Freakin' mistake

[mostly486]

Um....yea,You might not care because its 30MBs,but i formatted my 286's 30MB HDD without FDISK and it wont register.Can i get it back?

[Eli]

Small hard drive or not, we're here to help.

So you fdisked the drive... Did you try formatting it after you ran fdisk? Format and fdisk are two seperate commands. Good luck.

[mostly486]

thats the problem,i DIDN'T FDISK it before i formatted it so it wont even register with ANY startup disk.When I type C:\ at the A:\ promp i get 'invalid drive specification'.

[Dominus]

Man, relax. Just run FDISK on it now. Delete the current partition, make a new one, reboot, and format the partition.

[mostly486]

no ones getting it,there is no way to do anythin to it,6 computers tell me it doesn't exsist.in win95b,win98 ,MS-DOS editor,dos6.22,hell, ill try BASIC but it wont show

[Mntsnow]

Then you have blown your BIOS settings for the HD. You will need to enter the bios and renter the correct settings. Then you will need to boot up with a bootdisk that also has the FDISK utility on it. at the A: prompt type FDISK and hit ENTER

At the first screen choose option #4 this will allow you to see if there is any partitions setup on the drive and what format they are in.

If they are not of the correct settings you can then hit ESC and then choose option #3 and delete the partitions. Once that is done hit ESC again and then choose Option #1 and create the partiton and make sure you set it active. Hit ESC and possiable you will have to hit ESC again to fully exit the utility. reboot the machine with the BOOTDISK still in and at the A: prompt type
FORMAT C: /U and then hit ENTER

IF the drive is still functioning correctly you will be able to complete the format then when it is done formating and you are back to the A: prompt type SYS C: and hit ENTER This will transfer the system files to the hD making IT bootable. When you return to the A: prompt again eject the bootdisk and reboot the computer and it should allow you to bootup to a C:\ prompt http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Mntsnow

[LJE2]

I think Mtnsnow has covered it, but you don't have to fdisk every time you format, but if you format a disk without adding system files to it, you will get the message "invalid drive specification". When you format from a boot disk just type "format C:/S" this adds the system files after the format all in one command.

[Win_98]

i think he formatted then fdisk it
that the problem you got it reversed.
the right way to do it is fdisk it then format it.
it only 30me so it is ancient
like my 5 1/4 floppy drive that I drive away
a few year ago.
they arent worth keeping.

[JW310]

To find the settings for your hard drive, head over to http://www.pc-disk.de/pcdisk.htm and do a search for the manufacturer and model number of the hard drive. This site will give you the correct settings for just about every hard drive out there, no matter how old it is. This may be a start to getting that hard drive to be recognized in fdisk, and ultimately formatted.

I've used this site when I've had troubles getting a hard drive to work, and 99% of the time, it's worked for me!

JW

[mostly486]

Ok,i did everything you all told me to do,Then when i tried FDISK,it tells me 'no fisked disks present'!!!!!

[This message has been edited by mostly486 (edited 05-21-2000).]

[Missing the point]

I feel your pain, I had the same problem with 4 computers, and 6 hard drives. It seems ALL the older 386 and 486 have this problem, I always get the computers that dont work, for like 10 bucks, so I do thi a lot.

The bad news is, I dont have any tips or tricks to help, all I did was kepyt tryin different things, and eventually, 3 of the 4 worked.

The 386 still doesn't, but I am still tryin......

[me4get]

Is the drive an old MFM or RLL drive? If so the drive must be set up using the controller.

[slowlearner]

you also might need the program that let you change your bios settings alot of the older computers had a locked bios like the compaq did you really need to go to your computers manufacture site and see what programs are available for it.