You said:

FIXED DISK DRIVE STATUS DISK: 1, DRV: C: Mbytes: 5734, 5711 FREE 
(nothing listed under the heading "FREE") Usage: 100%

This means that hard disk number 1 is partitioned as one drive which is formatted 
as drive C: and that the disk's size is 5,734 MB (i.e. 6 GB), of which 5,711 MB
(i.e. 100% of the disk space) is assigned to drive C: !

In other words, this is a 6 GB disk, which has only one partition that uses all the 
disk and is called C:

"No space to create DOS partition" is not an error! There is definitely no unused 
space on this disk, so naturally you can't create a second partition on it. When 
you followed my instructions, you successfully created a C: drive that used all the 
disk, as I intended.


I now ask a deadly question. Is this truly a 6 GB disk? (If it isn't, you're in big 
trouble, of course).


There is only one approach that I can think of now. Use FDISK to delete all the partition 
information. If you run FDISK again, you will see that at stage 2 it offers you the 
option to *delete* the existing partition. Do so.

Then 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 you need to '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.


The error you've run up against is probably being 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.

If you're not offered a zero filling option, 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.)


Then (once the zero filling is done, which will take perhaps half an hour) go back 
to my original instructions, and try again: partition the disk, then try to format 
it as drive C:

My tip is that after you have used FDISK to partition it, but BEFORE you format it, 
you run the FDISK /STATUS command again, to check the result of the partitioning. 
Write down the information that this gives you, so that you can post it here if necessary.

Also, run the FDISK program (type FDISK) and check the partitioning information from 
within that program, to make sure that the partitioning stage correctly marked the 
partition as Active (the letter A is displayed against the active partition), because 
you can't install an operating system unless the partition is first set as "active". 
The partitioning step should have done this automatically, but it is best to check. 


Until the FORMAT command has executed, and completed, the C: drive does not exist. 
Any attempt to change directory to C: will fail, and the command DIR C: will also 
fail, since no drive exists until after the formatting process has created it.

Sometimes you have to type the format command as -

FORMAT C: /S

instead of FORMAT C: so try this alternative if the other doesn't work, but if you 
get into this step you will have a slight problem, as it almost certainly means you're 
using the wrong type of bootable floppy disk!


At the end of the day, if you still can't format the disk you might have a faulty 
motherboard. Or you might have the hard disk wrongly connected to the m/board on 
your IDE cables. We will cross that bridge when we come to it!


Ed







On Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 4:27 pm, Linda wrote:

>.....also, down the bottom of the screen is the info: 1 Mbyte =1048576 bytes.

>

>Then there's the "A" prompt and blinking cursor