After I reformatted problem...

[cazza]

I am praying someone can help me here.
I followed instructions on how to reformat a computer I was given for my son.
Was told it was easy...NOT.
I did everything in the right order and now the computer screen has this message on a
black screen and I have no idea what to do next.

C:\>(wee flashing line)

The guy who gave me the instructions said he doesn't have a clue as to why it's
doing that.

He told me to type D:\setup....but all I get is the message saying Bad command or file name.

I have the Windows 98 cd and a boot up disk he gave me.

What do I type at the wee flashing line?
Do I leave the boot up disk and cd in the computer?

Have I ruined the computer completely?

Any ideas would be wonderful.

I'm sorry for sounding so dumb...prob should have left this to the
professionals but was told it was an easy job.

Thank you
Cazza

[GX1_Man]

If you have a real Windows start up diskette, you first need to make sure that the floppy drive is set to boot prior to the hard drive. THis is set in the BIOS. Most machines are like this, but we need to make sure yours is.

What is the computer make and model? Ususally there is a message onscreen during boot up to indicate what keys need to be pressed to get into the BIOS.

Once this is done the floppy will indicate several messages, one of which will be the designation of the CDROM. Please post all of the start up messages.

If you have a real boot disk and everything is set up correctly, the final message on the screen should be an A:>

[cazza]

If you have a real Windows start up diskette, you first need to make sure that the floppy drive is set to boot prior to the hard drive. THis is set in the BIOS. Most machines are like this, but we need to make sure yours is.

What is the computer make and model? Ususally there is a message onscreen during boot up to indicate what keys need to be pressed to get into the BIOS.

Once this is done the floppy will indicate several messages, one of which will be the designation of the CDROM. Please post all of the start up messages.

If you have a real boot disk and everything is set up correctly, the final message on the screen should be an A:>

Thank you so much for your help.

I rebooted the computer with the floppy disk in and now the screen reads:

Preparing to start your computer.
This may take a few minutes. Please wait....

The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive D.

To get help, type HELP  and press ENTER.

A:\>


The computer is a HP Pavilion and according to the back it says model # 6470Z

The boot up disk was made by the previous owner on the computer I'm told just a few days ago.

When it was loading up I noticed it said virtual disk D.....does this help???

Hope you can help me.

Thank you so much.

Cazza

[street1 (RIP)]

When it gets to that point A:\ then type E:\ Press enter
 then type setup and Press enter.

It probably moved your cdrom drive ahead one letter
when it used the D:\for you virtual drive.

[cazza]

When it gets to that point A:\ then type E:\ Press enter
 then type setup and Press enter.

It probably moved your cdrom drive ahead one letter
when it used the D:\for you virtual drive.

Hi...I tried typing E:\ then pressed enter and got this message

Invalid drive specification

any other ideas?

Thank you

Cazza

[street1 (RIP)]

When you booted with your Floppy disk and came to the A:\ Prompt did you
do fdisk and format?

Also,I don't know which drive was assigned for your CDROM.You make need
to Type E:  Then F: Then G: so on in alphabetical order to find which letter was
assigned to your CDROM.

When you booted with the floppy disk did it give you an option to boot with CD support and you chose YES?

Place your boot floppy into the drive and reboot your computer.
( choose: Start Computer with CD-ROM support if prompted )

      You should wind up at the A:\> MS-DOS prompt. Again, make absolutely, positively sure that you can access your CD-ROM at this point by typing DIR E: ( or whatever drive letter your CD-ROM drive has ), and and pressing ENTER. If you can now see a list of files on the CD you know it works.

At the A:\> prompt, type FDISK and press ENTER.
      You will see a very long message, telling you that "Your computer has a disk larger than 512 MB", and asking if you wish to enable large disk support. ( "Large disk support" means "FAT32" ) Answer Y to enable large disk support.

You will see the main FDISK Options menu, and the Enter choice: prompt.
      It will tell you Current fixed disk drive: 1 in other words, unless you tell it otherwise, it's going to operate on disk 1, the first disk it's found on the system. Since there's only one hard drive on your system ( Make sure this is true ), this is what you want to do.

You want to start out by deleting the existing partition from the disk.
      To do that, type in 3 the Delete partition or Logical DOS drive option and press ENTER.
A menu will appear, asking you what sort of partition to delete. Enter 1 Delete Primary DOS partition and press ENTER.
      A list of partitions will appear; there will probably only be one partition there. It will ask you what primary partition to delete; choose 1 the only one listed, and press ENTER.
      To make absolutely sure that you know what you're doing, it may prompt you to type in the volume label for the partition, which will be listed in the partition list. If the Volume Label column is blank, then the volume label is blank too, so just press ENTER.
It will tell you Partition deleted, or words to that effect, and send you back to the main menu.

Now you want to create a new partition.
To do that, choose option 1 Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive and press ENTER.
It will prompt you for what sort of partition to create; choose option 1 Create Primary DOS partition and press ENTER.
It will prompt you Do you wish to use the maximum available size for a Primary DOS partition and make the partition active (Y/N)?  Y

[cazza]

When you booted with you Floppy disk and came to the A:\ Prompt did you
do fdisk and format?

Hi

No I wasn't told I needed to do that.

