Wierd symbols in Volume Label-can't delete

[DRIFT-O-MATIC]

I'm trying to rig up a puter to give to a friend to use for e-mail. I have this old puter that I had Win 98 running on it at one time. It got a really bad infection, and I ended up formatting the HD. Since then, I haven't been able to re-install The OS from the original factory installation disk. When I do fdisk, I try to delete the existing DOS partition; but I can't, because the volume label has a bunch of wierd looking symbols in it. I can't type these symbols in the brackets, when I am prompted to "enter the volume label".

Next, I tried to scandisk. There were hendreds of files and directories that I spent hours and hours "fixing" on scandisk by selecting "fix it". However, each time it does a re-scan, these files are still there (or more of them keep appearing). Could I have messed up the HD when I formatted it? Or, could the infection done this?

I don't know what else to do, since I can't delete that wierd volume label and re-partition before formatting again. When I type "setup" at the promt with 98 CD in the drive, it starts scandisk, and the whole cycle starts all over again. Any help out there?

[degsy]

Goto the HDD Manufacturers site and download their disk tools to Partition and Format the drive.

Or use a third-party utility such as Partition Magic or BootIT NG or UltimateBootCD

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

[Bad Dog]

Go to a dos window or just boot to dos and type label
Enter none for volume label (just hit enter when it asks for 11 characters)
Then enter 'no' for enter volume label or then rename, or not, volume label
This should clear label.
BD:disgust:

[DRIFT-O-MATIC]

Bad Dog, I tried that, but I get "Invalid system disk". This happens every time I put in a floppy boot disk, including Powermax (from Maxtor site for their utilities and diagnostics). I even get "invalid system disk" when I boot up to their Maxblast utility CD. The only time I'm able to boot up at all, is from the original Win98 installation disk. However, this does not allow me to do as you advise, because when I type "label" at the prompt, it says "bad command or file name". This is displayed from any drive prompt. What's next?

[Bad Dog]

You can do this from a dos window also or boot to dos.
Better yet use windows explorer and open windows/command. Find label.exe and double click on it. It will bring up a dos screen and just hit enter to remove any volume labels.
c:\cd c:\windows\command See if label.exe is located there. Check and make sure. (if in pure dos, and at the c:/> prompt, type cd windows\command and make sure label.exe is in there.
Type label /? and see if you get any info pertaining label command.
If yes, then just type label c:
Then hit enter for none.
This should clear label name. If not, then the junk in the label name is either too long or it has characters that are forbidden in the use of label names.
Then we'll have to try another approach, drastic like fdisk.
A bug must have gotten in there or that section of disk is bad.
Have you ran scandisk and automatically fix errors?
Get back. I'll search some more. Should be piece of cake but strange.
BDF:disgust:

FYI:
FAT volume labels cannot contain any of the following characters:

* ? / \ | . , ; : + = [ ] < > "
I suspect you have a virus. Go to housecalls or any online virus scanner and see what it picks up.

[DRIFT-O-MATIC]

BadDog, this is a wiped HD. I'm trying to re-install an OS. The only way I can get to the DOS prompt, is by booting with the WIN98 installation disk. When I get to A:/> and type in label.exe, I get "bad command or file name". When I type in "dir", it shows me a list of files; but label.exe is not present. What's with that? I'm going to try something else. I have another "working" computer" that I'm going to try swapping out the hard drives, and see if I can install the OS onto the problem disk with it. If you have any other suggestions, let me know. I'll be back.

[Bad Dog]

Sorry if I misunderstood some of what you were saying.
You are on a computer right now. Is it the same version as your old one?
Yes. Copy label.exe to a blank flop or your bootdisk if enough room.
No. Find the right version on the net, d/l and do same.
Boot your startup disk and choose #2.
That should get you to an A: prompt
Insert disk with label.exe on it and run it.
Then follow the above.
Hit no when asked for a volume label.
Hope this more clear.
I had label.exe on my bootdisk because I put more basic commands on
to compensate problems I may have recreating a new hard drive.
Get back.
BD:disgust:

[DRIFT-O-MATIC]

OK, BadDog, this is what I did: I have a "good" machine running 98. I disconnected its HD primary and HD slave, and connected the "bad" one I'm trying to install 98 on. I booted to floppy with a boot disk in it, and got "invalid system disk" again...on a good puter. Just for the halibut, I took out the "good" slave and connected to "bad" puter, booted to floppy with boot disk, and got "invalid system "disk".
Next, I disconnected the "good" slave and connected the "bad" HD as the slave in the "good" puter. In WINDOWS, I went to DOS prompt and selected D:/ and typed fdisk. I selected to delete existing primary DOS partition. This time, the volume label was blank. I tried to delete it anyway and got "Could not change partitions, because the disk could not be locked". Now, what?

