Hard Drive Formating Problems... 3

[sumilsay]

hey peeps, here's my dilemma...

i got these 2 hard drives from a buddy of mine. i want to partition and format them to use in removable bays. the POST recognizes the drive, but will not boot from them. so i asked my friend why, and he said because they're NTFS. i'm trying to do all of this on a 98 machine.

i tried booting from a boot disk with format, and fdisk on it, but when i boot with the disk, the drive is not accessible and the computer automatically makes the c: into a ramdrive.

how can i partition and format my NTFS hard drives in a 98 system?

thanks for your time,
.me.

 

[TSSTechie]

Hi
You could try doing an autodetect in BIOS, see if finds them in there.

Also, are jumpers set correctly on the HDD's.

Hope this helps

 

[franklin97355]

If fdisk does not see the disk you have bigger problems that how they are formatted. remove all but one HD from your system and set that one as primary master then boot to the floppy and see if you can fdisk.

 

[Bonestein]

1. set your boot up options in bios to boot from CD-ROM
2. put your win98se cd in.
3. reboot, and start computer with cd rom support
4. type: cd win98
5. type: fdisk
6. remove and NON-DOS partitions.(just delete them)
they are the NTFS partitions.
7. make new dos partitions. (FAT32)
8. reboot
9. start computer with cd rom support again.
10. type: cd win98
11. type: format c:
12. reboot: start computer with cd rom support
13. type: cd win98
14. type: setup

but if you are just wanting to get rid of the NTFS (NON-DOS) partitions, then just do steps 1-8

 

[ceh4702]

I recommend unplugging your hard drive with the good data on it, so you dont fdisk it by mistake.

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

 

[Breakerfall]

•ceh4702 is right, unplug the good HD first
•Boot up using a floppy disk that DO NOT installs ramdrive
•fdisk and format should work now
•I gues you know how to use Fdisk.

let us know if you need more help.



Breakerfall
®º°¨¨°º can you ping me now...GOOD! º°¨¨°º®

 

[Dreamland]

Win98's FDISK will usually refuse to delete an NTFS or other Non-DOS partition. If you're having this problem and don't need the data on those drives sumilsay, get one of the free zero-fill utilities. They will overwrite everything on the drive with zeros (= totally erase it)and allow you to start from scratch with Win98's FDISK and FORMAT utilities.

bcastner posted this link in another thread for one of the free ones available for download:

http://www.killdisk.com/

You make a bootable floppy disk and add the killdisk.exe file from the download. Boot and run from the A: prompt.

Since you're using these as removeable drives, you probably are not planning on disconnecting your existing drive for this operation. You want to consider this very carefully - there is NO way to recover from a zero-fill like there is from accidental FORMAT or FDISK. If you get confused about the drive letters in killdisk and point to your existing system disk by mistake, the data will be gone forever. Disconnect it for the duration of this procedure and save yourself the worry.

 

[sumilsay]

one question...

when i boot with a 98 boot disk, the POST detects the hardrive. but when everything else is loading, the drive becomes non-accessable. and automatically, the ramdrive is created (c:\). is this normal? will these programs still delete the NTFS partition if i can't even access the drive through dos?

do i even make sense? hahaha

thanks everyone again.
peace!

 

[ceh4702]

I have deleted WinXP partitions created with WinXP Home Edition before. Usually if you run fdisk you can view any kind of partition on the drive. Even if there is no partition it should tell you. Win2k can give you some problems, but I have never messed with it.

Normally a RAM drive is always created with the Win98 Boot Disk. When you boot from a win98 boot disk it is normal not to read the hard drive first. A win98 boot disk will work the same with no hard drive plugged into the system.

You do have to go into the BIOS/CMOS and install the HARD DRIVE in the BIOS. Older Motherboards required you to run a utility in the bios to inspect the hard drive and set it up for you. Before that you would have to get the cylinder and track and head information and then input it manually.

Some Hard Drives can not be seen by some motherboard's BIOS due to size limitation for the motherboard/chipset/BIOS.

