In my Microsoft literature, it says that before an FDISK and format can occur, a window will pop up with a fifth option. That of doing the work to the second hard drive. Well, it only shows four options, and there is no fifth. Is this a fault of the hard drive or the software then? Wm.

what is it that you're trying to do? Is D: the 2nd partition or is it a separate HDD?

Yeah, fdisk option 5 only shows if there's more than one physical drive. If a single drive has been partitioned with a primary partition and extended partition containing virtual drives you won't get option 5. If option 5 doesn't show then a second physical drive isn't being seen. If you do have a second one connected that usually means it's not seen by the bios.

As the BIOS counts off, it gives an indication of the second drive. It names names (like WDC etc) But then entering DOS or whatever, the whole drive does not seem to exist. In Windows Explorer it goes back to indicating a partitioned main hard drive (like a F and G), and no secondary drive then. Just cannot get that second drive to be recognized. Wm.

The optical drives are also identified in the POST screens. Why don't you just open the case and have a look to see if there are two hard drives? At the start of fdisk you need to indicate Y when prompted about large drives.

Your drive may be too large, find out what size it is and post that info. Your drive might be NTFS partitioned which DOS/Windows won't see but FDISK still should have if the above is not a problem. Your drive may be defective. Use Bart's Disktool on it to see what the programs reports on the drive. http://www.nu2.nu/utils/ The drive could be jumpered wrong, double check against diagram on hard drive. My bet is too big for 98 or the drive is jumpered wrong. Lee