It was reformatted yesterday and today I rebooted it with the floppy in computer and the screen is sitting with the A:\>

Should I type that in?

What will happen and should the floppy still be in the drive?

What about the win98 cd???

Sorry I  really am not computer savvy.....

Thank you

Cazza

[cazza]

When you booted with your Floppy disk and came to the A:\ Prompt did you
do fdisk and format?

Also,I don't know which drive was assigned for your CDROM.You make need
to Type E:  Then F: Then G: so on in alphabetical order to find which letter was
assigned to your CDROM.

When you booted with the floppy disk did it give you an option to boot with CD support and you chose YES?

No was told to choose option without cd support think it was option 2.......

[street1 (RIP)]

When you booted with your Floppy disk and came to the A:\ Prompt did you
do fdisk and format?

Also,I don't know which drive was assigned for your CDROM.You make need
to Type E:  Then F: Then G: so on in alphabetical order to find which letter was
assigned to your CDROM.

When you booted with the floppy disk did it give you an option to boot with CD support and you chose YES?

No was told to choose option without cd support think it was option 2.......

That was wrong you choose yes for cdrom support.Reboot with both the floppy disk and cd in and choose yes for cdrom support when you are prompted.

[cazza]

When you booted with your Floppy disk and came to the A:\ Prompt did you
do fdisk and format?

Also,I don't know which drive was assigned for your CDROM.You make need
to Type E:  Then F: Then G: so on in alphabetical order to find which letter was
assigned to your CDROM.

When you booted with the floppy disk did it give you an option to boot with CD support and you chose YES?

Place your boot floppy into the drive and reboot your computer.
( choose: Start Computer with CD-ROM support if prompted )

      You should wind up at the A:\> MS-DOS prompt. Again, make absolutely, positively sure that you can access your CD-ROM at this point by typing DIR E: ( or whatever drive letter your CD-ROM drive has ), and and pressing ENTER. If you can now see a list of files on the CD you know it works.

At the A:\> prompt, type FDISK and press ENTER.
      You will see a very long message, telling you that "Your computer has a disk larger than 512 MB", and asking if you wish to enable large disk support. ( "Large disk support" means "FAT32" ) Answer Y to enable large disk support.

You will see the main FDISK Options menu, and the Enter choice: prompt.
      It will tell you Current fixed disk drive: 1 in other words, unless you tell it otherwise, it's going to operate on disk 1, the first disk it's found on the system. Since there's only one hard drive on your system ( Make sure this is true ), this is what you want to do.

You want to start out by deleting the existing partition from the disk.
      To do that, type in 3 the Delete partition or Logical DOS drive option and press ENTER.
A menu will appear, asking you what sort of partition to delete. Enter 1 Delete Primary DOS partition and press ENTER.
      A list of partitions will appear; there will probably only be one partition there. It will ask you what primary partition to delete; choose 1 the only one listed, and press ENTER.
      To make absolutely sure that you know what you're doing, it may prompt you to type in the volume label for the partition, which will be listed in the partition list. If the Volume Label column is blank, then the volume label is blank too, so just press ENTER.
It will tell you Partition deleted, or words to that effect, and send you back to the main menu.

Now you want to create a new partition.
To do that, choose option 1 Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive and press ENTER.
It will prompt you for what sort of partition to create; choose option 1 Create Primary DOS partition and press ENTER.
It will prompt you Do you wish to use the maximum available size for a Primary DOS partition and make the partition active (Y/N)?  Y

Thank you so much....looks scary to do all that but I will go try it now and choose the option to have cd support....now....after the last line above what should be happening??

Thank you

[street1 (RIP)]

It should be counting up 100% of your hard drive that it will be using as
your primary partition and making it active.

Then you will boot with your computer again until you get back to the A:\ prompt and type     Format C:

After your format gets to 100% and stops you will then press enter.

Now, Believe it or not you will then reboot your computer choose
Cdrom support again and this time when you get to the A:\ prompt

Type E:
Press Enter

Then Type:          SETUP

[cazza]

It should be counting up 100% of your hard drive that it will be using as
your primary partition and making it active.

Then you will boot with your computer again until you get back to the A:\ prompt and type     Format C:

Ok it says

you MUST restart your system for your changes to take effect.
Any drives you have created or changed must be formatted AFTER you restart.

Shut down windows before restarting.

Press ESC to exit FDISK

what now??

thx

[cazza]

It should be counting up 100% of your hard drive that it will be using as
your primary partition and making it active.

Then you will boot with your computer again until you get back to the A:\ prompt and type     Format C:

Leaving the floppy and cd in?

[street1 (RIP)]

Look back at reply #10  LOL, We are running into each other.

[cazza]

It should be counting up 100% of your hard drive that it will be using as
your primary partition and making it active.

Then you will boot with your computer again until you get back to the A:\ prompt and type     Format C:

After your format gets to 100% and stops you will then press enter.

Now, Believe it or not you will then reboot your computer choose
Cdrom support again and this time when you get to the A:\ prompt

Type E:
Press Enter

Then Type:          SETUP

Sorry im a dope.

Ok I rebooted and am at A:\>
I typed in FORMAT C  and it says
Parameter format not correct - C

What did I do wrong this time?
I left the floppy and cd in was that correct?