Previous NTFS to FAT32 HD problem or just bad HD?

[pauljones]

I recently got a 15gig quantum fireball HD from a friend that was previously in the NTFS format. I have never used an NTFS so I just assumed I could use the fdisk delete partition/format method. I had problems with formatting the drive in DOS, but looked on the net and found that I could format the drive through windows 98se. I tried installing win98se on the HD after formatting on another comp in win98. Some files couldn't copy so I had to reformat to reinstall windows again ;\

This time I couldn't even get my C: drive to read, so I did the fdisk > del partition procedure again. This time I can't even format it through DOS. I am not really sure what to do, sometimes when reading the HD makes some louder than normal clicking sounds, making me think it has some bad sectors. Is this because of my originally formatting it to fat32 from NTFS using fdisk, or is it just a bad HD I should chuck out?

 

[pctechmike]

I would try poping it into another computer (With XP or 2K) and formatting it there as Fat32. Then try the FDISK, and then install Windows 98. It is possible that it's a bad drive, but it is my understanding that DOS has a time with NTFS- not sure how that affects FDISK- didn't know that it would. So it is possible it has some issues.