[maxajon]

I am giving my PC to a family member and I recently tried reformatting my hard drive to remove all files. After reformatting, I tried to install Windows 98 OS and it found errors and ran a ScanDisk. Message read that install could not complete becasue hard drive had errors. Rebooted computer with the boot disk taken out of the floppy drive and all settings, programs, files, etc. are still there as if I had never reformatted.

Can anyone tell me what might be wrong?

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Definitely, you need a new hard drive for it to work correctly. Or a decent used one. Be careful about putting too large a drive in older machines, some of them can't "see" the whole drive and installation may be tricky.

From your description it sounds like you tried reinstalling Windows, but didn't run the format utility first to remove all the old files. You can run it from the boot disk prompt. Just type in

format C: /s

and hit Enter at the prompt to run it.

Edited by Tyger, 13 December 2005 - 08:02 PM.

[Tyger]

Definitely, you need a new hard drive for it to work correctly. Or a decent used one. Be careful about putting too large a drive in older machines, some of them can't "see" the whole drive and installation may be tricky.

From your description it sounds like you tried reinstalling Windows, but didn't run the format utility first to remove all the old files. You can run it from the boot disk prompt. Just type in

format C: /s

and hit Enter at the prompt to run it.

Edited by Tyger, 13 December 2005 - 08:02 PM.

[maxajon]

Should have included that in my post. I tried reformatting both ways:

1. format c:
2. format c: /s

After I reboot I get the Windows Startup screen and everything is just as before I reformatted.

Thanks for the help. I think I may just need a new HDD

[Dontais]

Hello i think i have an answer for you, i would assum u haft to del the partion and make a new one if i rember right, b4 u formation something usally for windows 98 you would use Fdisk (link to the windows toutorial for u ) . I use to do this alot with windows 98 till i got xp with with its all in one package, so try this out im sure it will help u. Take care and hope this solves your problem.

Edited by Dontais, 14 December 2005 - 01:42 AM.

[maxajon]

I have tried deleting the partition and repartitioning in FAT32. I then reformatted as:

format C: /S /U /V:DRIVE_1

Still didn't work. Everything still runs as if it was never formatted.

[Dontais]

you deleted the partion and then made a new one and it still won't format , maybe another member has encountered this b4 , try reading the artical under my last post click on fdisk.

Edited by Dontais, 14 December 2005 - 05:34 PM.

[makai]

This is a curious situation. When you formatted, did you use the Win98 Startup floppy disk to do it? Also, when you executed the format, did you receive a warning that the HDD will get wiped and all information will be lost? And... did you actually see the computer run through the formatting... 0 to 100%? And, at the end of formatting, did you have the option to label the partition? Basically, I'm asking if the formatting actually occurred.

Edited by makai, 15 December 2005 - 08:04 AM.

[Tyger]

I suspect Makai is right here, that you got to the stage where it was checking the disk, but that it refused to proceed to the format stage, so that nothing was changed. Something you can do here is go to the drive maker's website and download to a floppy the software to write the drive to zeros. You can also use it to do a diagnostic test of the drive, which is a very good idea before going to any further effort. If the drive is sound, write it to zeros, use the boot floppy to make a partition and format it. Then you can reinstall. Hd to do that a few times myself.

BTW Makai, welcome back.

[makai]

BTW Makai, welcome back.

Thanks Tyger!

[maxajon]

This is a curious situation. When you formatted, did you use the Win98 Startup floppy disk to do it? Also, when you executed the format, did you receive a warning that the HDD will get wiped and all information will be lost? And... did you actually see the computer run through the formatting... 0 to 100%? And, at the end of formatting, did you have the option to label the partition? Basically, I'm asking if the formatting actually occurred.

Yes to all of the above except the Win98 Startup floppy. I had to download a Win98 BootDisk from the internet because the computer I'm trying to format will not allow me to create a boot disk. Everything else is exactly as you described.