frusterating windows problem!

[ibmdude]

My old harddrive in my thinkpad was giving me trouble so i bought a brandnew one. Still in the static-resistent packaging. when i put it in and booted the windows 98 install disc up, it ran the usual scans and then said that windows couldn't install cause it couldn't find the harddrive. So what i am wondering is do you have to format brand new harddrives or something? I called my friend and he said that windows 98 should automatically do that for me, but it didn't.

 

[southernlady]

Check the connections first...I *lost* mine this morning, my back up cause I didn't have it plugged in right. Before you assume the worst, go back in and make sure you plugged everything in correctly. Liz

 

[Terencentanio]

"thinkpad"

Sounds like a laptop. And in that case, the HDD should be module/removable... so if there's a connection problem, the bay needs replacing.

Otherwise, if the HDD is internal/fixed, then you should check it.

Windows 98 has a thing for hardware compatablity. It may not like the HDD, as opposed to not being able to see it.

To check, boot into MSDOS and copy the files from the Win98 CD onto the HDD:

copy D:\ C:\

If it copies, then you've got a compatability issue. If not, it's a hardware issue.

 

[Alex4R]

Did you get a CD with your new hard drive? I got one with my Maxtor and had to set it up and make it ready for Windows.

 

[Samm]

First, check to see if drive is being recognised correctly in bios.
If it is then as drive is brand new, it probably isn't partitioned & Win98 doesn't automatically do this for you.

If your laptop has a floppy drive, boot from a win98 boot disk containing fdisk.exe & format.com. Run fdisk to view the partitions on drive.

If drive is already partitioned, you should be able to select option 4 from fdisks menu & view the partition(s). You should see a primary (DOS) partition with a capital 'A' (for active) at the front of the listing. If you see partition but no 'A', set drive active (option 2).

If there are no partitons, create one. You need to create an active primary partition.

When done, you will need to reboot & then format the drive. Type format c: /s after booting from floppy disk.

If none of this works, let us know what make/model/size the drive is.