reformat questions

Well you resolved my boot up nightmare by having me uncheck autoexec and config from the msconfig menu. It lasted a litte while but now its worse. The auto and config are still unchecked and the whole system seems in slow motion. I decided to reformat and reinstall windows. I dont have any valuable info on this laptop, use it mainly to browse emails etc.

Heres my dilemna... I was using rselbys link
http://www.rselby.com/installingwindows.htm#2

and put in the startup disk, I rebooted but nothing is happening, all I have is a black screen with the cursor flashing in the top left corner.

Can I reformat the HD by restarting in MS-DOS mode? After 10 minutes I can get the computer to boot and then I can choose shut down, restart, but for some reason when I shut down all the way and use the start-up disk I am getting nowhere.

 

Are you sure you have a good boot disk? With the correct files on it? In the bios setup, you have it set to boot to the floppy disk first?

 

Yep, boot disk was bad. Created a new one and it works.

Do I need to do fdisk before I format?

On this laptop drive D: has files for safety shutdown or something like that. I should reformat that drive as well correct? If I dont will there be a conflict?

 

No, I think I would just format the c: drive and leave d: alone......I wouldn't bother with fdisk either as you don't really want to change the partition sizes either, I'm assuming the hard drive probably isn't that large anyway.

You have access to both the floppy and the cdrom at the same time, correct? Is this a Compaq?

 

The answer to both questions is yes. I have floppy and Cd and it is a Compaq.

I am not wanting to use the recovery CD because I want only the bare minimum. The recovery CD loads too much unneeded junk.

 

Sorry for the delay in responding......had to run some errands.

You should be fine then.....I guess I'll assume then that you have a full Windows installation cd........

 

I have the Windows 98 Upgrade CD that cam with computer and the recovery CD which has the windows 95 files.

 

I would still think you should be ok then.

 

Ok this is starting to sound bad...

I started the format with format c:/s

It gave me the warning all data lost yes / no question

I pressed yes and then....

Checking existing disk format

Recording current bad clusters
1percent completed
insufficient memory

back to a: prompt


????? I have a bad feeling Im gonna be a bit grieved with your answer.

 

Does the hard drive have an overlay program like EZ-Bios on it......I wouldn't think so......but sometimes that will give a bad error message....

What happens if you try format c:
without the /s

 

Just typed in format c: without the /s and it got past the insufficient memory message.

It is now on verifying.... so I should be ok right?

Is verifying very time consuming? because it is showing the percentage rate and it is slooowww.

I always like to learn, what did the / s mean anyway?

 

The /s transfers system files so that you can boot to the c: drive directly. The verifying and format process can be slow.....but if it's not done by now.....my next concern is the hard drive is dying.......

 

OK ran through everything... scandisk found errors on drive d: and fixed them... i didnt even know i had a drive
e:ms-ramdrive ???


Finshed installing windows 98 back on the latop and it only gives me the options of 16 colors on the display.

How can I fix it back to where it was? Would those drivers for the monitor on the laptop be found on the recovery cd?

 

The ram drive is loaded with the boot floppy, that's it.....once you finished installing, and removed the boot floppy and are loading windows, you won't have that drive anymore.........

You need the display adapter drivers installed. Either on the restore cd, or go to Compaq's website. It should have a setup.exe file for them.........