Trying To Reformat Old Computer

[webgyrl]

Hi all,

 

Not sure if this is a hardware or software issue.

 

Some time ago I got a new system... it's great!

 

I want to give away my old system to my boyfriends Mom and I have wiped the drives on that system using Paragon Disc Wiper.

 

Today I am trying to re-install and OEM Windows 98SE and upgrade it to XP.

 

I put the boot disc in that I got with the Gateway package (it's an old Gateway) and I ran it OK and then it told me to take out the disc and make sure there was nothing in the CD Rom before it proceeded to re-boot. Well it rebooted and gave some funny blank screen and couldn't do any more. It was looking for some Command Line or somesuch thing.

 

So I powered down and put back in the Boot disc and tried to go from step one, thinkig that I must have done something wrong.

 

Well now each time I put the boot disc in and it goes through the attempt at re-format I get this error message:

Not Ready

Runtime error 152 at 0000:65f6

A:\>y

Bad Command or Filename

A:\>

 

 

So I'm stuck. I looked up this error on Google and couldn't find anything.

 

Any idea how I can re-format the drive and get the OS working?

 

Thanks so much!

 

Nat

Edited December 3, 2007 by webgyrl

[webgyrl]

OK, I just tried, for the heck of it to boot from the hard disc, and take the System Restoration CD out.

 

I got this:

Type the name of the Command Interpreter (e.g. C\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM

C>

 

So I typed in:

command.com

 

And it gave me this line again:

Type the name of the Command Interpreter (e.g. C\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM

C>

 

I'll keep trying things and posting them here as I do them in hopes I can shed light on what I'm obviously doing wrong! LOL

[webgyrl]

OK went back to booting from the System Restoration Disc.

 

It keeps saying that my drive is not formatted and would I like to format my hard drive now.

 

I'm thinking logically, yes, of course I must have the drive formatted to continue. Is this a correct assumption?

 

The options it gives me are:

 

If Yes, press F1 to continue.

 

If No, press f10 to Exit to MS-DOS Prompt.

 

Now I've been the F1 route before, and it's not working. So I'm going to try the F10 option and see what it does....

 

Will post back w/ update.

[webgyrl]

LOL

 

Well that just takes me to a black screen that says:

 

Gateway System Restoration CD

copyright info

 

A:\>

 

So obviously, F10 isn't the way to go.

 

So now I'll power down and try the F1 option again, see if i get lucky!

Edited December 3, 2007 by webgyrl

[webgyrl]

Hmmmm, no luck.

 

I keep getting "Not Ready".

 

Why isn't it ready? LOL Am I not speaking to it nicely enough?

[TCH-Thomas]

Nat,

 

See if this page helps in some way: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316941

 

- Thomas (who crosses fingers he didn´t link to the swedish version)

[webgyrl]

Hi Thomas!

 

It was English! Thanks. I appreciate so much you helping out

 

That is the first page I read this morning. I'm going from an old Windows 98 CD that came with Gateway and they say to start off with the system restore disc. When I pop in the Windows 98 Operating System Backup Disc the following happens:

 

I boot from the CD ROM

It says starting Windows 98

Start Windows 98 Setup from CD ROM

 

Then it says:

It is suggested that you begin the installation of Windows 98 from using the Gateway System Restoration CD. This will ensure that all the appropriate drivers are loaded.

 

Are you sure you want to begin installing Windows 98 using this CD [Y,N]?

 

I pressed Y

 

Got this message:

 

An error occurred while reading or writing to drive C

Try the operation again

Fail the operation

 

So I chose to fail the operation.

 

I'm thinking I might take the Paragon disc again and re-wipe. Then try this whole thing again. For some reason something is wrong with C it seems. No idea what tho. An error is being detected, but it doesn't say what error.

 

Strange!

[webgyrl]

OK re-wiping with Paragon, then will start w/ System Restoration disc and do this again. This time with success, I hope! It will take an hour and a half to properly wipe the drive (it uses some US Navy standard to do it w/ multiple passes).

 

Will post back later on.

Edited December 3, 2007 by webgyrl

[Madmanmcp]

How did you make out? It sounds like the software you used to wipe the drive removed partitioning and the CD you used didn't repartition before formating. You will need to use FDISK to repartiton the drive before formatting.

[webgyrl]

eek! I think you are right. How does FDISK work?

I found this page:

>h**p://www.computerhope.com/fdiskhlp.htm

 

But not sure what command to use and where do I do that?

 

I basically stopped after re-wiping the drive yesterday. I will try to tackle it again today or tomorrow.