[Bad Dog]

I'd suggest you put everything back the way it was. What you are doing is exactly the same except on another computer. The computer is not the cause. It is the hard drive and procedure. You are running the risk of messing up your good computer.

After everything is back the way it was, hopefully not knocking any cables or jumpers off or loose, make a startup disk again using the good computer.
This is just in case you have a bad startup disk.
Now copy label.exe to that diskette. If not enough room, copy label.exe to a new diskette.

Now boot the old computer with new boot disk.
Choose non cdrom support.
At the a: prompt type label (If the file is on the bootdisk or blank disk, insert the right one)
This should bring the option of not using a volume label by just hitting enter when the question arises.

Hey, it's a learning experience we all have to go through. You and I together.
I still think you have/had a virus on your MBR (master boot record) but this should overcome it.
Later,
BD:disgust:

[DRIFT-O-MATIC]

Oh, I realize now that when I did fdisk with the "bad" HD as the slave, it was reading the "good" master, and indicated that its label had no name. I don't know what to do now.

[DRIFT-O-MATIC]

BadDog, I did as you suggested. Made a new boot disk from "good" puter, copied label.exe to it, fired up "bad" puter with win98 installation cd in cdrom, and bootdisk in A:/ Tried booting to A:/ , but: "invalid disk". Booted to cdrom, without cdrom support. At the A:/ prompt I typed "label.exe" and also just "label"........"bad command or file name". I then rebooted to cdrom and selected "START WINDOWS 98 SETUP FROM CD-ROM". This brought up WINDOWS 98 SETUP window. I selected enter to start setup. This brought me to another window which stated that C: drive was not compatible with 98, and that I had to format.......so, I selected format this drive. An error window opened: "Windows cannot install Windows 98 on your computer. An error was detected while formating your primary hard disk partition. Press enter to quit setup." That brought me to D:\WIN98> Here, I typed in "setup" which started scandisk, and started me on this mile-long trip of "fixing" hundreds of files or directories. I'm back to square one. Note: this "bad" computer did have a bad virus on it several years ago. That's why I tried to reformat it and start over. But somehow, I just couldn't get it to work. Could a virus actually permanently damage a drive?

[Bad Dog]

"I don't know what to do now."
Read my last post as it was pretty specific what you should do.
BD:disgust:

[DRIFT-O-MATIC]

BadDog, thanks for your help. I guess I'll just chuck the HD, if there's no way to repair it.

[Bad Dog]

We crossed paths on that one. Sorry.
At the A:/ prompt I typed "label.exe" and also just "label"........"bad command or file name".
I know you are doing this without the quotes but for grins put that diskette
in your good machine and make sure the file label.exe comes up in the root files of that diskette. If you installed label.exe in another directory of that diskette, you'll have to path to that directory to get label to respond.
You should not get bad command or file name if label.exe is indeed in the root directory of that diskette.

I know you're frustrated and I wish I could be more help short of being there with you. Just look at my last couple of points.

And look in your bios to make sure boot process starts at A:drive.
Save and exit. Have the startup disk in the flop drive.

To double check the diskette files, when it gets to the A: prompt after no cdrom support, type dir (will look like this a:\>dir) and make sure label.exe is in there. If yes, then type label c: (will look like this a:>label c:)
Disregard all parenthesis

Let me know.
BD:disgust:

[jtdoom]

hi

the error "drive could not be locked" may have been caused by not restarting after an action with fdisk and/or format (or even scandisk).
disk actions like these require you reboot, albeit there are times when one can use the command UNLOCK C: to unlock it (don't use it after fdisk, tho)

