HD help!!!!!!

[smuhuskie]

My system developed a problem by not showing an IP address. No IPconfig file was found. Have a Compaq computer that had been preloaded. Tried the recovery disk and that wouldn't work or recognize the backup made last spring. Tried reformating and loading Windows98 onto system. Every time I try set-up, the OS does a scandisk and comes up with error message regarding not being able to read last cluster. Now I have no computer, OS etc. ( typing this from a friend's system) D drive is still intact. Anything I can do to recover or load the OS to get back up and running????

[Ol'Tunzafun]

Welcome to Sysopt smuhuskie.
What's on the D drive? Is that a second partition on the same disk?

[Midknyte]

error message regarding not being able to read last cluster

sounds like a bad hard drive. download the diagnostic program from the hdd manufacturer.

[smuhuskie]

Yes, D drive is partition on the same disk. Backup is located on this drive.

[Sterling_Aug]

Win95/98 use winipcfg while Win2k/XP use ipconfig.

[Ol'Tunzafun]

Assuming that you have run the drive diagnostic suggested above:
The next time you run Setup, add the switch "/IS".
SETUP /IS
This instructs Setup to not run Scandisk.
This may not work because it sounds like Setup cannot see the far side of th C partition. Try using FDISK to delete and recreate the C partition (Primary DOS / Active) and then reformat.