trying to get this to work. help please

[Origin]

my girlfriends computer was trashed with all types of spyware and other random stuff and she wanted me to reformat her comp. she had xp and wanted 98 so i reformat the disc. the thing about this is she didn't have a floppy disk drive so i took mine out of mine and used it on hers to use my startup disc to get xp off. so after getting all that done i put windows 98 on her computer and i see that i only have like 3 gigs of open space ( i actually have a 30 gig in this.) so i try and install xp back onto her hard drive and it ends up i guess the term is partitioning her hard drive and xp now has the 27 gigs that was left over. but we didn't want xp we wanted 98 so now after getting xp back off and 98 back off her hard drive i put 98 back on and it did the exact same thing. can anyone explain what i need to do to get 98 to control over all of the hard drive instead of just parts of it. thanks.

 

[Blind_Arrow]

her systems' hard drive must be on NTFS, tht is why win98 (being FAT32) O/S, cannot recognise it properly.

enter FDISK command from DOS prompt, and remove all partitions, (delete non-dos partitions) and then make as you like, and then install Windows 98 etc.

and in future, should you require to install WinXP again, donot change the partition to NTFS, keep it on FAT32

Ahhh, I wish I have a gf , to whom I can help around that way, he he he

 

[Origin]

so while in windows i open up ms-dos prompt
type fdisk
choose yes for large disk support
now i have 4 choices

:

1.Create dos partition or logical dos drive
2. set active partition
3. delete partition or logical dos drive **(this one?)**
4. display partition information

i would assume to do number 3? thanks. and yeah i love helping her out and she loves me for it

 

[Blind_Arrow]

ok, yes
this is one (u r learning fast)

first check the no 4 (display partition information)

and it'll show u hard drive partitions, if you haventn got partitions, then it'll show just one primary drive, else one more extended partitionl drive

and when u select D: (assuming u have partitions) then it'll show logical drives in this extended partition. (D/E/F)


you have to delete in order:

first delete Logical drives in extended DOS partition, then Extended partition, and then primary dartition.

you may have to select (deolete non-dos partitions) as it'l be writen in front of everry partition, that what is this tyope (either NTFS/FAT32), keep in mind, FAT32 is only DOS partition, others like NYFS/Linux are declared as Non-Dos Partitions.

btw whats ur location??

 

[Blind_Arrow]

als, one more thing to tell,

u cannot make PRIMARY partition of more than 8GB on FAT32.

so BEST is, like I do, is make your 1 partition as Primary (8GB) and either distribute other space (21GB) in 2 equal partitions, or just one partition of 21GB

 

[Origin]

okay when i try to delete logical dos drives in the extended dos partition it says

no logical dirves deftined

then at the bottom

all logical drives deleted in the extended dos partition

press esc to continue

so when i do that i hit esc and it takes me back to fdisk options

i go back to dlete partition or logical dos drive and when i try to delete the extended dos partition it says

current fixed disk drive : 1

shows me th partions that are there

then says total disk spark is 28624 mbytes (1 mbyte-1048576 bytes)


cannot delete extneded dos partition while logical drives exist.

press esc to continue_

hmmm am i doing something wrong?

 

[Blind_Arrow]

NO its 100% , this thing confused me as wll once I tried doing this, normally happens as if u have non-dos partitions

now u delete primary partition, and then restart

again enter fdisk, and make 1 primary partiton, (small size, say just 10%) , mean while try deletting extended partition. if still not, its OK (but your PC should have be re-started momentarily.

once u created primary partiton again, restart pc, and format it,.

again enter fdisk and yopu'll be able to delete eveythign out.

once everythign deleted, restart pc, and make partitions right from start. (8GB primary, and 11gb/11gb two logical drives)

 

[Blind_Arrow]

give partitiona mountnin % rather than bytes

do give 26% for primary (approx equal to 8GB)

and rest 50% and 50% for 2 logical drives in extended DOS partition

u have to write % sign after mentioningnthe drive space to be allocated

 

[Origin]

crap. i must have not done anything right cause now when i restart all there is is an underscore that just blinks and it does nothing from there. anyone have any idea? i deleted the primary i believe and its doing this now

 

[Blind_Arrow]

are u booting from A:/?

it shouldnt be showing sa if u r booting from other source.