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I am trying to reload Windows 98 on a Gateway after formatting the C drive. Everything seems to be going along well until an error message appears that says something to the effect that Windows 98 can not be downloaded on my computer because of a partition error. Then the program invites me to push enter to exit setup and I am left hanging at the D drive. Can someone please help me -- I am lost in ComputerLand.
Make sure you formated the drive using the fat32 format not any other formats because 98 can't read then, If is was partition for XP of some other operating system you will pobably need to re-partition. type fdisk in dos and deleted your primary partition on the C: and create a new primary partition and esit and restart. Then you will need to re-format the drive again to make it readable then run the 98 setup again.
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At the d:\> prompt type:
fdisk
and enter, Y to large disk support then option 4. Exactly what does it say?
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I typed fdisk at the d:\ prompt and chose option 4 and following is the information that was displayed:
Partition - C: 1
Status - (blank)
Type - Pri DOS
Vol Label - (blank)
Mbytes - 2047
Sys - Unknown
Usage - 10%Total disk space is 19571 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes.
I had hoped that when I woke up this morning that the computer fairy had come and fixed the problem and Win98 would load but still no cigar. DO you have a clue as to what the issue might be and how I might address it? Thank you for your response!
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Hi Joel -- thanks for the suggestion. I deleted the partition and created another one using the Win98 disk. Then information on the partition drive is that it is active, primary dos, the volumn label is full of characters I can not reproduce here . . . Mbytes = 19571, the system is Fat32, and the usage is now 100%. The problem of not being able to install 98 still remains, however. The exact error message I receive is as follows: Setup can not install Windows 98 on your computer. An error was detected while formatting your primary hard disk partition. Press enter to quit setup.
Have any follow-up suggestions? Thank you for your help. amie
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The 'unknown' under 'system' when you ran fdisk means your hard drive isn't formatted. Boot from the bootdisk. At the a:\> prompt type:
format c:
and enter. When it's done, reboot with the bootdisk again, choosing cdrom support and install windows in the normal manner.
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I was just going over some old threads and noticed your fdisk reports only 10% of the drive is in use. Apparently it's partitioned fat16 which has a maximum partition size of 2 gig.
If you're still keeping track of this thread, you may want to start over with fdisk and remove the existing partiton. Then reboot, run fdisk again, Y to large disk support (that's what makes it a fat32 partition which uses the entire drive), then option 1 to create the partition. When it's done, reboot, format and install windows.
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Sorry to bring back an old thread. But I am having this exact same problem. Under "fdisk", I have set the one and only partition to "active". It has random, non reproduceable characters for the "volume". So I am guessing it is not formatted. When I type in "format c:" from the A/ prompt, it gives me "bad command or file name".
I also get the error of "Setup can not install Windows 98 on your computer. An error was detected while formatting your primary hard disk partition. Press enter to quit setup."
I dont know what else to do. I have exhausted every option in fdisk. Can anyone help?
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 Sharing network function
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Bootdisc hides c:
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