Formatting Help

[Gogetalo]

I have a problem with reformatting. A while back I partitioned my hard drive into two parts. One to put Windows files( "D" drive) on the other for my downloads, software and such ( "C" drive). I had to much stuff on my drive for my software so i wanted to format it, so i put in my bootdisk and formatted it. my drive with my windows files is still there but i cant get windows to boot up. is there something i have to do to my C drive to get it booted up WITHOUT having to wipe the D drive too and re-partition it too. Oh and another thing, my E drive is my CD drive and i cannot access it through a dos command anymore, it says "File not found, drive is a ram-drive" so i cannot get my windows ME startup disk to go either. help please. thank-you.

[GretaP]

Hi Gogetalo,
When you boot from the WINME startup disk and choose to start WITH CDROM SUPPORT, the RAMDRIVE it creates usually pushes your optical drive letters up a notch, so your CDROM drive would probably be F. To see what drive letter is going to be assigned to the CDROM drive, when you boot from the startup disk WITH CDROM SUPPORT, look for a line slightly above the A: prompt which will say something like this:

Drive x: = Driver MSCD001 unit 0
(where the x that I have used will actually show the drive letter for your CDROM drive)

Are you saying that you installed Windows on D drive, or just stored some of the Windows files there?? Normally, the C drive is the active partition on which Windows is installed, and since you have formatted it, it won't boot into Windows if Windows was indeed installed on it prior to formatting.

[Gogetalo]

Thanks GretaP for the Cd rom help. And what i mean is that my Windows is installed on D and my C was the primary disk and D (where I installed windows) is the Secondary.

[GretaP]

You're welcome for the CDROM help.

As for your inability to boot into Windows, were you able to get that solved yet? I guess what kinda confuses me with this one is that WIN9x (which includes WINME) does not natively support booting from a secondary hard drive, so unless you have been using a third-party application to support booting from the secondary hard drive, I'm not sure what else to tell you regarding making it bootable again. Is it two physical hard drives that you have in your system, or one physical hard drive that is divided into two separate partitions?

[Gogetalo]

It is seperated into two partitions but i found that my C drive is not bootable and it tells me to use windows setup to make it bootable but i get an error when trying to reinstall windows. how do i make my C drive bootable?

[GretaP]

What is the error message you're getting when you try to reinstall Windows?

There are a coupla methods you could try in order to get Windows reinstalled on the C partition. You could install directly from the install CD (after booting from the startup disk), or you could copy the CAB and Setup files to the C drive and then run setup from there.

In order to install directly from the install CD, boot from the startup floppy disk and choose to start WITH CDROM SUPPORT. When you get to the A: prompt, put the install CD in the CDROM drive and then key in, at the prompt:
setup
and press ENTER

If that doesn't work out, switch to the drive letter for the CDROM drive by keying in the drive letter at the A: prompt and pressing ENTER.......for example, if the letter for your CDROM is F, you would key in, at the A: prompt:
F:
and press ENTER

Now, at the F: prompt, key in:
setup
and press ENTER


In order to copy the CAB and Setup files from the install CD to the C drive, boot from the startup floppy disk and choose to start WITH CDROM SUPPORT. At the A: prompt, switch to C drive by keying in:
C:
and press ENTER

At the C: prompt, key in:
md WINDOWS
and press ENTER

Back at the C: prompt, press F3 to bring up your previous command (i.e., md WINDOWS) and add this at the end of WINDOWS:
\OPTIONS
and press ENTER

Back at the C: prompt, key in:
cd WINDOWS\OPTIONS
and press ENTER

You should now be at a C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS prompt. Put the install CD in the CDROM drive and key in:
copy Win9x
and press ENTER

(the above assumes that the name of the folder on the install CD that contains the CAB and Setup files is Win9x.......if it is another folder name, then substitute Win9x in the "copy Win9x" command for the actual name of the folder).

[Gogetalo]

ok i know all that and it didnt work, i was talking to someone i know and they said that i could push backspace as the computer turns on and instead of making the floppy drive the bootable drive make it the cd rom drive and run windows right off the cd, or create a dos partition or something. Well my C drive isnt bootable so i cant install windows there because it wont let me do that when i try to install it. D drive (the secondary drive) HAS windows on it but it wont boot up. I think it is because the system files that are supposed to be on C that make it bootable. is there a way to get those there?

[GretaP]

i was talking to someone i know and they said that i could push backspace as the computer turns on That depends on the key or key combination to enter BIOS setup on your computer........it may be the backspace key, or it may be F2 or F10 or Del, etc. When your computer is first starting, look for a line that says something like:
Press Del to enter Setup
or
F10 for Setup
The key or key combination mentioned in the key that you have to keep tapping as your computer starts. The timeframe to press the correct key to enter BIOS setup is quite small (a few seconds), so by the time you notice the line that mentions the correct key, it's probably already too late to start tapping it. If you miss the chance to enter Setup, restart your computer and keep tapping the key that is mentioned until you get into Setup.

You can change the boot order to try booting from CD before it tries booting from floppy or hard drive. If you put your Windows install CD in the CDROM drive and boot from it (I don't know whether the Windows ME install CD is bootable or not), that doesn't mean that you are going to be able to run Windows from the CD.........this CD is meant to install Windows, not for Windows to be run from it.


Well my C drive isnt bootable so i cant install windows there because it wont let me do that when i try to install it The C drive does not have to be made bootable before installing Windows.......the installation of Windows puts the system files on the drive.

If you want to make your C drive bootable without installing Windows on it, you have to either use the /s switch with the format command (this formats and then transfers system files to the drive being formatted) or, since you've already formatted the drive, boot from the startup floppy disk and at the A: prompt, key in:
sys C:
and press ENTER

This should transfer the basic system files to the C drive and make it bootable (should boot to a C: prompt).

To be honest, I am not sure the method that was used to install Windows to your D drive, as Windows 9x is meant to be installed to and boot from drive C. In any case, the boot files would have been installed to the C drive, not the D drive, when Windows was installed.......formatting the C drive has wiped out the boot files.

[Gogetalo]

Thanks fot the help but i just got fed up so i transfered the files i needed from the d Drive to a ZIP disk and reformatted the whole thing, im back up and running now, but thanks for the help