How Do I format?

[Techno-stupido]

I bought a Packard Bell two years ago. It has a Houston mother board. Aprox. nine months ago the orgin 15 gig hd started to fail. That 15 gig has a tattoo on it.

I bought and am currently running a Western Dig. 100 gig that probably was not set up right to begin with. It has the tattoo on that as well. This tattoo, only seams to want to let you run Packard Bell software on the HD.

My question is. I received Win98 full, and want to run a format on both Hd's (the orgin 15 (works for the moment) and the new 100 gig) and load the windows 98. Ultimately, I want to start with a clean slate, and really know nothing about what I am doing. I am looking for detailed instructions on how to clean out the drives and put a good program on them. Thank you in advance to anyone who helps. Jackie

[ben-the-slacker]

Welcome to TechIMO!

Make a 98 boot disk and pop it in on startup. Type "format c:" without quotes. You're about to delete the computer's info, are you sure?-Yes. It'll then format it for you.
After you finish reformatting, put the 98 cd into your cdrom and reboot your computer.
Boot Computer from CDROM.
The 98cd will spin up and guide you through the installation.

[Techno-stupido]

I did that last night, it came back with a bad something or other (sorry I should have written it down)

[Techno-stupido]

It comes back saying bad command or file name. Sorry, I am just at my wits end

[NeoStarO1]

when you get that error message can you type in exactlly what you typed here.

Also make sure your boot disk has the format and fdisk files on it.
if not sure, can make a new bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com

[originel]

ok when you run the command make sure you are at the a: prompt because the commands aren't globalized, you can only run them from the directory they are in (i.e. the floppy drive).

[stroyal]

I don't know if you can boot to the CD with win98

The way i have always done it is
Boot to the win 98 boot disk and asuming you already formated C: Just type setup at the A: prompt. The cd should be in the drive

[ben-the-slacker]

Make a 98 boot disk.
Shut down computer.
Put in floppy.
Turn computer on.
It should start the computer via the floppy disk if you have your boot sequence set for A: first and then C:. I usually have the boot sequence as D:, A:, C:. To check your boot sequence, go into your BIOS (hit delete key upon bootup.)
Reformat computer according to above instructions.

If your bios only allows 2 boot devices, set as A:, then C:. After you reformat, it'll boot thru the disk and ask if you want to boot with CDROM support. Hit yes.

At A: prompt, type D:
It should now have switched to your cdrom drive.
At D:, type "setup".

Win98 installation should start.
Good luck.