How can I format a hard disk drive when the lap top returns "error loading operating system" to all I try?

Question

My laptop has decided that there is something wrong somewhere and displays "error loading operating system" whatever I try. My only legit disks are Win 98 and the update to Win XP. Laptop won't accept them. Just displays "error loading operating system". I need completely to format the hard disk - I think - to load my legit Win 98 but how? I can get into ms.dos but can not find the correct commands to format the hard disk. I get as far far as: "A:\> " and have tried all sorts of commands - but not the right one! Can anyone help please? Bear in mind that there seems to be no operating system available! Thanks a lot. (The laptop is an aged Dell Lattitude C800 that I bought second hand - it had a pirated Win XP on it and I got into this position trying to remove the pirated OS in order first to install my legit Win 98 and then to update to Win XP with my legit update disk - and now I can't even get to the pirated XP - Grrrr)

Answer 1

I guess it can boot from win98 setup disk (if not, change the boot priority as told by all others). At the very first menu, answer "start with cd support". At the a:> prompt, type the command fdisk, then enter. Answer "yes" to all questions you receive. Select option 4, "display partition information". You must delete the partitions in the folowwing order: all non windows partitions, all logical partitions in the extended partition, the extended partition, all primary partitions (with option 3, "delete partitions"). Then, you create a primary partition (option 1). Finally, you mark it as active, with option 2. Close fdisk and restart. After booting with cd support, go to win98 directory on the cd: type cd d:\win98. Then format the newly created c: partition: type format c: then enter. After that, type d: , cd\, cd win98, setup, and this will start the win98 install program. Good luck!

Answer 2

Probably your machine is set to only boot from the hard disk in which case you need to go to the BIOS and set it to first try to boot from the CD drive.



If you watch the machine as it boots normally there is a message that says something like "press esc to enter BIOS" that lets you open the BIOS. If you have the manual this may also tell you how to get to the BIOS.



Once you can boot from CD then simply follow the install procedure where one of the options will be to format the drive. It is a long time since I did a machine with W98 but I think you may need to delete the existing partitions first but anyway the CD guides you through it.

Answer 3

You have to format drive C: from other media such as a floppy disk or a CD-ROM. You can't format drive C from drive C. You would need to get a system disk containing the format command.



If you have a Windows XP upgrade disk then you should be able to boot from that and run Recovery Console.

Answer 4

Okay, so change your BOOT DEVICE PRIORITY in the BIOS, and then boot from disk, if that doesn't work, you can try buying another disk to check if the problem lies within the disk or not, I bet that win98 disk is really old, and they get scratched really easily.

Answer 5

change the BIOS settings and (boot from cd/dvd). inxert os cd and restart the pc. then press any key when you see this msg in the screen. then format and install a fresh copy,.

Answer 6

You need to change the BIOS setting so you can boot from the CD/DVD Drive