Format, FDISK, Etc;

Hi all! PC is Hewlet packard. Operating sys. is Win 98.
i'm trying to reinstall win. 98. The pc is my son's. it just quit working.
when I try to format C drive, Error message is [ format not supported on drive C.
When I try to run [setup] with win 98 startup disk, at he "a" prompt I type setup,[this always worked before], i get error message: cannot create a temporary directory. If you have HPFS OR NTFS, Installed on your hard drive, you will need o create an ms-dos parition to set up windows.
When I run FDISK to set up a partition, it says no fixed drives present. what can I do to remedy this ? Its like the hard drive isn't recongnized
also, i checked all the connections inside, & all look "ok" I even changed positions on the "ribbon"
Thanks !

If FDISK isn't seeing your drive, then something has actually failed: Either the HD itself has quit, or the cable is funky, or the connection is bad. If you change positions on the ribbon cable, you'll probably need to reset a jumper on the back of the drive that determines whether it is the Master or Slave conneciton. (Master is on the END of the cable, and slave is in the MIDDLE of the cable).

But, try reseating the connections first (check the power connector to the HD as well), then if that doesn't work, try a new cable, if still no go, the drive may have actually failed.

You'll have to be able to FDISK to get any further with the drive regardless...

If after trying shiva_42's suggestions and still no joy go to the Hard Drive manufacturers site and get their diagnostics and run it.

Good luck

No, No, No.
Nothing has failed.

"Format not supported on drive C. Format terminated."
Problem is:

Format tried to format the drive and the drive specified is a RAMdrive.
A RAMdrive is a bunch of memory locations on chips masquerading as a hard drive.

The message is the result of a format c: command when the hard drive is set to "not installed" in CMOS and the RAMDRIVE.SYS driver loads for ramdrive from the floppy disk. The Format.com program was on a bootable floppy disk.

Is the hard drive recognized in the BIOS?

Thanks all! Turns out that it was the "hard drive" I installed one from another pc, & it fired right up!

The error message can be seen with the circumstances I described.
Just because a new drive is working does not prove the old one was not.

The message appears when a floppy has been booted from with the format program available on it, and the RAMdrive driver was loaded by placing a reference to the driver in one of the startup files on the floppy.
When no hard drive is setup or installed with the BIOS CMOS setup program,
The RAMdrive driver loaded from the floppy grabs the first drive letter available....drive C.

The old hard drive probably was not correctly set up in the BIOS/CMOS.

There is rarely anything wrong with a hard drive...regardless of what error messages indicate or lead you to believe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Robert M

The error message can be seen with the circumstances I described.
Just because a new drive is working does not prove the old one was not.

There is rarely anything wrong with a hard drive...regardless of what error messages indicate or lead you to believe.

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Well... I'm sure the circumstances you describe CAN and even DO happen. But, "there is rarely anything wrong with a hard drive..."

PREPOSTEROUS!!! ;)

"Thanks all! Turns out that it was the "hard drive" I installed one from another pc, & it fired right up!"

I think the above comment is enough evidence to conclude that the original HD was LIKELY the problem... :D

Wrong again!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Robert M

Format tried to format the drive and the drive specified is a RAMdrive.

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Yes, you are correct. Trying to boot a PC -- with no recognizeable hard drive -- from a standard bootable Windows 98 Setup diskette and the RAMDRIVE will end up being drive C:. You are also correct in the fact that a Microsoft RAMDRIVE.sys cannot be formatted via Microsoft's FORMAT command. But, that's not the underlying problem.

Problems:

1. When FORMAT failed with "format not supported on C:", it means that the hard drive was not recognized on boot.
   
   
2. When the Windows 98 Setup failed because it "cannot create a temporary directory", it means the drive cannot be written to, (because there is no recognizable formatted partition -- see next problem).
   
   
3. When FDISK failed with "no fixed disk present" this also means the hard drive is not being recognized.

In other words, the underlying problem to all three of these scenarios is that the hard drive is simply not being recognized.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Robert M

There is rarely anything wrong with a hard drive...regardless of what error messages indicate or lead you to believe.

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Aw now, com'n Robert, I know you know better. :)

All hard drives will fail.

Hard drives are mechanical beasts, with constantly moving parts. The drive platters are spinning on their bearings at somewhere between 4,200 to 10,000 RPM, while the heads, with their pivots also mounted in bearings, are constantly being yanked back and forth across the platters to read/write data.

All of this mechanical movement causes friction, and friction causes both heat and wear. Too much heat causes electrical components to fail. And, when the inevitable wear finally reaches a severe enough stage, the hard drive will no longer be able to spin its platters and/or move its heads.

If it's mechanical, and you use it, it will fail.

Well, first of all I was responding to the original poster

With regard to point one:
It means that the hard drive might not be setup correctly in BIOS/CMOS.
Nothing more and nothing less.
Whether it's recognized or not is a function of whether it's setup properly or not in the BIOS/CMOS setup.

With regard to point two:
That's correct and I was already aware of that.

With regard to your third point,
It means that the hard drive might not be setup correctly in BIOS/CMOS.
Nothing more and nothing less.
Whether it's recognized properly or not is a function of whether it's setup properly or not in the BIOS/CMOS setup.

The most important thing is the original poster's data.
If the drive is good, (and I say it is) the drive can still be read and written.

By the way, I think a drive can be "recognized" with an incorrect capacity if BIOS/CMOS are not correctly set and do not match the drive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Robert M

It means that the hard drive might not be setup correctly in BIOS/CMOS.

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Bingo! :)

Trying to explain 6 posts later after "it's fixed" just amazes me.
Not unusual. I'm amazed by most everything. :D

Well Nick, if you were the person who started this topic....
.....Would you throw away the original hard drive, the one that was not properly setup in the BIOS/CMOS setup?

If not, wouldn't you also try to recover the data?

Yes, but apparently he's not interested or he would/should have responded. Ya think? Just struck me funny that you all may be talking to a wall. :D