My computer caught on fire...please HELP!

1170 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by SavvyLady, Dec 19, 2001

StepsInSC

Discussion Starter · Dec 19, 2001

Hehe I needed a good topic subject to get your guys attention, but my computer actually did kind of catch on fire. Here's the dilly: A couple of days ago I finsihed up my last exam at Clemson, and was unpacking my stuff here at home since I'm home for break now, I was hooking up my computer, and when I turned it on...poof. A little flame and a lot of smoke shot out the back near the power supply. ASAP i took it to the shop that built it for me, about a year and a half ago, and the damage wasn't too bad. I had to get a new power supply (duh), but unfortunately it took my hard drive with it. All 15 Gbs of music...gone. CRAP! Well anyways they finished running tests on it today to make sure everything else was working properly, and they installed a new 30gb western digital. So I have it here at my house, and this is where I need help.

When I had the thing built a year and a half ago, I didn't buy an OS through them. I installed my own version of windows 98, and boy was that a learning experience because they didn't do anything for me. So with the help of some computer savy friends, I partitioned it and got everything running. But that was a year and half ago and I don't remember it anymore.

I've got my windows 98 startup disk loaded and ready, so my CDROM's drivers are ready to go...and now I'm at the A prompt. I know the 1st thing I have to do is format, by running fdisk. But obviously I can't run fdisk through the A prompt and I don't remember any DOS commands apparantly. So I need some basic help on getting this thing going, I would appreciate any help, especially maybe a short walk through? Thanks so much. (hopefully)

Save

Status: Not open for further replies.

1 - 10 of 10 Posts

StepsInSC

Discussion Starter · #2 · Dec 19, 2001

Here's a more specific question, in FDISK which option should I choose if I want to partition my HD...I can't remember.

1)Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive
2)Set Active partition
3)Delete partition or logical DOS drive.

I'm assuming 2 but I'm scared to try it w/o being 100% sure.

Save

SavvyLady

· #3 · Dec 19, 2001

heres what you need .... I think...
http://www.fdisk.com/

this one too http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/geom/formatTwo-c.html
and this http://www.cs.appstate.edu/~egp/pc_-_net/format_d.html

Save

Nick Scott

· #4 · Dec 19, 2001

Whoo .. you have got a lot to do. This will get you started.The first thing that I would do is check what programs are on your boot floppy. Not all boot floppies are created equal.

Type dir/p at the A prompt and look for fdisk and format. If you have these both on the disk you are ready to cook with gas.

Type fdisk at the A prompt, if it asks you if you want to enable large hard drive support say yes. Assuming you have no partitions set up at all at the moment, choose option 1 to set up a primary DOS partition. Choose what proportion of the disk this is to be (you may want separate parttitions for system and data so leave enough space for those if you wnat them). Once it has done this it should automatically set the PRI DOS partition active. To be sure you can choose option 4 to view partition info and it should have an A next to it for "active".

If you go for more than one partition set up an extended parttition to house it, then create a logical drive (or drives) within the extended partition to use up all of the available disk space.

Once you have done all of this, press esc to exit and reboot with the floppy.

Now at the A prompt type format C: When it says are you sure, say yes. When its done type in a volume (partition label) you can leave it blank but its customary to call C system and other parttioins data etc. Repeat for all of the partitions that you created with fdisk.

At the end reboot again. You are now ready to install Windows. If its a proper MS boot disk it will give you the option of stating setup from CD from the floppy's boot menu. If its one that you made yourself, change to the CD drive by typing its drive letter followed by a colon (eg D: but it may not be D if you have more than one partition, but the MSCDEX loader should tell you what drive letter it has been assigned as the boot process ends.)

The root of the Cd should contain the Windows setup file setup.exe, so at the prompt type setup and hit return and away you go.

See less See more

Save

rkselby98

· #5 · Dec 19, 2001

And if the above doesn't help you here are the instructions from start to finish doing a clean install.

http://www.rselby.com/Windows.html#13

Save

padutch

· #6 · Dec 19, 2001

If all else fails go to Western Digital site and get EZ-INSTALL. It is so easy to formatt and partition and install windows that even I can do it. And it is free!
DUTCH

Save

rkselby98

· #7 · Dec 19, 2001

You have to reboot. Hit CTRL,ALT, DEL and that will do it.

Save

StepsInSC

Discussion Starter · #8 · Dec 19, 2001

Okay well I messed up the 1st time, cuz I didn't reboot. Anyways when I formatted C it formatted C as one big 30GB drive, and I'm trying to get 3 drives. Anyways I'm trying to delete all these partitions now...I deleted C, and now I'm trying to delete the logical drives so I can delete the extended drive. I was able to delete the first logical drive, but I can't delete the second one. You know how it asks you to type in the volume label to verify? Well the volume label for it (Which, BTW, is now Drive C since I deleted the ones before it) is "* Remote *". I can't type that exact thing in because I can't get lowercase letters to work. How the heck can I clear all this out so I can give re-partitioning another shot?

EDIT: Hehe nevermind I finally rebooted and the volume label changed to blank. So I'll give it another shot.

Save

rugrat

· #9 · Dec 19, 2001

Hope this helps,

1. Boot to your floppy
2. At the A: prompt type fdisk
3. When it comes up, chose option 3 Delete partition
4. choose #3 again Delete logical If it tells you there is no logical
thats ok. If you do have a logical, delete it . Then hit escape 1
time
5. Now choose option #2 Delete Extended partition. Escape
6. Now option #1 delete primary The volume label is listed near
the top. If it is blank, you do not need to enter a volume lable
at the bottom. If the is something at the top listed under
volume lable, enter that.
7. Escape then chose option #1 to Create Dos partition. After it
verifies the disk choose NO for maximum available space.
8. On the next screen type in how big youwant the primary
partition to be. After that escape and choose option #2 Create
extended, Continue this until you have created each drive.
9. escape then set your C: partition to active.
10. You then escape out and reboot to the floppy to format each
of the drives. When you get to the A: type Format C:
be sure to put a space between format and C:
Format each of the drive you created then reboot and load the
operating system.

Have fun

See less See more

Save

SavvyLady

· #10 · Dec 19, 2001

Steps...are you sure you have enough help...lol

Save

1 - 10 of 10 Posts

Status: Not open for further replies.

Top Contributors this Month