Creating FAT32 Partition|Preparing Drive for OS install using Win98SE Bootdisk

Tagged: Windows installation

This is a quick recipe from one of my other ones, this explains how to use the ever dreaded FDISK to setup a partition on a new harddrive or delete an existing harddrive before clean installing an os using the windows 98 se bootdisk. Requirements: Windows 98 Boot Disk, Harddrive.

So you got a new harddrive and want to install an os on it or have a harddrive that you want to wipe clean and re-install your os on; but fear the dreaded FDISK dos app? below is a quick recipe to soothe those fears of FDISK away.

Requirements:
Windows 98 SE Bootdisk

NOTE!
Remember that deleting a partition is equal to formatting your harddrive.
So if you want it, back it up to cd or dvd!!!!

Step 1. Deleteing Existing Partitions (if you are not using a new harddrive and want to delete old one)

a. To do this, we will need to change the BIOS/CMOS settings so your PC will boot to Floppy first.

b. Insert the Windows 98 Bootdisk, reboot your PC

c. It will bring up a Windows 98 Startup Menu screen, choose the first option, Start Computer with CD-ROM support. The bootdisk will load and eventually return to a A:\

d. at the A:\ type: FDISK

e. This will now load the FDISK utility. The first screen might ask you “Do you wish to enable large disk support”, choose Y for Yes. Also, if your C: was formatted as a NTFS drive vs FAT32, it might also ask you if you want to treat non-FAT drives as unknow or something, again choose Y for Yes.

Now you should be at the FDISK menu.

f. The first thing we will do is to [4] Display Partition Information to see what we have setup and what we need to delete.

g. Once we see what we have setup, esc back to the Main FDISK menu and then go to [3] Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
Now it will bring up four options:

1. Delete Primary DOS Partition
2. Delete Extended DOS Partition
3. Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition
4. Delete Non-DOS Partition

When you delete partitions, here are some basic guidelines:
Here is the order to delete partitions (first to last):
-Non-DOS > Logical DOS Drive(s) > Extended DOS Partition(s) > Primary DOS Partition

-If you have any NTFS drives, if possible try to delete them in Windows before booting to Floppy. So it makes life easier, especially if the parition is created in an Extended DOS Partition. When trying to delete them from FDISK, it might say “Cannot Delete Extended DOS partition while logcal drives exist” however when you try to delete the logical drive, it will say that none exist. If this is the case, what I do when this happens (I’ll explain how to avoid running into this problem in the creating partitions section) is I will go ahead and quick start installing XP and once the XP setup gets to the disk part, I delete the NTFS partition from there and then start my whole installation from scratch again (delete all partitions and create new ones)
Once you have deleted all of the partitions, go back to the main FDISK menu and to the next step.

Step 2. Creating Partitions with FDISK (as an example, I will use a 60GB harddrive, just continue right onto this step!)

a. First, lets decide if you want to use the whole harddrive for one partition or if you want to setup multiple partitions (ie c: drive and a d: drive).

b. e should still be on the FDISK menu (below).

________________________
Choose one of the following:

1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive
2. Set active partition
3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
4. Display partition information

Enter choice: [1]
Press Esc to exit FDISK
_____________________

c. Go to [1] Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive

d. Then go to [1] Create Primary DOS Partition
If you have a Primary DOS partition, it will give you a message saying “Primary DOS Partition already exists”, you will need to delete this. (put in italics, smaller)

e. it will now say that is verifying drive integrity, once its done with this it will ask:
“Do You wish to use maximum available size for a primary DOS partition and make the partition active (Y/N)”,

choose N if you want to setup multiple partitions (pic below) or Y to just create one partition and make it the full size of the harddrive:

________
Create Primary DOS partition
Current fixed disk drive : 1
Verifying drive integrity, 100% complete.
Current fixed disk drive: 1
Do you wish to use the maximum available size for a primary DOS partition
and make the partition active (Y/N) ………………..? [N]
________

f(optional).
if you are setting up more than one partition, It will now ask for how big you of a partition to create, in either:
in bytes or in percent (xx%). Also, you might notice that the space free/available might not match up with what your harddrive is (if its bigger than 20gb); this is because FDISK is limited to seeing up to 20GB (if my memory is correct, might wanna check this out for sure!). What I do is I create partitions based on percentage. In my example, I have 60GB harddrive, so I am going to create this partition to be about 15GB. So I would find out how much percent of 60GB,. 15GB is.
After the math, 25% will equal approximately 15GB.

Enter in the percentage as such: xx% (be sure to put in the % sign or it will take the value as size in bytes!) then hit and it will create your partitions.

g. Once it finishes, it will bring you to this screen. Just ESC to the FDISK menu. At the bottom of the FDISK Menu, you should see a message:
WARNING! No partitions are set active – disk 1 is not startable unless a partition is set active.

h. Go to [2] Set active partition and Enter the number of the partition set as active and . It will let you know that Partition 1 made active.

i. Now just ESC all the way back to to the DOS Prompt ( a:\ ) and reboot your computer. Be sure to leave the boot disk in since we will need to now format the drive we just created.

Step 3. Formatting the Drive / Pre-installation

a. again, choose to start with cd-rom support and let the boot disk load to the a:\ DOS prompt

b. now type: format c: and follow the prompts.

c. This might take a few minutes to complete, let it finish.

d. After you have the c: drive formatted, we are good to go to install an OS!

peace
seamonkey40