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Format not supported

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7 replies

by mama_bunnie

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Windows 98 machine was fdisk. The messages I am receiving now is:
1. Format not supported on drive C: Format terminated
2. Primary Hard Disk failure.
Any suggestions as to where to from here???

7 replies

by j.a.lawrence

You need to get a DOS boot disk, a rescue disk will be good. It was probably running FAT32, which a DOS boot disk won't recognize.

If you got an Emerg. Repair Disk, you should be able to re-build your 98 box, if not,

Boot from the floppy, Run fdisk \mbr, then Run fdisk & delete, then recreate your logical drives, then partitions. If you can't re-create the partitions, it may just be a dead drive...

by thechas

It is possible that a drive overlay program was installed on the drive to allow the MB to access the full capacity of the drive.

Verify that the drive is properly identified in BIOS settings.

If the BIOS recognizes the drive correctly, bootup and run fdisk /mbr to clear any leftovers from the drive overlay program.

Make sure that you are using a W98 startup disk, and not just a DOS bootable floppy.

If the BIOS does not recognize the drive correctly, check on the drive mfg website for Drive utilities.

Or, check for BIOS updates for the motherboard.

Chas

by europanorama

i would use gwscan-bootdisk to zerolevel-format first. go to http://www.gateway2000.com and enter gwscan into search. the compressed file(other name) will be selfextracted to a disk when you open it on your pc. this harddrivecheck and zerolevel-toolhelped me a lot.
keep in mind: afterwards start with win98/me-bootdisk and fdisk. make a partition(if you make more than one you will have to activate) and format, after this you can make windows-setup.

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