I am having an extremely difficult ti,e installing an OS for my PC. Your expertise guys would be a great help.

Hardware:
* Toshiba Satellite 2140CDS (PS214E-98080-FR) PC Notebook
* Processor: AMD K6-2 450 MHz
* Installed Memory: 32 MB (SDRAM)
* Hard Drive: 4 GB IDE

History: I was fooling around with the laptop a few years ago and I accidentally fdisked and reformatted it leading to the problem "Missing OS". Since I didn't have any Window installers I tried to install Linux but that didn't go well. I did see partitions and stuff when I tried installing Linux. I had an XP cd and tried to install but I can't access the disk. Now I finally have a windows 98 SE cd but I can't even install.

Here are the error messages:
1.) When trying to Fdisk or Format C: the messages comes out:
* fdisk: "error reading fixed disk" (after entering Y/N at the prompt)
* format c: "Format not supported on drive C: Format terminated

2. When trying to run setup from win98 se CD: "Cannot create a temporary directory. If you have HPFS or NTFS installed on your drive, you will need to create an MS-DOS boot partition to set up Windows" (After setup scans system registry)

Here are some observations worth take noting of:
1. I think the C: that I'm accessing is the Ram-drive.
2. I guess that the hard disk is recognized and still connected but can't be accessed since when XP was used to set-up the disk size and all was found. So the hard disk is connected.
3. I tried using other partitioning softwares but they don't seem to work.

I really hope that someone can shed some light in this dilemma. Thanks!

Try downloading Delpart and running it from the floppy. This utility is used primarily to delete NTFS partitions when Fdisk can't deal with them.

After that Use Fdisk to partition the drive and set an active partition.

Then boot to the Win98 CD and you should be able to install.

You may need to contact Toshiba for drivers. Not much left for win98SE.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/...

There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

"Error reading fixed disk" is the problem. That means it knows a drive is there but something is wrong with it. You can't partition it, remove partitions, format or install an OS as long as fdisk gives that message.

Make sure the drive is identified properly in cmos/bios setup. Is its data cable securely attached?

I'm going to email you Toshiba's version of Disk Manager. From a running 98 system put a blank, formatted floppy disk in a:. Then START--RUN and type in sys c: and click OK. That'll transfer the system files to the floppy disk. Then using something like winzip extract the file I sent to the a: drive. When it's done use that disk to boot up the laptop. At the a:\> prompt type DM and enter.

From the menu I believe you choose ADVANCED OPTIONS--MAINTENANCE OPTIONS--UTILITIES. Choose the zero fill utility and run that on the drive. When it's done exit diskmanager and reboot with the regular bootdisk, run fdisk and see what happens.

If you still get the error message run the disk manager disk again and this time choose 'low level format'. Again, when it's done exit diskmanager and reboot with the regular bootdisk.

If it's not cmos ID or the connection, either the zero fill or LLF should fix it--if it's 'fixable'.

Alright you've got that stupid gmail which seems to reject every attachment. If you want the file you'll need to fix your gmail account or post back a non-gmail address.

Do you have a floppy drive, or maybe swappable CD/Floppy setup ?

Is the drive seen in BIOS ??

"Since I didn't have any Window installers I tried to install Linux but that didn't go well. I did see partitions and stuff when I tried installing Linux"

You apparently have Linux partitions on your HDD. You have to wipe them out before you can reformat & install Windows. And with just 32MB RAM, you shouldn't even consider WinXP. Even Win98 won't run well with just 32MB.

You need to use a program such "Delpart" as was mentioned by OtheHill or something like "Killdisk" or "DBAN" (Darik's Boot & Nuke) to wipe out those Linux partitions.

You can find those programs plus a whole lot more on the "Ultimate Boot CD"

The drive has probably become formatted as NTFS when he tried XP. Download some bootdisk or other that will wipe clean the disk and put it back to FAT. Ultimate Boot CD works nicely.

Windows 2000 Pro SP4, like.
[Microsoft Internet Explorer 6]
VIA C7 Esther 1500MHz [1.39GHz]
1.18GB RAM [64MB Shared Video]
40GB Samsung HD [Partitioned]
Running 24/7

"Error reading fixed disk" is the problem. Fdisk will recognized an NTFS or non-dos partition, although it won't access it. "Error reading fixed disk" means it's not even seeing the drive well enough to do anything with it.

It's probably a moot point anyway as the original poster seems to have wandered off somewhere.

DAVINCAPS

Would fdisk see the drive if formatted for Linux?

I know I've deleted Linux partitions with fdisk but don't have one here now to check.

Everytime I've run across that error message it's taken a low level format to fix it. The OP says he got the message after the Y/N fdisk prompt. I'm thinking I always got the error message before any prompts but I may be thinking of fat16-only fdisk.

to: DAVEINCAPS

sorry for not being to reply soon. my other e-mail is vincentb88@yahoo.com Hope you could send the file there. Thanks.

I just sent it. I sent the toshiba version since I assumed there'd be a toshiba drive in your laptop. If your drive is made by someone else you'd need a different version. I've got several of those too. Let us know how it goes.

To: DAVEINCAPS

thanks! I'll just tell you what happens.

vincent

I'm not sure what your last response#13 means but this is a public forum. Should you wish to send DAVE a private message there are means to do that here. Your final outcome may be of interest to other here so you should post it in this thread.

For response #3.

The drive is seen. But there are no utilities on the disk manager utility.

I tried the easy install or quick install option and it showed:
"Check cables, power connections, CMOS settings, and driver jumper settings..."

I've zero filled and erased the hard drive using other third party tools.

What is this CMOS settings about? The hard disk is toshiba and the laptop was never opened.

Are you saying there was no zero fill or LLF utilities on the disk? I don't know if I've used the one I sent you as it's drive-specific and should only work on toshiba drives. But all the disk manager programs I've seen have those 2 utilities.

A zero fill may not be enough to fix the drive. I uploaded this:

http://members.driverguide.com/driv...

to driverguide a while ago. It should work with the drive and I know it has both LLF and zero fill.

CMOS settings would refer to how the drive is identified in cmos/bios setup. If it's set as AUTO or has an auto-detect to see the drive then you should be OK. If it's identified in the Cylinders/Heads/Sectors manner you have to make sure those C/H/S figures are the correct ones for the drive.

Just an observation:
I don't see how the drive would ever get to ntfs from the xp install. My reason beeing that before xp gets to the partitions screen, it does a check to see how much ram you have. Xp won't let you continu unless you have 64mb ram, so iether vinsant is unsure about the spec or he's using a hacked copy of xp.

No there wouldn't be an NTFS partition on the drive because the drive can't be accessed in order to create a partition. One of the original error messages, '. . .if you have HPFS or NTFS installed. . . ' is automatically generated by windows setup when it can't find a formatted dos partition.