[beckcraigd]

I have an HP Pavilion n5415 laptop. It came new with Windows XP Home Edition installed. But the operating system has died three times now. The first time, I had a new harddrive installed and the original OS reinstalled from the restore disks. The second time, I used the restore disk to get going again. Then a few months later, it died again. This time I can not use the restore disks as the first of three disks is broken (if you have kids you will understand). So I thought this time I would reformat the harddrive and just install Windows 98 SE (which I have liked well enough in the paste and for which I have an extra license and disk). I used the Windows XP Startup Disks (the 6 disk set) and tried to reformat from NTFS to FAT32 using the "format x: /fs:fat32" command. I ran this several times. It will run for hours and say that it is 100% complete. But when you reboot to try installing Windows 98 with the Windows 98 Startup Disk, it tells me that it is still NTFS partitioned and I am stuck.

From where I am now, I would like to get the harddrive reformatted and partitioned for FAT32 so I can install Windows 98. I think I may also have to find some drivers and figure out how to get them installed also. Any ideas?

Thanks ahead of time for any help on this issue.

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i have a sneaky suspician that drivers will be a bigger issue.

Download a windows98 bootdisk from here

www.bootdisk.com

create a win98 boot floppy, then start your laptop with it. At prompt, type fdisk

delete the partition that is present (your choice will be other or NON-DOS partition (can't recall right now).

Create a new dos partition, reboot leaving the disk in place, then use the FORMAT C: command after rebooting

HP has maintained a modem driver for windows 98 here:
http://h10025.www1.h...=en&cc=us&os=20

but no chipset, video, sound or network driver

[gerryf]

i have a sneaky suspician that drivers will be a bigger issue.

Download a windows98 bootdisk from here

www.bootdisk.com

create a win98 boot floppy, then start your laptop with it. At prompt, type fdisk

delete the partition that is present (your choice will be other or NON-DOS partition (can't recall right now).

Create a new dos partition, reboot leaving the disk in place, then use the FORMAT C: command after rebooting

HP has maintained a modem driver for windows 98 here:
http://h10025.www1.h...=en&cc=us&os=20

but no chipset, video, sound or network driver

[beckcraigd]

Thanks.

I am trying to delete the partition and have four options:
1. Delete Primary DOS Partition
2. Delete Extended DOS Partition
3. Delete Logical DOS Drives in the Extended DOS Partition
4. Delete Non-DOS Partition

Do I understand correctly that option 4 is what I need?

[gerryf]

yes

[wannabe1]

Hi Guys....

Not to butt in, but you may find This Information helpful. In addition, in many cases when you go to format the drive, you'll want to use the command format C: /s for Windows 98.

wannabe1

[beckcraigd]

I am not sure if this is correct or not when creating the new partition. I am letting it run, but looks like it is hung. The screen says:

Create Primary DOS Partition
Current fixed disk drive: 1
Verifying drive integrity, 0% complete._

I keep waiting, but it keeps saying 0%.

Do I restart or wait?

[gerryf]

well by now (29minuteslater) it's probably safe to say it either went or it hung...won't hurt to do it again.

[beckcraigd]

I waited and went ahead and restarted. At the prompt, I tried Format C: but it says Format is not supported on drive C. I got the message again that dive C does not contain a valid FAT32 partition and wanted me to run FDISK again. When I ran FDISK the first time, it removed the NonDOS partition but left the NTFS partition. I am not sure what to do next?

[gerryf]

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

that;s not unheard of--sometimes, fdisk has trouble with an ntfs partition

use the above program to wipe the ntfs partition

[beckcraigd]

That seemed to remove the NTFS partition.

Then I ran FDISK again to create a new partition, but the system seems to be hanging again at 0% when verifying integrity.

I also tried Format c:, but it will not let me.

[wannabe1]

Hi beckcraigd...

It looks like gerryf is off line at the moment...I'll see if I can walk yo through this.

Restart the machine with the bootdisk in the drive and when you get to the first options screen, press Shift + F5 to get a command prompt (A:\)...type fdisk and press Enter. At the next screen, type Y to accept large disk support and press Enter. At the next screen, choose option 4 "display partition information.." and post back with what is listed for partitions.

wannabe1

[beckcraigd]

It says:

No partitions defined

[wannabe1]

beckcraigd...Perfect!

Press ESC to go back to the previous options and choose option "1 Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive" and press ENTER...on the next screen, Press "1 to select the Create Primary DOS Partition" menu option, and then press ENTER

After you press ENTER, you receive the following message: "Do you wish to use the maximum available size for primary DOS partition?" If you want to use the FAT32 file system, press Y and then press ENTER

On the next screen, Press 1 to select the "Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive" menu option, and then press ENTER.

Then Press 1 to select the "Create Primary DOS Partition" menu option, and then press ENTER

After you press ENTER, you receive the following message: Do you wish to use the maximum available size for primary DOS partition? Press Y, and then press ENTER.

After you receive this message, press ESC to return to the Options menu.

To activate the partition from which you plan to boot (usually drive C), press 2 to select the Set active partition menu option, and then press ENTER.

Press ESC, and then press ESC to quit the Fdisk tool and return to a command prompt.

When you get to this point, post back and we'll go on to the format...

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 23 November 2005 - 04:45 PM.

[beckcraigd]

I get to this point:

Press ESC to go back to the previous options and choose option "1 Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive" and press ENTER...on the next screen, Press "1 to select the Create Primary DOS Partition" menu option, and then press ENTER

but after I press ENTER, I dont get the next message about "Do you wish to use the maximum available size for primary DOS partition?"

Instead I get the below screen and it seems to hang:

Create Primary DOS Partition
Current fixed disk drive: 1
Verifying drive integrity, 0% complete.

[wannabe1]

Hold on one moment...........

Edited by wannabe1, 23 November 2005 - 04:47 PM.