cannot reformat windows 98se

Hi

I recently tried to upgrade my Packard Bell Club 98 (P3) to windows xp - it crashed and I reverted back to windows 98. I then wanted to reformat my hard drive (I have 3 master cds and a recovery floppy which I have used in the past). Whichever one I try to run, I get the message "Not a valid computer ".
I know I could format from DOS with fdisk, but I cannot use any of my master cd's - it is like the computer does not know it is a packard bell anymore.

Can anyone help my computer to remember?

Regards

Robin

 

Hi Robin

Just a suggestion, if you have the manual, there is a jumper on the main board that resets what is known as "Navram" . That forces the computer to use settings in the Rom chip. Usually, you just move the jumper for about 10 or 15 seconds, then move it back....check your maual to be certain of the procedure.......

The reason is, Microsoft started insisting that restore CD's check for an ID string in bios to prevent casual copying ....I maybe wrong, but me thinks that string somehow got corrupted...

Let us know if it works...

Cheers
Jake

 

And if that good advice doesn't work, download delpart:
http://www.juliatexas.com/delpart/delpart.exe

Copy it to a Win98 startup floppy. Run:
delpart
from the prompt after booting from the floppy and remove all partitions, even the stubborn ones.

Then, run fdisk and create a new, primary DOS partition. Reboot to the floppy again and run:
format C:

 

Thanks for all your advice guys, I will try to get some time in the next couple of days to try out your advice. I am a little nervous about creating new FAT32 partitions. The XP disc I used was an upgrade disc and I think it asked me if I wanted to keep FAT32 partitions and I answered yes.
If I check the properties of my C drive now - it states File system FAT32.

Thanks again

Robin