Drive A won't let me FDisk

Hi,,,
I have inherited an older NEC Computer with Windows 95 on it....I am trying to FDisk it but the Floppy won't read my startup disk.

So........... I tried to install Windows 98SE over the Windows 95 and it will take me so far and then tell me I can't do it.....Is there a sure fire way to zap the HD and get down to Zero so I can Fdisk and install Windows 98SE on this Computer?????

 

If you have a cd burner you can burn a boot cd with the contents of a 98 boot floppy on it and it will work just fine. I have one to work on the computers comming out now without floppy drives.

 

Steve R. Jones,,,,First thing I did when I got it was blow out the cobwebs.....however when I try to boot up with the Floppy the system just shoots past it like it isn't there....
When I try to explore the floppy I get this message....A:\is not accessible

The device is not ready

Retry Cancel
........................................................................................................
Sparrow...Great idea,,,Thanks....I made a CD like you said now I will try it....I will post back shortly.....

 

Sparrow,,,
I put the CD in and explored it,,,,, clicked on FDisk and it took me as far as trying to delete primary partition.....I almost got going then I got this message..........could not change partition, because disk could not be locked..

Now I am really confused

any Ideas?????

 

When you burn the cd you have to make it a bootable disk. Then, boot from the cd. From there you just do as you would when fdisking using a floppy disk. Same routine.

 

Zander's correct. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. "burn a boot cd "

 

Thanks Zander and Sparrow for the clarification,,,,
I know it sounds ignorant but I have never made a bootable CD...Do I make it from the Windows 98SE...If you could tell me what to look for so I do this correctly I would be grateful.....

 

When you burn a bootable cd you use a bootable floppy disk such as a win98 boot floppy. The way you do it depends on your software. Search the help file in your burner software for bootable cd or something along those lines.

However, if you have a windows 98 cd you should be able to boot from that and run fdisk from that.

 

I should add that you can't just copy the files from the floppy to the cd and expect it to be bootable. You need to do it the way the help file states. If you have problems, post back and let us know what kind of burning software you're using.

 

Has anybody checked to BIOS to make sure the machine is set to boot from the floppy first ?

I could be wrong but. if as you say it zips right by the floppy as if it was not there reads like a possible BIOS setting to me.

Have you checked the cables. Both data and power ?

BillyBob

 

My Roxio Easy CD Creator software has an option "burn a bootable CD" and I just need to click it and it asks for a floppy and copies the floppy to a file called bootimg.bin which it saves for future use as well as writes it to the cd to make it bootable. Then I can drag and drop any other utilities to the CD also. When the CD is placed in the drive and the computer booted, I have a logical a: drive (the bootimg.bin part) and a CD drive (h: for example) containing the other files on the CD. Sounds complicated but really is simple and very useful.

I use a CD with my modified boot disk image (customized, since I have a SCSI drive in addition to several IDEs) and another with a Ghost boot floppy image. I add a DOS antivirus program and other DOS utilities I find useful, such as qfiler and list.

 

Zander..You are right ..I did just copy the files from a bootable floppy with Record now and that is how I ended up with the message...could not change partition, because disk could not be locked...

I have Record Now on one computer that has XP Home Edition,,,

I do have a Creative Sound Card in the other one with Windows 98SE installed

Neither computer has any help section that lists ...make a bootable CD or lists anything I can read that is maybe for that purpose....

BillyBob...How do I check the BIOS to see if the bootable floppy is somehow disabled??
Do I go into F1 Setup??

Can I pop in my windows 98SE CD and find and use FDisk from here??

 

OK.........
Now I am thoroughly confused and hung out to dry......

I have no idea how to make a bootable CD with the equipment I have so I can Fdisk this other NEC computer with Windows 95 on it....

I do not easily grasp concepts I am totally unfamiliar with without step by step instructions.....

I have learned to Fdisk and do other valuable functions from connecting with others on this network....But this time I was given some info without any help how to get there from here....
The info would be great if I knew how to use it

 

There is usually a message near the bottom of the screen at bootup telling you to use the DELETE get to get into the bios.

The message may say something different but I believe there should be one there.

You may need ti watch carefully and react quickly. I know mine FILES by.

I have no idea about the F1 setup. That may be it on your machine.

BillyBob

 

I don't have RecordNow so I can't really help you with it. I did find instructions on how make a bootable cd though. This page is from Sonic's knowledge base. It should be accurate.

How to create a boot disc using RecordNow.

 

Each computer manufacturer sets up his BIOS access differently. Here's a list of the common methods for most computers:
http://www.mustek.com/Support/techdocs/bios.html

Jerry

 

Hi Blakston,

1. You can not do ANYTHING like fdisk or format with the main hard drive from windows. You can only do it from a floppy.

2. You BIOS probably will not allow booting off a CD. It is an old PC (Windows 95 gives you the clue) and CD capability was not available on many PCs that were of the era of Win95.

3. NEC used either F1, F2, F8 or F10 to get into the BIOS Setup. In the BIOS setup, make sure the boot sequence is A, then C.

4. If you still can't get into the setup, then take the drive to another PC and fdisk it.

George

 

Hi...
An update,,,somehow I was able to Fdisk and format with my Windows 98SE install disk...changing my boot from in setup to CDROM then after I was done I changed it back to Hard Disk.
I honestly just followed my instincts and hoped for the best....Everything is running great now ...I Scandisked after loading the OS and a few special programs and I have had no problems since...
Thank you Zander, BillyBob Sparrow et al for the ideas and instructions as well as the valuable links.......

 

Thanks for letting us know. Good luck!