 

Thanks Madmanmcp! You always seem to save me from my computer! LOL

[webgyrl]

OK I just found this:

 

>h**p://support.microsoft.com/kb/255867

 

Will try it today.

 

Thanks for telling me about fdisk! NEVER would have known that! LOL

[Madmanmcp]

The MS page you posted is a generic explanation on what you need to do, it describes the commands and general steps. What it doesn't do is give you the exact step-by-steps you need to accomplish the repartioning and formating of your hard drive.

 

I am not sure what you have to work with over there so I'll try and tell you the basics. FDISK and FORMAT are DOS commands and you need to boot your computer from a BOOT disk which also contains these commands and then execute the commands. Back in the Win98 days this was either a CD or a floppy or a combination of both. If you only have the CD you need to look at the files on it and see it has the fdisk and format files on it. If so you need to boot to the DOS prompt and type FDISK first to create the partition and then see if the CR will format and restore. You can use the instructions from MS on how to create your partition.

 

If you have a floppy disk run the commands from it.

[webgyrl]

Hi Madmanmcp!

 

What I have are the System Restoration CD from Gateway and the OS Backup.

 

Will these help me at all?

 

On the disc it says:

Contains:

Partial Backup of system software

Hardware drivers

Windows 2000, Windows 98 or Windows 95 restoration program

NT4.0 Driver Locator Utility

 

When I look at the disc in my other computer I do see that in the DOS folder there is FDISK.exe. I will have to figure out how to get to DOS to run FDISK.exe

 

Do I have to type in RUN FDISK.exe or just FDISK

 

I hope to tackle this today sometime, at least some time this week.

 

Thanks for the massive clues!

[TCH-Andy]

Just fdisk

 

It should then run and you can partition the disk.

[Madmanmcp]

When I look at the disc in my other computer I do see that in the DOS folder there is FDISK.exe. I will have to figure out how to get to DOS to run FDISK.exe

 

When you boot the CD and you are at the DOS prompt you will need to move to the folder. To do this type "CD DOS" then you can type FDISK. CD stands for Change Directory and is an internal DOS command.

[webgyrl]

Hi Guys!

 

I'm going to have a crack at this hopefully on the weekend. Will let you know how I make out. Thank you SO much for the help!

 

[webgyrl]

Ok back at this beast again.

 

Went thru the install CD, the drive is stepped through a format and it asked me if I wanted to install Windows, to which I said YES. Everything was fine until it told me to take out the System Restore CD ROM and the computer restarted. The process screens specifically told me to take out the CD ROM and that it would reboot and continue with the installation of the OS.

 

So I did that, and now I'm back at this silly line:

Type the name of the Command Interpreter (e.g. C\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)

C>

 

OK so then I typed in

c> cd dos

and it said

Type the name of the Command Interpreter (e.g. C\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)

C>

 

So then I typed in

c> fdisk

 

And it spits this out

Type the name of the Command Interpreter (e.g. C\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)

C>

 

It's just not budging.

 

So what should I attempt to do next?

[Madmanmcp]

Did you run fdisk and partition a C drive and make it the primary bootable partition first?

[webgyrl]

Did you run fdisk and partition a C drive and make it the primary bootable partition first?

 

Madmanmcp:

 

No, I put the System Restoration Disk into the CD ROM.

 

I was not sure how to get to DOS from that disk. How do I do that?

 

When I put the System Restoration Disk in it asks me if I want to boot from the CD ROM or the Hard Drive. I choose CD ROM and it sends me through a bunch of pre-programmed screens.

 

In one of the screens it does say that my hard drive is not formatted and would I like to do that.... i press F1 to continue w/ format.

 

Then it ran through the format.

 

 

We are here doing the process again, and when it goes to format the drive, it freezes and gives some not ready message.

 

Thanks for the help!

Edited December 30, 2007 by webgyrl

[webgyrl]

LOL OK this is really confusing.... setting the partitions. I'm just clueless here.

 

I finally got to FDISK. Did it.... set the partition (I suppose).

 

Now it's saying the FDISK screen again.

 

So I've ESC out of there. As it said I needed to restart.

 

It just takes me to A:\ when I ESC out of FDISK.

 

Now I'm restarting the system to see what will happen.

Edited December 30, 2007 by webgyrl

[Madmanmcp]

Now that you have set the partition, boot with the CD and format the drive and then install Windows. Hopefully when you boot with the CD it will do it for you, it should format the C: drive and then install.

[webgyrl]

Bob- Do I boot with the System Restoration CD or the Operating System Backup CD?

