Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

ms · Dec 22, 2007

The hard drive had fdisk and format with DOS 6.22, is now FAT 16

Use for the hard drive has changed, need to use it for W98 FAT 32 later.

W98 boot disk, tried format- "wrong DOS version".

Then tried W98 fdisk, got same message.

How to salvage the drive for W98SE operation?

ms

Ben Myers · Dec 22, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

"ms" <ms@invalid.com> wrote in message news:5t5fqpF1c14qfU1@mid.individual.net...
> The hard drive had fdisk and format with DOS 6.22, is now FAT 16
> Use for the hard drive has changed, need to use it for W98 FAT 32 later.
> W98 boot disk, tried format- "wrong DOS version".
> Then tried W98 fdisk, got same message.
> How to salvage the drive for W98SE operation?

Start the computer with the Windows 98 boot disk, select "Start without
CD support", type "fdisk", accept "Large Disk support" and delete the
existing FAT partition. Leave the floppy in the drive, restart, select "Start
without CD Support" again, accept "Large Disk support", type "fdisk"
and create a primary DOS partition. Leave the floppy in the drive, restart
without CD support, type "format c:" and format the drive.

Ben

Lee · Dec 22, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

On Dec 22, 3:02 pm, ms <m...@invalid.com> wrote:
> The hard drive had fdisk and format with DOS 6.22, is now FAT 16
>
> Use for the hard drive has changed, need to use it for W98 FAT 32 later.
>
> W98 boot disk, tried format- "wrong DOS version".
>
> Then tried W98 fdisk, got same message.
>
> How to salvage the drive for W98SE operation?
>
> ms

Shorthand descriptions don't help much.

Boot the machine with a 98 Boot disk and then use 98's fdisk from the
floppy to delete all partitions on the hard drive and then start
over. When you answer "yes" to the question provided by 98's fdisk as
to if you want large drive support, you are in effect choosing to
partiton the drive as FAT 32 (yes) or FAT 16 (no).

Somehow you are not doing it right and I can't figure out what went
wrong or where, but you are in need of much more basic DOS knowledge
which was about the only useful info I could interpret from your
post. Good luck.

http://cquirke.mvps.org/reinst.htm
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robert.bale4/formatinstall.htm
http://freepctech.com/guides.shtml
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/articles/waystoreinstall/
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/indexwin98.htm

Ben Myers · Dec 22, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

Correction.

"> The hard drive had fdisk and format with DOS 6.22, is now FAT 16
> Use for the hard drive has changed, need to use it for W98 FAT 32 later.
> W98 boot disk, tried format- "wrong DOS version".
> Then tried W98 fdisk, got same message.
> How to salvage the drive for W98SE operation?

Start the computer with the Windows 98 boot disk, select "Start without
CD support", type "fdisk", accept "Large Disk support" and delete the
existing FAT partition. Leave the floppy in the drive, restart, select "Start
without CD Support" again, type "fdisk", accept "Large Disk support"
and create a primary DOS partition. Leave the floppy in the drive, restart
without CD support, type "format c:" and format the drive.

Ben

PCR · Dec 22, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

ms wrote:
| The hard drive had fdisk and format with DOS 6.22, is now FAT 16
|
| Use for the hard drive has changed, need to use it for W98 FAT 32
| later.
|
| W98 boot disk, tried format- "wrong DOS version".
|
| Then tried W98 fdisk, got same message.
|
| How to salvage the drive for W98SE operation?

Did you ever download this one in that other thread...?...
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263044
Latest FDISK

It looks like this...
FDISK EXE 64,460 05-18-00 8:35a FDISK.EXE

And FORMAT looks like this...
FORMAT COM 49,575 04-23-99 10:22p FORMAT.COM

| ms

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net

ms · Dec 23, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

"Ben Myers" <benjmyers@mindR-e-m-o-v-Espring.com> wrote in
news:#uw80pPRIHA.5016@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:

> Correction.
>
> "> The hard drive had fdisk and format with DOS 6.22, is now FAT 16
>> Use for the hard drive has changed, need to use it for W98 FAT 32
> later.
>> W98 boot disk, tried format- "wrong DOS version".
>> Then tried W98 fdisk, got same message.
>> How to salvage the drive for W98SE operation?
>
> Start the computer with the Windows 98 boot disk, select "Start
> without CD support", type "fdisk", accept "Large Disk support" and
> delete the existing FAT partition. Leave the floppy in the drive,
> restart, select "Start without CD Support" again, type "fdisk", accept
> "Large Disk support" and create a primary DOS partition. Leave the
> floppy in the drive, restart without CD support, type "format c:" and
> format the drive.
>
> Ben

Ben, the above worked fine, and thanks.

