Cannot Reformat Drives

[EvilAngel]

Let me tell a bit of whats going on first.

I installed a new HDD for my mom about two months ago and while I was setting it up I carelessly ok'ed an action to the "D" drive. Something about the MBR. I really dont remember exactly what it was. The drive I installed is "G" drive

Well she has had problems ever since with "C" & "D". Almost virus like stuff going on. She had to reinstall most of her programs etc.


I went to reformat drive "D" with a 98se boot disk and after I typed the command "format d: /u" I got an error that said "cannot format Network drive" then I proceded to try and reformat drive "C" and got the error "unable to format drive, cannot recognize partition format" or something close to that.

How do I go about reformating the HDDS?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! TIA.

[ScottE]

Try Fdisk /mbr first then just FDISK it.

[EvilAngel]

Originally posted by ScottE
Try Fdisk /mbr first then just FDISK it.

I'll try that...thank you!

I like you again...j/k .lol ;)

[mccoffee]

Did you scan disk at all?? It sounds like ur partion table is messed up if you have a copy of norton utilties or some other system utilites boot into that and scan maybe a virus scan as well .

I would also maybe try removing all the partions using fdsik then recreating the a partions then just format. Then do a fdisk /mbr after boot with an xp win98 boot you should be all set

[mccoffee]

Posted about the same time as scottie

[Norm]

Fdisk /mbr should work, but doesn't always do the trick. Fdisk won't change an mbr it sees as 'good'. Plus, depending on the type of partitions, Fdisk may not even see them.

If you can't manage to clear this up, I have an app that will.

[YeOldeStonecat]

First thing I have to ask first...what OS is your moms computer?

If anything NT based (read: NT 4, 2K, or XP)...throw away those old DOS boot disks, no need to bring them out. Everything you need to install the OS is available on your OS install disk, native NT utilities, which lead to less problems than trying to use DOS utilities. I always partition and format my C partition, install the OS...then once up to desktop, create my extended partition if I'm splitting the primary hard drive using Disk Manager. On installing NT only worry about your C partition, do the rest of your partitions after service packing and booting to desktop.

If you're adding another hard drive to NT, you still want to use Disk Manager, to create, delete, format, change drive letters, etc.

If the OS is Win9X, yeah stuck with the old DOS utilities. You can run FDISK from within the OS in a DOS window, works fine for working with the second hard drive.

[TonyT]

If you can't manage to clear this up, I have an app that will.

I can persoonally attest to the fact that the app Norm mentions DOES work completely. I've used it several times when installing operating systems on my test box, e.g install linux, then install win98, then install winxp, then back to linus etc etc etc. The mbr can get hosed easily when going from one os to another, esp if using linux boot manager. Lilo. the native linus boot manager can get installed into the mbr OR into a boot partition. Installing it in the mbr really hoses theings when trying to then install a windows version. Thus the need and use for this app Norm speaks of. It's robust, complete, fast, and has many options for fixing, changing or editing the mbr.

[Easto]

There is also a program named "Delpart". It will wipe out all partitions and info. I've used it several times.