formatted from within Windows! Help!

[leda]

A friend of mine, (yes, it really is a friend), formatted her hard drive, don't ask me how, from within My Computer. Her intent was to install Win 98. Now when she puts in a boot disk and the Win 98 Setup CD, It takes her to the first stage of scanning the registry, and copying files and she gets an error message about a cab file being corrupt... She has since tried 4 other boot disks and setup CD's, all with the same message... the system used has Win95 on it..
thanks,
Leda

 

[mot98]

Hi Leda,

Tell your friend to boot up with the boot disk, then re-format the hard drive.

Once this is done, then attempt to install from the win98CD.

Hope this helps... mot98..

"Where's the beer?"

 

[leda]

Last night I went to her place and I tried to do that and it said that was an invalid command. Should I creat a system disk first, so it has the Format command on it? I thought Boot disk had that command already on it..

 

[mot98]

The boot disk should have the format command on it. If it does not, try downloading one from

http://www.bootdisk.com.

Seeing as you are installing win98 on the system now, I would get a win98 bootdisk. This will also allow you to partition the drive bigger than 2gb.

Hope this helps... mot98..

"Where's the beer?"

 

[thatrenowned]

The windows 98 disk has it in CDROM:\win98\format.com

This is the one I've always used (I copy it onto the boot disk because its so small).

Rgds

 

[SPYDERIX]

Check this out:

FAQ748-1599
Step by step instructions for installing and formatting windows.
Nate
"If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!"

 

[hotfusion]

In case you're using the wrong command, it should be:
format c:/u
This removes everything from the HDD.
(Opt for starting without CD ROM support)
When finished, you will be asked for a volume label, simply press 'return' so as not to create a label.
Reset the computer.
This time opt for CD ROM support.
When the system is ready, note the CD drive letter, which will be different from normal and type:
e:\setup
(where 'e' is the indicated drive)

Good luck! My suggestions are what I would try myself. If incorrect, I welcome corrections to my rather limited knowledge. Andy.

 

[lgebhart]

Just for clarification the boot disk that comes with Windows 98SE is not the same as a startup disk created within Windows 98SE.

There are more diagnostics on the startup disk including the format command although you won't see it on the floppy if you type dir at the A prompt. The format file and others actually expand into a RAM VIRTUAL drive when you boot with it.

Create a startup disk from any Windows 98SE system then boot from it and format the drive as stated above. ggebhart@clover.net
I hope I never get too old or arrogant to learn something new!