formatting a hard drive

Need a little more info! What part are you having problems? what operating system do you have currently on it?
Here are my notes/instruction I have created
Formating your PC
Put in your Windows 98 Start-up Disk and restart
Select to boot with CD Rom Support
at the command prompt type FDISK enter
Select Y for large disk support
Display Paritions (#4)
(see how many partitions there are to delete)
Esc to exit
Delete Partitions (#3) remember when deleting partitions do last partition
first & first (primary) partition
last! (4,3,2,1)
#1 Primary DOS Partition
#2 Extended DOS Partition
#3 Logical DOS Partition in the
Extended #4 Non- DOS Partition
Answer questions and continue
Create Partion (#1) only create one
partion as Primary
#1 Primary DOS Partition
Select Y for maximum available size Reboot (Ctrl, Alt, Del) (with start-up disk & select with CD Rom Support)
Insert Windows 98 CD in to CD Rom
at the command prompt type D: enter
then type FORMAT C: enter
It will ask if you are sure: Y
leave Volume Label Blank
at the command prompt should sayD:
type E: enter
I am not sure exactly what the setup
file is, but find that and type that so
it runs
Example is Windows 95 is located in a
WIN95 folder and then its a setup.exe Then just select the defaults for the setup.

Hope this helps!!!

Just some additional explanations to deeda's answer.

If this is a brand new drive, you need to partition the drive before you can format it.

If the drive had Windows NT, 2000, or XP on it, you need to delete the non-DOS partition before you can create a Primary DOS partition.

Depending on the size of the drive, you may want to create both a Primary DOS partition, and an Extended DOS partition with Logical Drives.

You run fdisk from the Windows 98 startup floppy to partition the drive.
If any doubt about the drive, run fdisk /mbr first to clear the master boot record.

You can create a W98 startup disk from the add/remove programs menu an any running W98 PC.
Or, you can download an image file from links at www.bootdisk.com
or www.madboot.com

You do not need to change drives to format the C: drive, or run setup on the W98 CD.
From the DOS prompt, type in format C: /s
(The /s switch copies the system files, and makes the C: drive bootable.

If you boot from a W98 startup disk, and enable CD-ROM support, just type setup at the DOS prompt to begin installing W98, with the CD in the drive.

Resource links:

www.fdisk.com/fdisk

www.aumha.org has a good article on partition strategy, and why you might want multiple logical drives.

Chas

Insert your boot disk in the floppy drive and start the computer. Once the system has completed booting and an A: prompt appears we are ready to start.

Type: format C: /s [press Enter]

This statement tells the system to format your "C" drive and when it is finished to copy the system files to the drive, (the /s switch for 'System'). You can format a different drive this way by using a different drive letter.

Format should display: WARNING, ALL DATA ON
NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST!
Proceed with Format (Y/N)? Type [Y] [Press ENTER]

Your screen should display the size of your drive and a countdown in percentage of formatting completed. Depending on your computer's speed and the size of the drive it can take from a few minutes to over 15minutes.

When it reaches 100% complete, you will see a new message:
FORMAT COMPLETE. SYSTEM TRANSFERRED.

This indicates that the files required to boot your computer from the hard drive have been copied from the floppy to the hard drive. The computer can now boot from the hard drive without a boot disk in the floppy drive.

You will see one last message:
Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?
Type anything you like or leave it blank - [Press ENTER]

You can now begin to load your Operating System.

Special Note:

1) Omit the /s switch when formatting. This is done by typing this:
FORMAT C: [press enter]

Then when the format is complete, manually add the system files to your hard drive by using this command:
SYS C: [press enter]

Need a boot disk? You can downlod them here:

Boot Disks

MS Dos v6.2 - 1.2mg

Win95/95A - 702k

Win95B (OSR2) - 814k

Win98/98SE - 864k

WinNT4 Server/Workstation 1.9mg

WinNT4 Terminal Server 2mg

Win2000 Professional 3.8mg

Win2000 Server - 3.8mg