Several things made the difference.
One, I used a different W98SE boot disk, instead of the error message I
got before, now Fdisk worked, etc.
The other is "Start without CD support", that seems to enable the
process better. I might suggest in format, "format c: /s".

This enabled me to salvage the drive for later W98 use.

ms

ms · Dec 23, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

Lee <melee5@my-deja.com> wrote in news:c93266a2-a4ea-4ce2-8e71-
66231a13c97f@i29g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

> On Dec 22, 3:02 pm, ms <m...@invalid.com> wrote:
>> The hard drive had fdisk and format with DOS 6.22, is now FAT 16
>>
>> Use for the hard drive has changed, need to use it for W98 FAT 32
later.
>>
>> W98 boot disk, tried format- "wrong DOS version".
>>
>> Then tried W98 fdisk, got same message.
>>
>> How to salvage the drive for W98SE operation?
>>
>> ms
>
> Shorthand descriptions don't help much.

I simply described what I saw. As you know, once it detects "wrong DOS
version", it stops, nothing else happens.

See my reply to Ben for results. Thanks for the links, good data.

ms
>
> Boot the machine with a 98 Boot disk and then use 98's fdisk from the
> floppy to delete all partitions on the hard drive and then start
> over. When you answer "yes" to the question provided by 98's fdisk as
> to if you want large drive support, you are in effect choosing to
> partiton the drive as FAT 32 (yes) or FAT 16 (no).
>
> Somehow you are not doing it right and I can't figure out what went
> wrong or where, but you are in need of much more basic DOS knowledge
> which was about the only useful info I could interpret from your
> post. Good luck.
>
> http://cquirke.mvps.org/reinst.htm
> http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/
> http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robert.bale4/formatinstall.htm
> http://freepctech.com/guides.shtml
> http://www.windowsreinstall.com/articles/waystoreinstall/
> http://www.windowsreinstall.com/indexwin98.htm
>

ms · Dec 23, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

"PCR" <pcrrcp@netzero.net> wrote in news:eEwm3zPRIHA.536
@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:

> ms wrote:
>| The hard drive had fdisk and format with DOS 6.22, is now FAT 16
>|
>| Use for the hard drive has changed, need to use it for W98 FAT 32
>| later.
>|
>| W98 boot disk, tried format- "wrong DOS version".
>|
>| Then tried W98 fdisk, got same message.
>|
>| How to salvage the drive for W98SE operation?
>
> Did you ever download this one in that other thread...?...
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263044
> Latest FDISK

Yes, and incorporated into my several boot disks.
>
> It looks like this...
> FDISK EXE 64,460 05-18-00 8:35a FDISK.EXE

Mine is now the same.
>
> And FORMAT looks like this...
> FORMAT COM 49,575 04-23-99 10:22p FORMAT.COM
>

Mine is the same file size, but date is 4/23/99.

Thanks

ms

Lee · Dec 23, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

On Dec 23, 9:54 am, ms <m...@invalid.com> wrote:
> "Ben Myers" <benjmy...@mindR-e-m-o-v-Espring.com> wrote innews:#uw80pPRIHA..5016@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Correction.
>
> > "> The hard drive had fdisk and format with DOS 6.22, is now FAT 16
> >> Use for the hard drive has changed, need to use it for W98 FAT 32
> > later.
> >> W98 boot disk, tried format- "wrong DOS version".
> >> Then tried W98 fdisk, got same message.
> >> How to salvage the drive for W98SE operation?
>
> > Start the computer with the Windows 98 boot disk, select "Start
> > without CD support", type "fdisk", accept "Large Disk support" and
> > delete the existing FAT partition. Leave the floppy in the drive,
> > restart, select "Start without CD Support" again, type "fdisk", accept
> > "Large Disk support" and create a primary DOS partition. Leave the
> > floppy in the drive, restart without CD support, type "format c:" and
> > format the drive.
>
> > Ben
>
> Ben, the above worked fine, and thanks.
>
> Several things made the difference.
> One, I used a different W98SE boot disk, instead of the error message I
> got before, now Fdisk worked, etc.
> The other is "Start without CD support", that seems to enable the
> process better. I might suggest in format, "format c: /s".
>
> This enabled me to salvage the drive for later W98 use.
>
> ms- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I would suggest you NOT use the /s switch with format as that one
transfers the system files similar in effect to using the "sys"
command. Since you are getting unexplainable "Wrong DOS version"
errors how can you really be sure of which version of system files you
actually now have? You could have instead just left the hard drive
formatted without system files on it and Windows 98 installation would
have put the proper ones on there at the first reboot just like it is
all supposed to work in the first place.

