BleepingComputer.com: FORMAT C\:

I was given an IBM Aptiva PC 475 Mhz 10 G hard drive etc. It was full of stuff that I did not want so I re booted it and got to dos and typed "FORMAT C\:" The machine went through the process and the hard drive was formatted.Then I put in my win 98 se boot disk and restarted and could not even get to dos.I downloaded a win 98 boot disk and tried that,I could then get to dos but but I still can't load windows.The only way I can get to dos is with the 98 boot disk. If I don't use that,All I get is a little flashing dash on a blank screen.I ve gone into the bios which is very simplistic compared to what I'm used to and Ive tried juggling the boot sequence with no result.Basically I have a perfectly good pc but I can't load windows se.


Please help!!

If the 98 boot disk was made on a 98 Windows machine it creates a "ramdrive" which pushes the CD drive letter back one, so if it was D: it would now be E: and so on.

If you got that downloaded boot disk from bootdisk.com you CD drive letter is R:.

In addition to loading DOS, you need to have the CD-Rom drivers loaded. Then, just check until you find the drive letter where the Windows disk is located. If it's E:, then type E: setup and windows should begin to load.

Fleu
When you format a hard drive you should add the "S" switch.
Try this on a re-format
FORMAT C:/S This will format the disk and add the DOS files Command.com, Config.sys, and Msdos.sys needed to run DOS from the H/D.
Russ