I suggest you try again, with this sequence

boot to floppy
fdisk /mbr
reboot
fdisk (do the partitions)
reboot

I fear you do have a bad part on the drive.
then run format without /s switch but use unconditional instead
format C: /U
reboot

then run scandisk
scandisk /CUSTOM
make it check surface etc, set fixing options so it fixes automatically
after that, reboot

copy win98 folder to C:
C:
md win99
cd win98
copy D:\win98 (or from E:win98)

and when it copied over, run setup from the copy on hard drive
C:\win98\setup

[DRIFT-O-MATIC]

BadDog and JTdoom, I packed up all the pieces parts and shoved it all in the storage closet, quite depressed that the problem couldn't be solved. Then I read your last posts, and became encouraged to give it another try. So, this is what I did; I hope I followed all of your instructions correctly:
1) On my "good" 98 puter, I downloaded the w98se bootdisk from bootdisk.com. to my desktop.
2) Opened this icon on my desktop; was prompted to insert floppy into A:, which I did, and it was copied to floppy. I write protected the floppy.
3) On the "bad" computer, I set the boot sequence to floppy; inserted boot disk; turned on machine; and it said: "invalid system disk".

It seems that, no matter what disk I put in the floppy, I get this same error.

So, I boot to the CD-ROM with the WIN98se installation disk in it, and select No.2: "Boot from CD-ROM", and select No.3: "Start computer without CD-ROM support", it goes to A:/> prompt, at which time I did fdisk. I selected #1:"Delete primary DOS partion". Then I partitioned it. Re-started machine, booting to cd-rom, and chose WIN98setup, at which time I formated C: drive. When it was done formating, I chose to setup W 98. It did a scandisk, and the following window opened:

"ScanDisk cannot read from the last cluster on drive C. This cluster is either damaged, or your system is not configured properly. Drive C may need to have Lgical Boot Addressing enabled to work properly, or its disk partitionmaybe incorrectly marked as a non-LBA partition. Data loss can occur if your LBA setting or disk partition type for this drive is misconfigured.
Check your computer's BIOS setup utility, or contact your computer manufacturer, or have your computer checked by a qualified computer hardware technician.
If you are sure your drive is configured correctly, click Continue to have ScanDisk check drive C for errors."

When I quit setup, the following showed up on my screen: "Setup found errors on your hard disk. You must repair these errors before continuing with Setup. For more information, see SETUP.TXT on Setup Disk 1 or the Windows CD-ROM. Press any key to quit Setup. When I pressed any key, it said: Please remove any floppy disks from your drives and press any key to restart your system.

What do I do next?

[jtdoom]

hi

it sure looks like that floppy disk drive is dead, eh?

booting from CD, you can get to a dosprompt, and you can do so without CDROM support to start salvaging the usable space on that hard drive.

I would use fdisk /mbr prior to any other actions, and reboot after fdisk /mbr
(you won't see what it does, it does it really fast too, and it will only give an error if no hard disk was found.)

reboot
then, you fdisk, again remove all partitions (all those you found)

reboot
run fdisk to make new partition, choose Yes for large disk when it asks, and then do NOT make the partition as large as it suggests, but use 94 percent instead.
make that primary DOS, and make sure it is active by making it active.
(I think it won't be automatically made active when you selected to make it 94 percent rather than what it suggested)
and don't make an extended... so you won't have to make any logicals either...

reboot (still without CDROM support)

fdisk /status
(make sure your partition is active)
if it is, esc
if not, make it active, and reboot

if it is active,
format C: /U
(this takes a while)
reboot WITH cdrom support when it finished

now run scandisk C: /nosave /autofix
this may take a while, but you would get an error report when it finished, and when it shows it finisished without bumping into corrupt clusters, you have succesfully avoided that bad spot on the drive. (why I told you to waste 6 percent)

after scandisk, reboot

and now you copy the win98 folder to hard disk,
md win98
cd win98
copy E:\win98
sys C:

pull the cdrom out, reboot to C:\>_ prompt
and run setup from the copy on hard disk.

cd win98
setup

or
c:\win98\setup

good luck!

[DRIFT-O-MATIC]

OMG, you're not going to beleive this! I went through
all the wiring again, and found that the data cable was
flip-flopped. I turned it around, and was able to make
everything work. I must have done this when I was
scavanging pieces parts. Geeeeeeeeeez! What a waste of
time. Thanks, everyone, for all your help.