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Reformatting C Drive

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by chris_avila

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When I am trying to reformat my C drive, I get the message "Invalid media type reading drive C", How do I get around this?

11 replies

by alpha-male

The easiest way is to boot from a boot disk (or CD) with the format utility on it (fdisk, sys and edit are good ones to include also). Format from there. If you have trouble, you may want to re-run FDISK and FDISK the master boot record (fdisk /mbr)as well. Then make sure to put the system files on the drive (install the OS). If you just want to put the most basic files on there, you can use the sys c: command.

If you don't have a boot disk, you can download one from www.bootdisk.com

Good luck!

by zlitocook

What hard drive is it? Maxtor, Quantum, Western digital ect. They all have drive managers and drive help on their web sites. If you run their floppys when you install or refomat it will ether work great or tell you the hard drive is bad.

by dmiles

This can be caused by one of three reasons

1)Hard drive does not have valid format

2)The hard disk drive has been fdisked,but not formatted

3)The hard disk drive is bad

Insert a startup disk in A: drive,at command prompt
Type fdisk /mbr(press enter)
Type Sys c: (press enter)

If you receive the error,the format of drive is invalid

Fdisk the hard drive and partition and reformat drive,if this fails,then you probaly have a bad hard drive

by pinoy_teknik

First, im going to make sure if the BIOS can recognized the drive check it at the Standard CMOS Setup. The interface cable and power cable of the hard drive are properly attached.

If there is no problem there, use Win98 Startup disk then start from fdisk, If you run fdisk and the error comes up again it means that there is still problem. (BIOS, Physical Drive, cable interface or hard drive controller) things to check weather it is properly configure.

Once you run fdisk and the program canwork...go on partition your drive.

Reboot and Format the drive with format.com
You can use the command a:\format c:/s
where /s is going to put a system file to c: drive

NOTE:
If your hard drive is newly purchase make sure that it is supported by your BIOS. Flashing your BIOS may be the remedy.

Pinoy_Teknik

by csmith

In addition, this can be a virus, or comming from NT, a scrambled boot sector.
For both of the above, zero fill the drive using the manufacturers utility.
Regards, Chris

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