formatting under 98 boot disk

[roninway]

I just installed a new hard drive and after creating the Dos partition and beginning to format it reached 3% and then started to recover allocation sectors. It has been running all day and the size is increasing but it still has not finished. What is causing this?

[Dragonbssj]

I just installed a new hard drive and after creating the Dos partition and beginning to format it reached 3% and then started to recover allocation sectors. It has been running all day and the size is increasing but it still has not finished. What is causing this?

Well I dont know the Cause exactly but you can try doing something esle.

1st lets completely clean that hard drive.
Use KillDisk
Download Bootable Disk Creator for Free version of KillDisk (http://download2.lsoft.net/killdiskfloppysetup.exe) (USB Flash & Floppy)

Then once you clean the Hard Drive out.

Try useing this.

Windows 98 SE Boot Disk
Windows 98 SE (http://www.mbhs.edu/~jaosborn/boot98se.exe) OEM | Mirror1 (http://1gighost.net/ohioman/boot98se.exe) | 2 (http://files.frashii.com/~bootdisk/lorrainegabay/boot98se.exe) | 3 (http://www.msu-hb.de/download/boot98se.exe)

Once you do this
Select Boot Without CD Support then type in A/:FDISK to make a FAT32 partition then after that restart the computer then this time use the Boot Disk
option WITH CD support then when it loads your CD-ROM drive type in A:/FORMAT C: then after that Switch to your CD Drive Letter like E: then type in E:/SETUP.exe once that is done the Windows 98 SE will start.

Hope this helps.

[roninway]

Thanks, I'm trying it now. Never had one do this so its driving me nuts.

[roninway]

OK, got up this morning and its still trying to recover allocation sectors. If I put it in my other desktop and use the HD utility to format it in fat 32 will it load the operating system. I have to put 98 on it first because my XP is an upgrade cd.

[Murray S.]

Howdy and welcome to CTH:

If it is still trying to recover that many allocation units, I am afraid to say you would be better off getting a new hard-drive as that one is on it's way out FAST !!

It really wouldn't matter where you put the hdd in to format it..

Murray

[Idnew]

What brand is your hard drive? Didn't you say this was a new drive? Sometimes using the hard drives own low level formating utilities will fix it and sometimes not. Maxtor has good luck with fixing a hard drive from what I've read about it.

You can download it here http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068/?channelpath=%2Fen_us%2FSupport%2FSoftware%20Downl oads%2FATA%20Hard%20Drives&downloadID=22