I installed a second hard drive (with the help of friend) as a master drive in computer having NT4. He repartitioned the master drive and reloaded OS NT4. Unfortunately, OS failed to detect the network card (I have cable)as I cannot go to internet. Also, my video graphic does not show 256 color resolution. Now my friend does not know what to do. I found that the computer had originally Windows 98 on it, and the company Gateway put NT4 on It. I tried to use the supplied recovery disk to get back my network connection and video resolution. While doing so I got the message "The first hard drive does not contain FAT16 or FAT 32 windows partition....You need to install DOS CD-ROM drive manually...see C:\CONFICS.TXT etc. You will need to partition your hard drive manually...See C:\FDISK.EXE". I could not see these files on NT4 and do not know what to do. Can somebody give me some step by step guide regarding what to do to solve the network & video problem and/or going back to Win 98. Thanks in advance for your help.

Slightly confused as to what you actually have re' hard-drives. Perhaps you can/will post back with clarification (in case suggestionss below are inappropriate) - viz:

How many drives installed; what is installed on Master (and also Slave - if two drives); drive partitioning respectively; also format(s) of each drive/partition; also what (OS?) was on original Master drive - if now set as slave?

Meanwhile...

Your post does seem to imply that you have two drives installed; and that the Master is NT4 (and ntfs format - which is why the no fat16/fat32 error message...)?

Presumably a return to '98 only is the preferred option...?

If this is so then it's a delete the ntfs partition via the '98 boot-disk Fdisk util (ntfs shows up as non-DOS in Fdisk), then reconfigure/reformat of the drive back to fat16/fat32.

You can also use delpart.exe to delete the partition on Master, and then reconfig/reformat etc. for '98 - afterwhich re-install '98. (Boot-up with '9x/DOS boot-disk; change to delpart floppy and run util, following on-screen prompts.)

Delpart is around variously (download and transfer to a floppy, or add to a '9x/DOS bootdisk and thus avoid a floppy-change):

http://www.mesich.com

http://hercules.lss.ksu.edu/download/MSSTUFF/index.htm

and for Fdisk etc., and re-installing '98:

http://www.btinternet.com/~robert.bale1/formatinstall.htm

If there is a current Slave, and it has '98 already installed, then you could just reset that as Master, with current NT4 Master as Slave; afterwhich reconfigure/reformat that (Slave) NT4 drive as fat16/fat32?

As regards network/graphics issues: drivers may or many not be available for the NIC you have installed; similarly for the graphics card? Useful to first check if they exist for both items (web-sites for each item).

A NIC has to be manually installed in NT4; and also the required NT4 drivers for the graphic card. (Incidentally adding/installing a NIC is included in the help files for NT4...; as is updating a graphics driver...)

If you want to persevere with the NIC/display issues under NT4 (rather than go back to '98) - again post back?

Thank you very much for your time and suggestion. You guessed it right. I have now two drives. The original one was converted to slave and the new one is the master drive. At present both drives are partitioned for NT4. Both have the same OS. The reason I want to go back to original W98 with the recovery disk hoping that I will get back all the settings. In this case do I have to keep origianl drive as the master drive? I will try your suggestion and get back to you, if I need further help. I thank you again.

An option to consider?

As you have NT on both drives, you could opt for a dual-boot - after you have re-installed '98 on the Master?

If you want to establish a dual-boot ('98 on Master and NT on Slave) then it would be wise to reconfigure Master along the lines as follows:

Master drive (active Primary):
c: = 100-150Meg = fat16.
Master drive (Extended partition):
Subdivide into at least two logical-drives; use first as fat16 for shared data (NT cannot see fat32..); and second as fat32 for '98 itself.

You can even further subdivide if you wish into a mix of fat16/fat32 'drives'. Remember that fat16 = 2Gig max (under dos/'9x-ME); fat32 = more than 2Gig if so wished.

When you run '98 setup it will install its boot/start-up files to c: , and you change the default location for the system files - the OS itself - (normally c:\windows) to a logical-drive in the Extended partition.

After installing '98, to establish NT boot/access, run NT setup as per norm and choose the Repair option; allow it to inspect/repair boot-files etc. This will install NT boot/start-up files to the c: (active Primary) partition on Master drive; will establish the bootsect.dos for '98 to boot via NT boot-loader; will rewrite Master-drive mbr to NT version; will write boot.ini to reflect both OS installed, and thus completes a dual-boot...

NT path statments will remain as is (correct) for NT on Slave drive.

The above routine accomodates the need for a common active Primary that is fat16 when dual-booting NT with '9x/ME. Both OS will have their respective boot-files in the active Primary; each OS itself being in its own 'space' (partition/logical-drive). If c: = fat32 then without a healthy tweak/hack - or an add-in boot-manger util - you canoot easily dual-boot NT with '9x/DOS.

Post #3279 on this NT forum uses this approach (from a scratch/fresh start). It uses only one drive in that example, but it applies equally to dual/multiple drives - the routine is effectively the same regardless. It was posted a while back by ???, and is one way to set it up; all credit to him