Author Topic: Help me plz, VERY off topic (Read 4645 times)

Udie · « **on:** March 27, 2000, 03:31:00 PM »

Hey guys, I need some help bad. My boss got a FREE computer from Compaq (I said FREE) Well it came w/ NT 4.0 on it and we don't want to use NT 4.0 we like 98.

Well it won't let me boot to C drive to install 98. it said there's not a valid FAT or FAT32 allocation thingy. I looked in NT and it said it was using NTFS ( Not To Freakin Swift?) and it won't let me format from within windows.

Can any of you kind gentlemen/women tell me how to put a FAT or FAT32 on this disk and wipe out NT altogether? PLEASE?!?!?!

My boss will be realy happy with me if you can help.........

thnx

udie

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #1 on:** March 27, 2000, 03:33:00 PM »

Try an Fdisk on it Udie. You'll want to do that anyway since NTFS only allows 4 Gig partitions.

Ah.. the wonderul thing about 98.. bye-bye partitions

AKDejaVu

Kieren · « **Reply #2 on:** March 27, 2000, 03:34:00 PM »

Have you tried installing a bootable floppy in the A: drive? You should be able to get to a DOS prompt that way. Copy over your necessary DOS commands and you should be able to make NT go away.

Of course the real experts in here may have a better way. I have no NT experience so...

CavemanJ · « **Reply #3 on:** March 27, 2000, 03:36:00 PM »

I guess ya could boot to dos from a floppy and fdisk the drive, wiping out all the partitions/drives, then set them up the way you want them and install win98 then.

Dinnae if that'd be the quickest/easist way of doing it though....

humble · « **Reply #4 on:** March 27, 2000, 03:39:00 PM »

Ok, this is really simple. Win 98 uses File Allocation Table (FAT) NT uses a newer "mapping" protocal. To install 98 you need to reformat the hard drive "F-Disk" in geek terms.

Then you install a clean copy of 98 from the CD. You'll need a boot disk to do this..or the Win98 boot disk that comes with most Win 98 CD's...OEM copies of 98 are harder...full retail copies are easier.

If your not sure you can do this your better off finding a comp usa to do it for you.

I've done it a 1/2 dozen times but I'm not confident posting a step by step since I always have to fidle with it a bit.

Udie · « **Reply #5 on:** March 27, 2000, 03:48:00 PM »

hehe that was fast! but let me give some more info...

I tried booting w/ the boot disk I made for win98. BUT when I do this I cannot access drive c or run FDISK. Should I make a boot disk from with in NT to boot to dos from NT?

this is my first experience with NT, and I don't like it hehehehehe.

udie

Wanker · « **Reply #6 on:** March 27, 2000, 03:53:00 PM »

Yoodee,

Boot to a DOS floppy, and use the fdisk command. You'll want to select the option to "Delete a non-DOS partition". That should get rid of it for ya.

------------------
banana
308 (Polish) Squadron RAF "City of Cracow"
"On the whole, it is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them"

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #7 on:** March 27, 2000, 04:16:00 PM »

You won't be able to get the c: prompt unless you are using NT. That is the security benifit of NTFS.

That aside... why won't FDisk work? Or.. what isn't working... You can't find FDisk, or fdisk won't delete the partition?

AKDejaVu

Udie · « **Reply #8 on:** March 27, 2000, 04:25:00 PM »

Well I'm using a win98 startup disk, and I get NO access to c:\ (it creates a ramdrive and calls it C:\) I assume this is the security feature. I looked to see about making a bootup disk from within NT but saw no such option. I'm gonna goof around with it for the rest of the day and see if I can just get to DOS from within NT.

Thnx for the help guys

udie

CavemanJ · « **Reply #9 on:** March 27, 2000, 04:31:00 PM »

boot from the floppy
at the A: prompt type

fdisk[enter]

Choose option 3, delete partition or logical dos drive

Choose option 4, delete non-dos partition

then ya gotta create a partition (or more if you want to break it up into several drives)

Then install win98

FDAce · « **Reply #10 on:** March 27, 2000, 04:36:00 PM »

This is step by step solution to your problem.

1. boot from win98 startup disk enable cdrom support - (do not enable large disk support)
2. run fdisk from floppy (this accesses the hardware directly not needing to see any c: drive.
3.delete all partitions (they will be unrecognized since they are NT
4. reboot from floppy with cdrom support - (this time enable large disk support)
5. run fdisk again check for partitions there should be NONE
6. create prinary partition (using fdisk)
7. make one large active partition (this is the default)
8. reboot form floppy again with cdrom support - you will now have a c: drive
9. from the diskette run format c:
10. now create a c:\wincabs folder
11 copy files from win98 d:\win98 folder to c:\wincabs
from c:\wincabs directory run setup
12 continue to install win98 If/when you change win98 settings this method will NOT prompt you for the CD (irritating)
13. Send gift$ to FDace.

[This message has been edited by FDAce (edited 03-27-2000).]

Duckwing6 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 27, 2000, 04:43:00 PM »

doh .. better read before type .. -> me that is

[This message has been edited by Duckwing6 (edited 03-27-2000).]

-aper- · « **Reply #12 on:** March 27, 2000, 06:00:00 PM »

Udie

Udie · « **Reply #13 on:** March 27, 2000, 06:57:00 PM »

Aper,

Not true, there is some future

My company gets alot of home design business from them

and all their VP's and the CPU was FREE I thought I sad that

Who could say no to a free P3 730 and a free 21" monitor?

FDAce,

I'll try that tomarow. I was telling fdisk YES when it asked about large disk. I hope that was my problem.

thnx

Udie

Wraith · « **Reply #14 on:** March 27, 2000, 07:58:00 PM »

That "Large disk" option is just to make your system in FAT16 (if you click no) or Fat32 (if you click yes). For Win98 click yes. Fat16 is for NT and Win95a. AVOID IT. You WANT FAT32

Udie, I would take an ACME 66mhz DX2 over a Compaq 4Ghz ANY DAY.

Compaq's are dung built upon dung and sold..as dung. They cheap and useless, with the only "guarantee" is that you will be throwing it out the window in less than 3 months (yay! you can buy another one then).

I'd suggest you:
a) Keep: Monitor, mouse, keyboard, RAM and processor, floppy drive,cd-rom and case. Throw the rest out.

B)Buy a good Motherboard (compaq's are integrated pieces of c**p) =$100-$200, a good hard drive=$100-$200, a good sound card (SB LIVE)=$95, a good video card (Voodoo 3 +

)=$99 and you will be SET for another 3 years of bliss.

Alternative: Use the Compaq for those 3 months while you save the money, THEN dump the components not listed on A.

In any case, just dont use it, save yourself a lot of trouble.

..or sell it to someone who doesn't have "friends" like us for $2000 heheheh

Cheers!

[This message has been edited by Wraith (edited 03-27-2000).]