I erased the HD and created a new Dos partiton. FDISK looks OK - shows an active 20GB partiton with no volume label. But when I try to format it I get the message "Invalid media type reading drive C". Also, Scandisk won't run. Any suggestions? Thanx.

What does it show in the BIOS?

"Invalid media type reading drive C"

You're booting off the Win98 boot floppy & at the A:\> prompt, attempting to format, correct?

A:\>format C:

Then pressing [Enter] ?

Jam - Yes, when I type "Format C:" at the A prompt off a W98 boot floppy I get the invalid media message! FDISK lets me delete and restore the partition and it seems to show a good volume. But scandisk does nothing!
OtheHill: what does what say in BIOS? BIOS says a lot of things. What specifically are you referring to?

Did you try a different boot floppy?

The BIOS settings for the HDrive of course. Does it properly identify the drive? Are Format & Scandisk even on the floppy? Is your intent to install Win98 unto the partition?

That message indicates the OS is trying to find the format command on the c: drive.

IF you're entering the command as jam says in #2 then your bootdisk doesn't have the format command on it and also has the c: drive in it's path. As he says you need a different bootdisk--something more generic.

How did you erase and format the hard drive?

If the existing hard disk was originally setup as NTFS, then you may still have an NTFS partition.

The error message may reflect a non-DOS partition.

If your intent was to create a true DOS partition then the size should have been 2 gigabytes not 20. How was the disk partitioned?

I got a comment (from a different forum) that the HD might be too big for the BIOS version I'm using. Will connect the HD to a better machine and try to format it.
Wizard - no, the partition is DOS.
Jam - I will try a different boot disk. Thanx for all the comments.

If the disk is larger than 64GB you need the newer version of Fdisk, which works with larger drives. If the drive shows properly in the BIOS then you should be OK. As was stated by both myself and DAVINCAPS you pprobably don't have FORMAT files on the boot floppy. You don't need them if you are trying to install any version of 32 bit windows. The Windows install disk will perform that for you.

"I got a comment (from a different forum) that the HD might be too big for the BIOS version I'm using."

Yes, well, that's the funny thing about forums - at times you'll get advice from folks who really have no idea.

Sure doesn't seem like that could be a problem - you say this is a 20Gb drive, and that it's identified by fdisk - - just check the BIOS to see if the drive is recognized correctly there - that tends to take out the guesswork, and is pretty much SOP

Did you not know the drive's capacity prior to installing? You could even look it up online if in doubt (or if the specs aren't plastered on the label)

I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn't need an interpreter

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

Guess what guys? I attached the HD to my "working" computer (an Emachines with 2.7GB processor)and, using the same W98 boot disk that didn't work with the smaller older machine, ran "format c" and it worked perfectly. I guess I can conclude that the 20GB HD was simply too large for the old machine, even though its BIOS recognized it. What really had me puzzled was the fact that I was able to delete the partition and re-create a new one. Thanx for eveyone's comments tho. This is a great forum and I always learn a lot from it!:=)