what does required paramiter missing mean in ms-dos

what do these ms-dos error codes mean:

required paramiter missing

need to create ms-dos partition

 

[tsg=welcome] Welcome, Amy [/tsg]

Missing parameter: Some DOS commands require a parameter. For instance, if you type MD you will get that message. If you type MD MYSTUFF you will get no message and you will create a folder named "MYSTUFF".

When you FDISK a drive to prepare it for formatting, you must create at least one MSDOS partition and make it active. DOS can only format a DOS partition.

 

i guess what i am trying to do is install win98 on a totally formatted 1 GB HDD on an old 1995 Icean corp. mobo. i keep on getting those error messages and for some odd reason, i cannot run the fdisk utility from the win98 bootdisk floppy. please help, we have been working on this one for 6 weeks

 

Hi Amy J

Is the entire size of the hard drive seen in the computers bios? Have you tryed using the bootdisk on a different computer to see if it is good. You can also download a test from the hard drive manufacturers web site to test the hard drive to make sure that it is ok. Is fdisk even on your boot floppy?

 

Quote from E-mail:

i guess what i am trying to do is do a clean install of win 98 on a formatted 1 GB harddrive on an old 1994-95 Icean/Sigma Corp. mobo. i have the correct 98 startup/bootdisk on floppy and cd-rom drivers do get loaded but drive cannot read....then i get the improper Fat partition ,need to redo partitioning so i try to fdisk, won't do it. sometimes it says there are no fixed disks present, it's not properly reconized in bios/setup, not even auto-detect sees it, should i just thro the mobo or what cause i know hdd work and it does the same with a 3gb hdd!?!/


The fact that BIOS fails to recognize either of two drives would seem to indicate a problem with the BIOS or motherboard.

Before going further, I would recommend checking the drive's jumper settings and trying another IDE cable...

 

If you know the type of hardrive you have, eg, manufactorer. You can input the cylinders, heads, sect..etc.......However, there is a utility called IDEID which you should be able to download off the net. You copy this file to a floppy disk...Boot the system, and run the IDEID file. This should find the correct settings of your hard drive. Take a note of them. Then, in the BIOS, go through the type numbers and select user, or something similar. Then, you should be able to enter the cylinders - head- etc..

When you boot with the floppy, and you have chosen cdrom support, make sure your windows 98 cd is in the cdrom drive.

type D: at the A: prompt and press enter/return. Where D is the cdrom drive, but it could be any other letter. Replace as needed

Once on D.....type
cd\win98
then type FDISK and press enter.
you should see 4 options. read each one. But the one you need is create primary partition.

Once you have created the parttion, you then need to format the hard drive.

Reboot as a bove.
Then type

format c:/u
where C: is the hard drive, and the switch u = uncondtional.

Then, having logged on to your cdrom drive, type
setup
and press enter.

This should start the windows 98 installation.

If you cannot get your cdrom drive to read the cd, clean the cd, and or the cdrom drive itself.

 

Amy J here,

Just thought I'd jump on here real quick and give a huge thanks for all your help....what the ol' man and I have decided to do is turn most of these outdated, obsolete mobos, melt them down to flexibility, take it to the ol' anvil and pound it to a nice frisbee shape, you know that nice curve for long distance type flight, and freak-out the neighborhood cause the will think they are seeing ufos' or something, heheheheh;-}