Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Ripsnort on August 06, 2001, 05:11:00 PM
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"Bad command or file name" from A prompt. How can one partition without doing a fdisk?
Signed, Hareware illiterate doing first HD install.
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from the a: prompt type "DIR"
Is FDISK.COM (or .EXE) listed there?
Both FDISK and FORMAT are seperate programs and each need to be located on the floppy. A word of advice if you are adding them: they must be from the same OS as the command.com file on the boot disk.
AKDejaVu
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BTW, both of these files can be found in the C:\Windows\Command directory if you have a nearby comp you can grab them from.
AKDejaVu
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Used a win ME bootdisk instead of my win98 boot disk. That worked. Now I just need to know if I creat a DOS partition., Set active partition., ...learning, learning...
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Okay, got it fingered out, just hope using the Win ME boot didn't somehow embed info on the new HD partition, since I plan to load Win 98 back on, not Win ME.
[ 08-06-2001: Message edited by: Ripsnort ]
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You have to create your primary DOS partition. The key is to make sure that you say Yes to "do you want to enable large disk support". Once you create the partition (should come out to be the size of your hd) simply exit, reboot and format the disk (using "Format C: /s")
AKDejaVu
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Rebooted, typed "Format C:\" at C: command prompt, now I get invalid media type error, Abort, retry...blah
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Rip, you need to add the "/s" to the end to make it a bootable system disk.
AKDejaVu
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Rip you need to create a partition then make it active if only one it will be the active partition. After that you will need to format the disk. Just format no need to do a system transfer or anything like that. the run setup, I have had better luck running setup from the win98 or winme directory not the first one on the install disk. It will take awhile to format. Stay away from Western digital I have seen a bunch of thier big drives freeze up bad bearrings i guess. I perfer IBM drives they always last longer, Maxtor comes with install directions for the Dummies and Ripsnorts of the world. :D
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Also, don't put the backslash. Its "Format C: /s", not "Format C:\ /S"
AKDejaVu
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Okay, it said "WIndows no longer supports /s command", so I did it without /s, its now formatting..hehe, thks for quick responses, this is neat getting answers 2 min later!
Now, load win 98 next right?, then the painful task of critical updates, drivers, etc. etc.?
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From a fresh FDISK you need to use the format c:/u command. <U=unconditional>
If your just housecleaning and re-installing you can use the format c:/q command <Q=quick>to format it quickly.
Make sure you name the drive when prompted, I don't recall where I read the tip but apparently it can cause windows headaches if you don't.
Example: DISK1_PART1
I sent you my phone # in email if you need any assistance.
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Damn, wish I had seen this thread earlier...
This is one of the many things I do 40 hours a week.
Oh well, looks like you get it all settled Rip. If you need any more advice, post here and I can shoot you some answers.
(setup DOS5.0+, Windows 3.1, 3.11 for WorkGroups, 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT4.0, and 2000)
-SW
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Me too swulfe,i missed this one too,hope it's all working now :)
Steely
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Thanks all for the help. Machine is back up and running, just trying to get everything loaded back on..drivers, AH, etc. etc. I'll be out until at least Thurs. trying to restore everything prior to the crash.
Cya!