I origanally had 2 Operatng systems on my machine, win98 and win2k (server) using FAT and on 1 partition.

A couple of days ago, my computer started to go bonkers on me, so I decided to reinstall Win2k. When installing, I accidently accepeted to convert my harddrive to NTFS. Now my 13 Giga Byte harddrive is using NTFS. Most of my programs now do not work as they were installed on win98. And I cannot get Win98 to even boot up as that uses FAT.

The only solution I can find is to Format my harddrive and then install win98 first with FAT and then a second partition of NTFS with Win2k. I realise I will lose everything but I accept that.

But even formating my harddrive won't work for me:



As you can see, I cant even format my harddrive !?!?!?!?!

Does anybody have a clue what I can do to make the NTFS back to FAT16 ?????


Thanks.

(PS) I realise this has nothing to do with MCSE but its the only place I could think of posting this !

------------------
CIW Site Designer, I-Net+, Network +

Report this post to a moderator

I would killsec0 your HD then partition then format with /u/s switches. I am fairly new so there might be another way.

Report this post to a moderator

I dont really know what you mean by "killsec0", but i beter give more info anyway.

I remembered that when I installed Win2k for the first time, I had a choise of partitioning and deleting a partition. When I tryed to reinstall WIn2k, I got this option and thought that I would be able to delete the 1 and only partition on the machine, but it would not let me delete the partion with the NTFS file system ? The only option it gave me was to overWrite it.

jeez, all I want to do is format my harddrive !!

------------------
CIW Site Designer, I-Net+, Network +

Report this post to a moderator

The problem is that you're trying to format c while it's being used by Windows 2000. Make a boot disk, boot off it, then format.

Report this post to a moderator

The other option is boot from the Win98 CD (if you still have it), when the menu comes up do not run Setup.
Let it go to the command prompt, then you can format the drive.

Report this post to a moderator

Hmmm, seems like FDISK is required here...


------------------
cadman

It's not the desire to succeed that insures success,
It's the discipline to prepare yourself for it.

http://www.mcse2000.plus.com

Report this post to a moderator

hi !
first of all, thanks for all the responces !

I put the win98 cd and restarted my machine. Nope ! Windows 2000 started up as usual ?

Then I put a '98 Boot-Up disk and restarted the machine. It then brought me to DOS. I tryed to change directory by typing

in "cd c:" and it responded by saying "invalid drive specification" ?? Then, i typed "format c:" and it said again "bad

command or file name" ????

Am i typing in the right code ?


After that, i made a Win2k Boot up disk and tryed starting the comp with that. It brought me to a recovery agent, which in

it, it was like DOS. I typed in "format c:" and it said it had completed the format, but when I restarted the machine again,

Still, everything was as it was before ???????? NOTHING HAD BEEN FORMATED ???????


Is there any programs I can get that will just do a clean sweep for me ?

Also, "Fdisk" .... I never heard of it ? I tryed typing it anyway while I was in DOS and nothing came up ?


Anymore more ideas ?

------------------
CIW Site Designer, I-Net+, Network +

[This message has been edited by Ando (edited 01-20-2001).]

Report this post to a moderator

In your situation I would install partition magic (PM) and create the boot disks and then use the PM boot disks to convert the partition back to fat.

Then I'd uninstall W2K server from the 2G limited Fat partition and reinstall it in a new partition and I'd consider making that partition NTFS

------------------
MCP A+

Report this post to a moderator

Try this site. Should give you all the information you need. http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto.html
and http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/clean1.html
cheers Grollo.

Report this post to a moderator

WeyHay !!!!!

i was able to format my harddrive finally !!!!

I inserted the win98 cd and boot-up disk and formated it from there. The first time I tryed that I used a boot-up disk I made myself a couple of months ago from DOS by typing "format a: /s". It must of not given support for the CD rom drive !! It worked just now because I used the official 98 boot-up disk that I was given when I got the machine !!


Now the only problem is that I cant seem to get win98 to recognise my graphics card (3dfx 3000) and also my modem ?

I tryed installing them through "add/remove programs" but no luck !!

On the other hand I installed Win2k again and that OS saw the graphics card and modem and installed them automatically !?!?!

Does anyone know how I can install the graphics card and modem. I have the modem drivers on CD but the cd program wont run because the colour depth on my desktop on win98 is to poor, but I cant get the color depth up any further because I cant install the graphics card !!

WHY ME GOD !! LOL


Anyway, thanks for all the help so far and if you got any ideas on how to fix my current problem with win98, plz help !!



------------------
CIW Site Designer, I-Net+, Network +

Report this post to a moderator