Hello – I need help this time because I really messed up.

I decided to make another post in a new forum because I have a different problem.

I tried doing what Herk said on my other post (hard drive problems) but still no good. So then, I then decided to reformat the hard drive and it was going good until my computer decided to get hung up while downloading the cab files. I had gotten all the way thru to putting in the key codes and downloading the windows 98 disk to the hard drive. While downloading the .cab files it starting having problems with not finding about 12 files in .cabs (ex: poledit.chm / progman.chm / rededit.chm) then all of sudden no more lights on my computer were blinking. IT just seemed to hang there. Stuck with 29 minutes remaining.

So I decided to shut it down and try to start over. All that work for nothing

So here is my problem. I cannot get past the FDISK section. I am not sure if I even need to be there. So I started over with start computer without CD support like it said to do in the other forums. I thought it would be so simple.

It asks: computer has a disk larger than 512 mb / do you wish to enable larger disk support - I said Y – according to the forum
Then it ask / chose:
1. create dos partitions
2. set active partitions
3. delete partition or logical dos drive
4. display partitions

I choose - 3. delete partitions

Then it ask:
1. delete primary dos partitions
2. delete extended dos partitions
3. delete logical dos drive in the extended dos partitions
4. delete non dos partitions

I choose – 1. delete primary

Then it comes up with
Current fixed disk drive: 1

Partitions Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
C: 1 A PRI DOS 2047 FAT16 52%
2 EXT DOS 1859 48%
Total disk space is 3910 mbytes

Then in the left hand corner is says “ Cannot delete Primary DOS Partitions on drive 1 when an Extended DOS Partitions exists:

So that is where and I am and cannot get past it at all – Please help me



PS: I am going to tried and change the bios to CD Rom and see if that helps.

Hi wagcon. That just means that there is an extended partition on the drive and it must be deleted before removing the Primary partition.

First you will need to select option #3 and delete any logical drives within the extended partition. When those are gone you will need to use option #2 to delete the extended partition. After that you will be able to delete the primary partition and set a new one.

The question to ask is, do youknow what is on the extended partition and do you want to delete it? Were there additional drives on the computerother than the CD drive that had data on them? If so, deleting the extended partition will delete all of the programs and data on those drives.

If you are sure that everything must go then delete everything and create a single partition for the drive and you will be all set.

Cheers.

OT

Thanks Old Timer and Herk for your input. My computer is running again.

Yay! Thanks for posting back.