Why reinvent the wheel just to then get run over by it?

Glad to hear you got it going and as a parting gift here is a link to
an often overlooked update for DOS files that no one else seems to
send people too.
MS-DOS Does Not Properly Process Hard Disk Hardware Errors
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=311561

PCR · Dec 23, 2007

ms · Dec 23, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

Lee <melee5@my-deja.com> wrote in
news:0e3aa592-cddc-4e5f-8ef8-801d28384687@c49g2000hsc.googlegroups.com:

> On Dec 23, 9:54 am, ms <m...@invalid.com> wrote:
>> "Ben Myers" <benjmy...@mindR-e-m-o-v-Espring.com> wrote
>> innews:#uw80pPRIHA
> .5016@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > Correction.
>>
>> > "> The hard drive had fdisk and format with DOS 6.22, is now FAT 16
>> >> Use for the hard drive has changed, need to use it for W98 FAT 32
>> > later.
>> >> W98 boot disk, tried format- "wrong DOS version".
>> >> Then tried W98 fdisk, got same message.
>> >> How to salvage the drive for W98SE operation?
>>
>> > Start the computer with the Windows 98 boot disk, select "Start
>> > without CD support", type "fdisk", accept "Large Disk support" and
>> > delete the existing FAT partition. Leave the floppy in the drive,
>> > restart, select "Start without CD Support" again, type "fdisk",
>> > accept "Large Disk support" and create a primary DOS partition.
>> > Leave the floppy in the drive, restart without CD support, type
>> > "format c:" and
>
>> > format the drive.
>>
>> > Ben
>>
>> Ben, the above worked fine, and thanks.
>>
>> Several things made the difference.
>> One, I used a different W98SE boot disk, instead of the error message
>> I got before, now Fdisk worked, etc.
>> The other is "Start without CD support", that seems to enable the
>> process better. I might suggest in format, "format c: /s".
>>
>> This enabled me to salvage the drive for later W98 use.
>>
>> ms- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> I would suggest you NOT use the /s switch with format as that one
> transfers the system files similar in effect to using the "sys"
> command. Since you are getting unexplainable "Wrong DOS version"
> errors how can you really be sure of which version of system files you
> actually now have?

That is past history. It did give that error, in my OP. But now that is
fixed, it is formatted using a W98SE boot disk, so that is the system
files I have. IMO, the advantage I gained in running sys c: after format,
is now when I DIR C, I see the system files, and know the disk is usable
later for W98.

You could have instead just left the hard drive
> formatted without system files on it and Windows 98 installation would
> have put the proper ones on there at the first reboot just like it is
> all supposed to work in the first place.
>
> Why reinvent the wheel just to then get run over by it?
>
> Glad to hear you got it going and as a parting gift here is a link to
> an often overlooked update for DOS files that no one else seems to
> send people too.
> MS-DOS Does Not Properly Process Hard Disk Hardware Errors
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=311561

Thanks, there seems to be a never-ending group of useful help files in
the Knowledge Base. Is it possible to download the MS Knowledge W98
database before it all goes away?

ms

ms · Dec 23, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

"PCR" <pcrrcp@netzero.net> wrote in news:ustBEbbRIHA.3676
@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:

> ms wrote:
>| "PCR" <pcrrcp@netzero.net> wrote in news:eEwm3zPRIHA.536
>| Yes, and incorporated into my several boot disks.
>|>
>|> It looks like this...
>|> FDISK EXE 64,460 05-18-00 8:35a FDISK.EXE
>|
>| Mine is now the same.
>|>
>|> And FORMAT looks like this...
>|> FORMAT COM 49,575 04-23-99 10:22p FORMAT.COM
>|>
>|
>| Mine is the same file size, but date is 4/23/99.
>
> That's the same date too. Going by that date, looks like FORMAT has
> never changed for Win98SE.
>
> And I see you've been told to reboot between FDISK & FORMAT-- very
good!
>
>| Thanks
>
> You are welcome. I see you solved the problem with a new Startup
> Diskette. Maybe, in the end, tell us what shows up in a /Status. Here
is
> one of mine...
>
> C:\>FDISK /Status
> Disk Drv Mbytes Free Usage
> 1 19092 8298 57% << Full drive
> C: 7996
> E: 2798
> 2 38169 100% << Full drive
> D: 7996 << One partition
> F: 7996
> G: 7996
> H: 7996
> I: 6187
>

C Part 1
Status A
Type Primary DOS
2453 MB
System FAT 32
Usage 100 %

No partitions, your disk is much larger than this one.

