How do I format HDD?

[docbk]

I have an older system that I don't use regularly anymore and I want to format the Hard Drive and start with a clean windows 98 install. But I can't find any way to do that, since it tells me that windows is using the hard drive and can't format it. It's the only HDD in the system and it has Windows Me on it.

I've tried booting to DOS from a Win 98 floppy with format.com on it, but that won't work either. It just tells me that "Format" is not a valid command.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[dysangel]

If you boot with cd support, change to your cd drive and run it from there

[Harshu]

Insert boot floopy. Disable support for CD ROM. When finished Type Format c: and press enter. If it give any error mesg then create anothe boot floopy from windows and try again.
If notthing work re-partition the HDD this will work ia sure about that

[Explorer]

Probably the Master Boot Record on the hard drive is configured for your Windows ME installation. There are a couple of ways to get around it but if you want to "go-back" to Win98 (a smart move) it's quite easy.

Boot using a Windows 98 boot disk but make sure the boot disk has the Windows 98 version of fdisk.exe on it. You may have to get it from a system running Win98 if your boot disk doesn't have it. It should also be available on the Win98 CD.

Once the system has booted, CD support is not necessary at this point, at the A:> prompt type fdisk /mbr (note the space between fdisk and /mbr). You won't actually see anything happen but it will have re-written the hard drive Master Boot Record for Win98.

Put the Win98 CD in the drive, shut down and reboot with CD support. At the A:> prompt, type format c: /s and press enter. That will format the hard drive, and copy system files to it making it bootable.

When the format is done, switch to your CD-ROM drive. In a single hard drive, single CD-ROM drive situation this will be the E: drive as the boot disk creates a ramdrive using drive letter D:

Type setup from the E:> prompt and press Enter. That will start the Windows installation.