old hdd's

i want to fdisk & format several hard drives ,what is the a: switches for it
thank in advance.
win98se
w.d. & maxtor& fujitsu hdd's

 

Is this what you want to know ?

A>format c: (and press enter)

Select Large disk support at the next prompt.

 

Huh?
Don't you mean:
A:\ fdisk
Select Large disk support.
Option 3, remove partitions
Option 3, then 3 and 2, then 3 and 1, then option 1, yes, yes.
Removes all partitions, removes all active partitions, removes primary partition, resets primary partition, and makes it active.
THEN you would type: format c:

 

Depends on what one reads in the question. That is why I simply told the writer about formatting and asked if that is what he/she meant.

I am not disputing your reply "reboot" which is detailed and correct except if you put a space before "fdisk" you would probably get an error message.

 

You're right about the space
He asked about "fdisk & format several hard drives "...so...

 

Sorry to hyjack this thread but I am a community terrorist hee hee
No seriously thanks for the clear instructions on fdisking proceedure reboot first I've seen in print!..

I wanted to ask how to set partitions I have never done this but could see some advantages.

Could you set out the proceedure for me as if I was going to partition a 20Gb into, one partition for win98 and program files etc as C:/ and another for everything else D:/. Would this be how you would recommend it done? what size partitions are sensible?
thanks in anticipation

 

A 20gig HD can be partitoned any way you want.
Ideally, Windows 98 needs about 2 gig, and you can put everything else on the other drive.
If you want to install all your programs to C, and leave D for just storage and data, then split it 50/50 or less.

In fdisk, I always like to use percentage, no matter the size of drive, so if you want it about 4 gig and 16 gig, you would select 20% and leave the remainder at the default that fdisk says.
This works better with drives that exceed the basic DOS limitation of 32 gig. Fdisk will misreport the drive size, so you MUST use percentages to get it partitioned correctly.

In your case, enter fdisk, hit Enter (Yes to large disk support), option 3 (remove partitions), 3 (remove logical), ESC, option 3 again, then 2 (remove secondary), ESC, option 3 again, then 1 (remove primary), then option 1 (create), then N (do NOT use the whole disk as one partition.
You'll then be prompted to put in the size of the first (C) partition.
Type this: 20% {Enter}.
You will next be prompted for what to do with the remainder, just keep hitting Enter and after all the stupid disk checks it does, you'll be prompted to hit ESC to exit fdisk.
Restart the computer now, to allow the system to see the new MBR with the partition info, and then you can manually format C and D, or just boot to the Win98 CD, and let it do the work.

 

That's brilliant reboot thank you
makes a change to see a complete answer where nothing is left out and the advisor don't assume the enquirer knows how to do it.
If there were stars awarded here for helpfulness you would get 5/5 from me

 

A couple of good articles on the subject.

Install Win 98 On Comp with no OS: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;221829

Reformat & Partition: http://www.everythingcomputers.com/reformat.htm