Due to virus attacks and errors we found ourselves with an HP Vectra with a C unbootable hard disk with W3.1 and no DOS on it. Not having the right boot floppy, we booted with a W98 boot floppy. Using the floppy programs we issued the command format C:/s and copying the command file were able to boot from C. Now we want to install DOS 5 or 6.22 and reinstall W3.1 but the system will not accept the floppies that have the autoexec.bat to install. It hangs after reinitiating with ctrl-alt-del leaving the floppy light on. I read somewhere that it is not wise to boot from floppy with W98 if you have DOS on the hard disk. But it was after we had done it. ALL, MANY, ANY ideas will be more than welcome. Thanks in advance.

boot with dos disk #1, FORMAT WITH IT

Boot from the MSDOS Disk1 and after it has thrown up the Welcome screen hit F3 this will put you back to the A:\> command prompt. Type fdisk and delete partition and then make partition ensuring it is active, after ESCaping out of fdisk it should reboot, the install MSDOS and it will format the C: drive and carry on installing. Good luck

kj & x86: Thanks for the tips. The problem is that we can not boot using the DOS 5 or 6.22 disk 1. It doesn't send the welcome screen it just hangs leaving the floppy light on. MSD reports version 7.1 of DOS as the op system. If you have more ideas pls send they are more then welcome. Thanks

I would suggest to got to www.killdisk.com and download the demo which runs as a self contained bootable floppy. This will erase in one pass your hard drive of all partitions, at least you will have a clean drive. You should then be able to use a DSO5 or 6 install Disk1, and F3 out of install to fdisk. If you are unsure of killdisk, Samsung electronics offer a similar programme at http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/support/faqs/faqs_20000120_0000000036.htm

x86 I executed killdisk on the C drive. Booting with MSDOS 6.22 disk 1 (one), after the "MSDOS loading" message I push F3 and nothing happens. The floppy unit keeps the light on and the system hangs. MSDOS 5.0 acts worse it doesn't even send the starting message. It just hangs. Strange as it may seem, the floppy with the killdisk utility (prepared with W98) boots but is incompatible with the MSDOS COMMAND version. I found in a question (9656), submitted in this same forum, a reference to a program named 3xStart. I will try it and hope it works after killing the C disk again. If you have any more ideas we will be happy to put them in practice. Thanks.