 

Thanks!

[Madmanmcp]

System Restore

[webgyrl]

OK doing that now...

 

fingers crossed!

[webgyrl]

OK... put system restore disk in, went thru the screen to allow the format and when I pressed Y for format

 

not ready

runtime error 152 at 0000;65F6.

a:\>y

 

must have done something else wrong.

 

[webgyrl]

I have to admit, the FDISK was very confusing. Maybe I went wrong somewhere?

 

When I displayed the Partition information I saw the following:

 

PARTITION STATUS TYPE MBYTES SYSTEM USEAGE

C: 1 A PRIDOS 9758 FAT16 100%

2 EXTDOS 1741 18%

 

Total Disk space is 9766 Mbytes

 

The extended DOS partition contains Logical DOS Drives

 

 

Then on another screen it said E: Total extended DOS Partition size is 1741

 

Does that help or make any sense?

 

The computer is shut down for now until I can figure out what to do. Running the System Restoration DISK is getting me to the same place every time now...

not ready

runtime error 152 at 0000;65F6.

a:\>y

Edited December 30, 2007 by webgyrl

[Madmanmcp]

Ok, you probably missed something in fdisk and will need to be redone.

 

go to this site and read the "FDISK & FORMAT" section.

 

h_tp://forums.cnet.com/5208-6121_102-0.html?forumID=45&threadID=25861&messageID=290112

[webgyrl]

Bob-

 

GREAT info!

 

OK I am now at the part where it gives me 3 choices:

Delete and reinstall Windows

Format Hard Drive and Install Windows (we just reformated the drive using the System Restore CD)

Install Windows

Go Back to Main Menu

 

We will Install Windows now.

 

PS we are still using the System Restoration Disk at this point. There is no mention of having to switch to the Operating System Backup CD.

Edited December 30, 2007 by webgyrl

[Madmanmcp]

Sounds like you're making headway. Crossing my fingers. I work early so will be heading bed (unless I stay up and watch the Pats). But I'll be back on early.

[webgyrl]

OK it says please remove the CD, that it is important there is no CD ROM in the drive.

 

After continuing the system will reboot and proceed with the installation.

 

Press F1 to continue and Restart...

 

Rebooting...

[webgyrl]

OK cool! It asked for the OS CD... this is the farthest we've gotten!

 

THANK YOU for your help!

[webgyrl]

All systems a GO!

 

Now gotta upgrade the system to XP!

[JTD]

If you are installing XP onto an old machine that had 98 on it i hope you have at least a 10 gig hard drive or bigger. My laptop has the bare bones programs installed. With a 40 gig hard drive and i am using just over 10 gig. If you do not have at least a 20 gig I would not bother with XP because you will not be able to install all the updates or service packs.

[JTD]

BUMP

 

So please tell us if you where successful or not.

[webgyrl]

I was sort of successful, but I can't get the internet connection to work. I remember last time I did the upgrade to XP with this system the net connection did not work. I went back to those old notes, and still no luck. The Ethernet card shows, but I just can't connect to the net and I can't do the validation for XP.

 

I am going to wipe it and go to 98 again and see if I can get the connection to work on the 98 OS.

 

The connection was working w/ XP on the system before I wiped and reformatted, so I know it can work.

 

Will post back again when I've figured it out.

[TCH-Bruce]

You have way more patience than I do. If I couldn't have got it working in 3 days it would have been trashed and replaced with a new machine. Or taken it to someone that could do it for me. A month and you are still trying.

[webgyrl]

You have way more patience than I do. If I couldn't have got it working in 3 days it would have been trashed and replaced with a new machine. Or taken it to someone that could do it for me. A month and you are still trying.

 

LOL well I've had moments when I wanted to throw it out the dam window... but my boyfriend's dad is trying to take some beginner computer classes and he really needs the machine. So I shall keep trying!

[Madmanmcp]

I am going to wipe it and go to 98 again and see if I can get the connection to work on the 98 OS.

 

Wow, don't go backwards now, you may never get back

 

Lets work with what you got, maybe with some more suggestions we can get you running again.

 

Give us a little information, what you did, what errors do you get and we'll hang in there with you a tad longer.

[webgyrl]

Bob-

 

LOL! I have it powered down and stored for a bit. I will let you know as soon as I can get it back in the room and we have another stab at it!

 

I can't remember the message offhand.

[JTD]

When I reinstalled XP on my laptop after putting vista on it to see if i liked vista. I had the same problem. Do you by chance have any of the driver install disks? That is what I had to do with mine. All the stuff showed but would not work with out the drivers.