Cannot format HD or Properly partition

[Lunatic]

I got a new HD, SeaGate 160GB 7200 Rpm, I am unsure of what the motherboard is, I installed Win XP when I got the HD. I decided it wasnt what I wanted. I removed it as per Microsofts online instructions. I removed NTFS and formated for FAT32

After I removed it I restarted and when it got to the A prompt I typed in Fdisk to setup Partitions there were two already there, one was labled non dos and the other was labled NTFS, I deleted the one labled NTFS the other one was deleted as well, then I restarted

I went back into Fdisk to partition and set active partition. It went through the whole thing, i believe it was a drive chekc, I set the partition to the full drive. But when it finished it only shows the partition being I believe 6MB.

I also tried to format and it tells me it does not support format in drive c: and it will do nothing. I get the same message when i enter Dir.

When the computer first boots and does its check it detects the drive then it shows it as 130 GB, Fdisk shows it as stated above 6MB.

What I am trying to do is install Win 98.
If I missed any info please let me know.

 

[Justin]

Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP do not natively support drives larger than 127GB. The standard DOS FDISK provided with Windows 98 and the Windows 98 startup disc do not support hard drives larger than 32GB.

In order to do this right, you will need some other partitioning software, such as Partition Magic or the built-in partition managment in the Windows 2000 / Windows XP setup.

You will need to create a 31GB partition for 98 alone initially, then install it to that. Later you can install proper drivers for your IDE controller and HDD. I'm not sure what software allows you to see >127GB on Windows 9x.

 

[Lunatic]

Thanks for the reply.

I got home a while ago. when i got here I remembered the about the disk that came with my HD, the one I used the first time when I installed XP.

I also checked the size of the partition fdisk made, it was not 6MB it was actually 65533MB.

I ran the disk I forgot about and it partitioned my drive at 132GB which isnt too bad considering the drive is 160. It also advised on how to get the remainder back, it said to use Partition Magic (which it came with) and also to update the bios.

There was a problem it found and I asked to ignore (for now), it found a boot virus. I am not sure how I am going to take care of that, but I figured it would be easier to do it when the system is up and running.

Thanks for the help.
I guess I'm off to do a search on boot virus's

 

[Justin]

Boot sector viruses are old, rare, and not something you want to wait until the OS is installed. You should wipe the drives partition table immediatelly.

 

[genericuser100]

"After I removed it I restarted and when it got to the A prompt"

You didnt use an old floppy disc by any chance? :angel:

 

[Lunatic]

No it wasnt an old disk. When ever I have a problem and have to use a floppy to boot I always make sure to use a new disk and get it off a good system.
I work on computer at work every once in a while, thats something we do all the time.

The drives partitions were wiped clean, at least three times.
I still havent found anything to get rid of it. Any ideas on that? I do have Norton.

 

[Lunatic]

So I have been looking around and found what is spose to be a good dos antivirus, it says I have nothing.

It checked the MBR (two of them it says) it also checked two boot sectors as well.
I got what I believe is the most up-to-date version.

Oh, I got F-Prot
http://www.f-prot.com/products/home_use/dos/

Any one know of any other antivirus programs I can try.

Thanks

 

[patio]

lunatic,
if you have to remove a boot sector virus try this
it was written by the folks at McAffee and worked for me.

patio.

 

[Lunatic]

Great thanks, I'll try it out as soon as I get home.

 

[Lunatic]

Well so far I have tried all dos antivirus programs I have found and none of them find any kind of boot virus.

 

[patio]

What program originally alerted you to a boot virus ? ? ?
Did you run the scan from the link i gave you ? ?
You might also want to do an online virus-scan. I realise they are hard to detect but it's worth the effort as you will only have headaches down the road if it isn't eradicated.
And contrary to popular belief they are neither old or rare...we have found 3 instances in the last 4 mos. on client's machines.

patio.

 

[Lunatic]

The program that founds or alerted me of the boot virus was from the install disk that came with my hard drive. DiskWizard is the name of the program.
http://seagate.com/support/software/

Yeah I ran the software from the link posted above. When I downloaded and unziped the "Modified" date was 2/8/05 so I believe it was up to date.

From dos I ran "scan *.* /sub /boot /clean" It said it checked 2 boot sectors and 2 MBR and found nothing.

Then I ran "scan *.* /sub /clean" it said it checked 12 things and found nothing as well.

I have also run McAfee online scan, Norton 2004 professional, F-Prot DOS scan and an other DOS scan program I don't remember the name of that.
They all turned out clean.

 

[puppetgrimm1]

New Hard drive's

Sorry messed up