Reformat Hard Drive

[NJLOAD]

I have a spare Hard Drive and I think it is formated for NTFS. I want to put it in a machine running Win98 how do I reformat it so I can install Win98 on it. As of now I can't get a boot disk to even do an install or format.


Thanks
Dave

 

[AlexMc]

You need to remove the NTFS partition and create a new FAT or FAT32 partition and then format it. To do this go into your command prompt and run fdisk. You should be able to remove the NTFS partition by selecting delete Non-DOS partition. Be careful not to delete the partition on the wrong drive or you will nuke the wrong drive. Option 5 in fdisk allows you to change which physical disk you are working on. If you need help using fdisk post a reply to this thread and I'll give you step by step instructions. If fdisk doesn't get rid of the partition I have a debug script that will. Be careful, if you do something wrong in fdisk you may lose everything.

 

[Aleks]

if you have a windows98 boot floppy it probably cant mount ntfs, but it should have fdisk.exe on it, run that, delete the partition, create a new one, reboot, now you should be able to format.
then install ur os!

 

[4824guy]

The Micrososft web site also has the instructions on how to remove and delete the NTFS system off a HD. There are a few steps to it, so I suggest you print them out ahead of time.

 

[tlemmon]

I never had any luck getting Fdisk to remove an NTFS partition... Always had to use Debug.exe and write a program to wipe out the 1st sector of the hdd... .
We used to call it a "soft low level format" when I worked with NEC.
Wanna know how? Let me know. It can wipe out a second HDD without hurting the first.


-t