seen that before?
>
> Then either the drive is really dead or it is connected or jumpered wrong.
> What kind of drive is it? Master/Slave jumpers set correctly? Does the
> computer BIOS see it?

"Kevin Oye" <> wrote in message
news:%23J4q%...
> BIOS does see it as the primary master

Maybe the MBR is just hosed. Try FDISK /MBR from your A: prompt. Then
run FDISK normally again.

On Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:23:02 -0400, Kevin Oye wrote:

> This does not have to do with VISTA but I am sure someone can help me.
>
> I am trying to format an old hard drive with my WIN 98 boot up disk.
> When I get into the DOS A: prompt it will not see my C Drive, which is
> the hard drive.
>
> All I want to do is wipe that hard drive clean? Can I do it? or am I
> out of luck until I get a new operating system on it. I have Windows
> 2000 on the PC but now I can't get boot into that now as it keeps
> looking for the start up disk
>
> Any commands I can use? I am not the best with DOS.
>
> thanks
>
> Kevin

You could certainly boot a Linux Live CD - the 'puppy' iso is 50mb or
less - and reformat quite easily.