Need a FAT32 hdd back to FAT16

I'm reinstalling the original W95 on an old laptop. The hdd has been fdisk'd and formatted with fat32.

Using an original w95 bootup disk, fdisk sees c drive as a non-dos drive; and does NOT see any logical drives in the extended partition... there are 3 log. drives.

What do I need to do in order to use the original w95 format and fdisk?

Thanks!

 

Use a Win98 bootdisk. Install 95. It will work, just leave it FAT32.

 

Set me straight if I'm wrong.........that will work if he has Win95 OSR2 version, but not if he has original 95 version, correct? Or does using the 98 startup disc work around that? Thanks.

 

TJ-IT Raises a good question.

BillyBob

 

If you were to use a 98 boot disk, run fdisk, type a Y for large disk support when it starts, then delete the partitions. Then you could exit fdisk, and boot with the 95 boot disk and partition it.
Alternately you could use the 98 fdisk, but you need to type a N where it asks to enable large disk support, this gets you FAT16, compatible to 95a
Click here for a file that will create a 98 disk.
Another way is use Delpart to delete the partitions, just copy it onto the 95 floppy, 62 kb, it may fit.

 

Thanks to all of you!!!!

After posting my question and getting off my computer, it came to me that since I was only dealing with a 6gb hdd, all I would need do (since I have more time than $$) is to boot up with W98se BUD, fdisk with only 500mb partitions, format them (not sure if I really needed to do that)... then boot up with the W95a BUD and sure enuf, it saw every partition, which I then re-fdisk'd into 1 primary and 3 logicals = using 2047mb in each and around 1600+ mb in the last one.

Wow, seeing 32k+ in each allocation unit sure does waste space, huh.

I cannot get the internal modem and the soundcard to work; the owner says that they worked before his fooling around with NT and W98se... and he couldn't get them working again.

A CD with all the drivers came with the laptop, and it is when I start using these drivers that problems happen.

After setting the BIOS for the sound hardware config; and installing W95a... the BIOS does NOT hold the settings. Even changing them to what they s/b and then installing the drivers changes the BIOS again.

Each time I tried modifying the I/O's, IRQ, etc., as per the info from Toshiba's website, "hangs" happened and it messed up the display.

Maybe the BIOS is fried??

Anyone have any ideas??

 

Replace the battery on the motherboard, looks like a large watch battery.

 

Thanks Markp62

Thanks for your suggestion. I really appreciate your help.

Fooling around with it tonight, and reading about the RTC battery on Toshiba's website, an article suggested ways to check various things when there are problems rebooting and instability.

One of those suggestions was to remove any extra hardware including any extra RAM. So I carefully removed the extra RAM and it was the fastest startup I've ever seen!

There isn't any OS right now on the hdd, so used a BUD and got very quickly to the a:>. It almost acts like a different machine. When I put the extra memory back, then I got the blank startup screens, hangs and instability.

So will be talking to the owner about getting new memory and while they're in there, might as well put a new battery
in too.

After that is done, and I try a OS reinstall, will be back to let you know what is happening.

Thanks! again for all your help

 

The RAM may not be actually bad. ( but still bad as far as the machine goes )

It may well not be matched properly to the original. ( this is important in any machine )

Or of the wrong type.

BillyBob

 

Success!

Hi all,

Well, after getting new 128mb RAM and leaving the laptop on for almost two days to recharge the RTC battery, I re-fdisked and formated into four drives with F32, installed 98se... and just before the last boot into the desktop, went into Safe Mode and disabled the sound drivers.

It booted up just fine and works great!!

98se correctly installed all the drivers too!

All the programs the owner wants are installed; and I've even made a ghost image of C drive. I used a LPT cable and ghosted to my tower. (Took over an hour )

Now to burn it to a CD and make a boot floppy so it can be used to restore if needed.

I really appreciate all your help, markp62, Christer, BillyBob, reboot, and TJ-IT You made a frustrating job MUCH easier!

roxe

 

Congrats Roxe !

Thanks for posting back. Nice Job

 

Thanks for the good news.

BillyBob