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

 

[Dreamland]

It must be set up in the BIOS ceh4702 - it's being recognized during the POST. Re: FDISK - which version were you using? The Win98 version does not have the capability to recognize/delete NT5+ partitions AFAIK. Were you using the 2K/XP version of FDISK perhaps?

sumilsay - you're making sense. If 98 cannot 'see' a FAT/FAT32 partition on the drive, then there's nothing to assign a "C:" to when the boot disk is loading. Makes sense since there is no such partition on the drive right now, only the NTFS one (which 98 can't recognize). Ignore the fact that 98 keeps using C: for the RAM drive. It won't interfere with FDISK operation, and FDISK should still be able to recognize the drive itself when you run it. I still don't think you'll be able to delete the NTFS partition, but you should be able to type FDISK at the A: prompt and have it 'see' the hard disk itself. If/when you get the partition situation corrected to the point of at least *creating* a FAT/FAT32 partition, 98 will assign drive letters on the next boot and move the RAM drive after the last assigned lettered partition.

If FDISK errors out with a message that no fixed disks are present when you try to run it, then there are other BIOS/disk issues that need to be looked into. Try running FDISK first and let us know if it can find the drive.

 

[sumilsay]

hi dreamland,

that is the error i get, that fdisk cannot see any fixed disks...

anymore helpful advice for this situation?

thanks a tonne
.me.

 

[Bobg1]

If you can find or have a copy of win95, make a boot disk and use the utilities from that.

 

[sumilsay]

that would be a difficult task to find a win95 machine.

 

[ceh4702]

If FDISK can not see the disks then the BIOS has a problem with the DISKS or the DISKS are not set up in the BIOS or they have some kind of software on them designed to hide the partitions or an overlay program.

Having a Post detect a hard drive and actually having it set up in the BIOS are 2 entirely different things. A post can often see a CDROM also, but older hard motherboards could not boot from them until after the hard drive had the appropriate device driver installed. What happens when you go into the BIOS and try to detect it in the BIOS? This is not the option for the BOOT order. This is the option to set up the DRIVE in the BIOS. To address a hard drive it must be set up in the BIOS. If you have a setting for AUTO change it from auto to manual and then beck and see if it can read what kind of drive it is.

Here is a suggestion you might try. First see who manufactured the hard drives. Then go to their website on the Internet and look for their hard drive utilities.

One question I would ask at this point is what is the capacity of the Hard Drive (Size in Gigahertz)and what is the limit for the capacity of hard drives for your motherboard and BIOS? Is this a really large Disk or is it an older smaller disk?

Sometimes it is prudent to try other methods to attack a problem. A Linux REDHAT install disk can see the partitions and reformat them. The manufacturer of the hard drive may have some software to detect, diagnose, and have some remedies like a low-level format. I know there are some utilities like Partition Magic V6 or maybe V5 that might work also.

If you have access to an XP install disk, you can go through a New Install and delete the existing partitions and just turn your computer off. An XP install disk should be able to read NT or Win2k or XP partitions. An XP install disk can also create and format fat32 PARTITIONS. Most likely you have some friend or know someone that has an XP install disk.

Sometimes a hard disk has had some overlay program on it that has to be removed. These programs are used to use a hard disk that is too large for your BIOS. Usually the drive manufacturer has them for a download as a utility or hard drive installation software. They can also usually be used to remove or undo existing overlay programs. They usually have drive diagnostic software with them.

This might work:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=55820EDB-5039-4955-BCB7-4FED408EA73F

These are some of things you might try.

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

 

[jraratea]

Try delpart from this site:

http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm

JR
Win2K MCSE, A+, Net+

 

[Breakerfall]

>>and automatically, the RamDrive is created (c:\)

You keep saying the RamDrive gets loaded.
Did you try to boot from a floppy that ""DO NOT!"" crate a RamDrive like I suggested in my previous post?

use C:\>sys a:
DO NOT use the "Win9x Startup Disk" utility.

kup,
tnx.


Breakerfall
®º°¨¨°º can you ping me now...GOOD! º°¨¨°º®

 

[sumilsay]

hey peeps!

back again, but with good news! the hdd is now partitioned and formatted... both of the hdd's. using a 2000 disk worked. why i didnt do this earlier? hahaha. its my natural lazy nature that drove me to use a 98 machine and nothing else. but it was the constant stress that finally steered me in a different direction.

anyways, thanks to all of you who gave me some of your time. much appreciated!!!

peace.