re: windows98 won't start
Friday, May 1, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Windows 98 Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Ed
(659 messages posted)
One strategy is to zero-fill the hard disk.
The error you've run up against is typically caused by rogue data on the disk, so
the zero filling process should eliminate the problem data and allow a normal partitioning
to take place.
First, use the command FDISK /STATUS to check that all partition information has
been successfully deleted.
Then use the command FDISK /MBR to wipe the master boot record clean (well, the bit
that it does wipe clean at least).
Then 'zero fill' the disk. This is a process that writes zeros to every sector on
the disk. You get this program from the website of the disk's manufacturer. So if
it's a Seagate disk, go to their website; etc. There are 3rd party programs that
will do this, but the best way is always with the manufacturer's program.
You may need to download a disk utility program that has many functions, one of which
is writing zeros to the drive. It usually isn't a seperate program, so just download
whatever they offer by way of disk tools. The zeroing option should be in there somewhere
when you run the program. You usually need one 3.5 inch floppy disk for this step.
If you're not offered a zero filling option by the program, use any tool that offers
to blank, or fill, or low-level format the disk.
(Yes, I know that it is in fact impossible to low level format a modern disk, but
some manufacturers offer tools that do something similar, to which they like to give
that description.)
Once the zero filling is done (which will take possibly a couple of hours), try again
to partition the disk, then try to format it.
Ed
On Monday, April 27, 2009 at 5:52 pm, pam eisenbarth wrote:
>Hi. A friend gave me a computer running win98, it also had lynix installed on the
>same hard drive. It was running ok, but had a few hardware conflicts, and kept
prompting
>me for the w98 cd. My friend couldn't find hers so I began to look for one on craig's
>list. Meanwhile, her neighbor..the same person who installed lynix on the computer
>asked me if I wanted to upgrade the lynix to obano(?sp?), so i said ok.
> Ever since he did the upgrade when I try to boot windows the computer restarts.
> No error messages or anything. I'm hoping that someone out there has some idea
>what to do, or what's causing this. We actually reformatted the drive (with fdisk
>and format commands) and reinstalled windows and it STILL does it....help....
- Written in response to:
- windows98 won't start (pam eisenbarth: Monday, April 27, 2009 at 5:52 pm)
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