I installed a new 8.4Gb HDD alongside my current 1.5Gb. I then copied the files I wanted on to the 8.4Gb and tried to format the 1.5Gb in the usual way (format c: at dos prompt). However, it cocked up and would no longer boot from the 1.5Gb disk, I could only get into the BIOS. After trying everything, I resorted to Low Level Format. How do I now install windows etc on the 8.4Gb since it will not boot from the floppy?

- if you have a CD-ROM drive and if you set up the BIOS to boot on it, you can boot from a Windows 98 or ME or 2000 CD, format the hard disk and install Windows - low level format is quite risky in my opinion - it is confuse : you say you were not able to format the hard disk then you say you cannot boot from the floppy

Your problem does not seem possible. A computer will always boot from a boot floppy unless you have changed things in the BIOS. I follow your problem this far. You booted to C: and formatted the C: drive which now has nothing on it. Then you low level formatted it. What did you use to do that? A format utility on a floppy? What you have now is two hard drives with no operating system on them. You need to boot from a floppy and FDISK. If the computer will not boot, you first have to enter the BIOS and select 1.44 for drive A:

erm ur all like...idiots? yer problem lies in that somehow the partition on the 1.5gig drive has somehow been erased or currupted. u need to use fdkisk and re-create the parition, THEN format the bleedin drive. if u cannot book from a floppy maybe the disk is effed up... go to yer local computer store and give head for a boot disk that actually werks... or u could pay me a nominal fee of $50US :) if u still cant figure it out id suggest going here: www.ignorant.org

I wonder how all of u BRIGHT BRAINS in computer stuff r not that bright to find out yet, that its a fake problem and that guy is lying with his all tooth ?? ggezzuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

JEeeeeeEEEZE some of you people are stupid. "FORMAT C: /U" doesn't mean low-level format. Low level format kind of means "write a zero here, move on to the next byte, write another zero" until you've replaced every single byte in the drive with zero. Most BIOSes have a function to do that, and there is software to do it. FORMAT C: isn't anywhere near low-level. It leaves the boot sector and everything else intact, it's all file-system level. You need to go into FDISK and make some partitions.

less brains than brawn eh ? Let a techy come to the rescure :) Format c: /u means an uncondental format as this is only possible on an empty hard drive.. Seems to me some ppl need to go back to uni.. mr hodapp is along the rigt track :)... just to add though, format c:/u is a physical format, or any formatting done from dos or software, usually straight after a low-level format, ie which merely wrtes out the layout of the entire disk... it does not write sectors... that comes in the phyical format