I assume the status data looks Ok to you.

Tomorrow I will part out this machine just for the hard drive.
This drive started as W95, went to DOS, will wind up as a second drive in
a W98SE machine.

Thanks to all for the help

ms

PCR · Dec 23, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

ms wrote:
| "PCR" <pcrrcp@netzero.net> wrote in news:ustBEbbRIHA.3676
| @TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:
|
|> ms wrote:
|>| "PCR" <pcrrcp@netzero.net> wrote in news:eEwm3zPRIHA.536
|>| Yes, and incorporated into my several boot disks.
|>|>
|>|> It looks like this...
|>|> FDISK EXE 64,460 05-18-00 8:35a FDISK.EXE
|>|
|>| Mine is now the same.
|>|>
|>|> And FORMAT looks like this...
|>|> FORMAT COM 49,575 04-23-99 10:22p FORMAT.COM
|>|>
|>|
|>| Mine is the same file size, but date is 4/23/99.
|>
|> That's the same date too. Going by that date, looks like FORMAT has
|> never changed for Win98SE.
|>
|> And I see you've been told to reboot between FDISK & FORMAT-- very
|> good!
|>
|>| Thanks
|>
|> You are welcome. I see you solved the problem with a new Startup
|> Diskette. Maybe, in the end, tell us what shows up in a /Status.
|> Here is one of mine...
|>
|> C:\>FDISK /Status
|> Disk Drv Mbytes Free Usage
|> 1 19092 8298 57% << Full drive
|> C: 7996
|> E: 2798
|> 2 38169 100% << Full drive
|> D: 7996 << One partition
|> F: 7996
|> G: 7996
|> H: 7996
|> I: 6187
|>
|
| C Part 1
| Status A
| Type Primary DOS
| 2453 MB
| System FAT 32
| Usage 100 %
|
| No partitions, your disk is much larger than this one.
|
| I assume the status data looks Ok to you.

That looks good enough. Is the whole hard drive just 2 GB small? But you
didn't do a "FDISK /Status". Note how mine showed both the full size of
each hard drive & the size of each partition. I think you have shown an
FDISK option 4. Here is mine for Disk 1...

Display Partition Information
Current fixed disk drive: 1

Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
C: 1 A PRI DOS P C R HARD 7996 FAT32 42%
2 EXT DOS 11096
58%

The Extended DOS Partition contains Logical DOS Drives.
Do you want to display the logical drive information (Y/N)......?[Y]

Display Logical DOS Drive Information

Drv Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
E: C TWO 7996 FAT32 72%

I guess it can be inferred from your Option 4 that indeed you have one
partitio that is using all the space on your hard drive. Looks good.

| Tomorrow I will part out this machine just for the hard drive.
| This drive started as W95, went to DOS, will wind up as a second
| drive in a W98SE machine.

Very good. You are doing well I think.

| Thanks to all for the help

You are welcome.

| ms

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net

ms · Dec 23, 2007

Re: Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

"PCR" <pcrrcp@netzero.net> wrote in news:#9yo0GcRIHA.1208
@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl:

>| No partitions, your disk is much larger than this one.
>|
>| I assume the status data looks Ok to you.
>
> That looks good enough. Is the whole hard drive just 2 GB small? But
you
> didn't do a "FDISK /Status". Note how mine showed both the full size of
> each hard drive & the size of each partition. I think you have shown an
> FDISK option 4. Here is mine for Disk 1...
>
> Display Partition Information
> Current fixed disk drive: 1
>
> Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
> C: 1 A PRI DOS P C R HARD 7996 FAT32 42%
> 2 EXT DOS 11096
> 58%
>
> The Extended DOS Partition contains Logical DOS Drives.
> Do you want to display the logical drive information (Y/N)......?[Y]
>
> Display Logical DOS Drive Information
>
> Drv Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
> E: C TWO 7996 FAT32 72%
>
> I guess it can be inferred from your Option 4 that indeed you have one
> partitio that is using all the space on your hard drive. Looks good.
>
I didn't use your FDISK /Status, should have as easier. I did straight
Fdisk, then chose option 4. Your way is more direct.

It is a small hard drive, 2.4 GB, so I left it as one partition.

>| Tomorrow I will part out this machine just for the hard drive.
>| This drive started as W95, went to DOS, will wind up as a second
>| drive in a W98SE machine.
>
> Very good. You are doing well I think.
>
>| Thanks to all for the help
>
> You are welcome.
>
In a week or so, hope to start working on that Dell with the shaded
video.

Best wishes and have a good Christmas.

ms

PCR · Dec 25, 2007

Changing a hard drive to FAT 32

ms

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