Can you format a HD in an XP pc to use in a 98se pc?

if you put new drive in as master , old as slave and use partition magic or ghost to duplicate the drive to the new drive that would be more accurate and speedy.

Ron

XP will format the new drive but it won't partition it. The cheapest way to partition (cheaper than Partition Magic etc, because it's free) is FDISK. If you are FDISKing then your trusty boot floppy can also include FORMAT, which means your can do the whole operation in your friend's computer.

Once you have installed the OS, you can put the old drive in as Slave and copy/paste any files you want from old to new (for free). Don't fit the old as Slave until you have installed the OS in the new, because the Windows CD will find the OS on the Slave and start all that dreary business about "Another OS has been found on Drive X. Do you want to replace/upgrade/delete this OS? (and I won't let you do anything else until you tell me)".

Gary

If he puts in the new drive (which is not formatted and has no OS) in the friend's computer as Master, how can he run Partition Magic or Ghost to duplicate the old drive from the Slave position?

Ray Liffen

partition magic and ghost both have boot floppies , and in some cases run straight from cd.

ghost will run from a single boot floppy without a problem , and since we are talking win98 machines definately capable of backing the drive up from that floppy.

i've done this for years , and it works fine.

Thanks Gary and Ray.

Although it may well be easy to do it with patition magic (and I do have version 8) I have never used it before and having just looked in the manual, will give that a miss. (seems very complicated to me!!)

I will not be using my XP pc either, so will as Ray suggest be going back to using the old fashioned fdisk methods.

All the best, Ron.

Windows 98 can boot from the CD, and if you have a new drive, it will configure the drive (i.e. partition and format) when you go to install Win98.

Using the Win98 CD with a new drive will only produce a single partition. With todays huge drives it is often sensible to create several partitions, and FDISK gives you full control over this process.

Ray Liffen

Thanks plettner. I thought that I had done something like that last year as I did install 98se on a new pc for someone and I could not recall having problems or using any other methods. But, at my age, very late sixties, memory is not so good.(wish we humans could just upgrade like pc's!!)

Regarding partitions, I think that only one is needed in this case. I will however have a go with all other methods on one of my own pc's as I hate not knowing how to do things, even if I do have to keep looking at manuals etc.

thanks again everyone, Ron.

Hi, everything went ok with my friends pc. Replaced damaged HD and went into bios to boot from CD and as mentioned above, drive formated ok and installed 98se. No problems as the only device that had been connected to this was a printer, which I reinstalled.

But, I got carried away with all this and when I got home decided to change a HD which has been playing up and causing bootup problems. It was now making a constant clicking noise.

So as it is a 98se pc I went through the process as I did on my friends pc. But, although I have got 98se installed and it does function, there are some problems that I can see.

For instance, when I boot up a message comes up saying a file is missing and to continue I must press any key, which I do and it carries on ok.
The file in question is vnetbios.vxd any ideas why this happens??

I have also noticed messages telling me various other files cannot be found when it has asked for the 98se CD ie
secur32dll.
surapi(orl).dll
msmpu401.drv
vnetbios.vxd
dhopcsvc.dll

I have no idea what any of that means and any help/advice most welcome.

I have also noticed other things like. No sound and I cannot adjust the monitor It has set at 640x480, it was not like this prior to the new install of 98se.

Sorry for all the questions, but any pointers welcome.

All the best, Ron.

A google search found these pointers

secur32dll
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q283/2/61.ASP&NoWebContent=1

svrapi(orl).dll
http://www.cinet.net/support/kb/tech/tech17.html

msmpu401.drv
http://forums.windrivers.com/archive/index.php/t-8104

vnetbios.vxd
http://forums.windrivers.com/showthread.php?t=12253

dhopcsvc.dll
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=822596

I wouldn't waste any time on the drive if it's on it's way out except rescue your personal data.

Regards

John,thanks for the information. I had not thought about google for a thing like that and I am a great user of google.

These problems are with a new install on a new HD.
I think what has caused me the problems is that I did the install with everything still connected to the pc. ie the network, cardreaders, printer, scanner,got the printer and scanner ok by installing the drivers etc, but cannot understand what is being refered to for other devices showing up yellow in device manager. ie
Other devices.
PCI Card
PCI Ethernet Controller
PCI Mulimedia Audio Device

AlsO for Network adapters it shows just a hint of yellow at the bottom of the p, which is in green.

It seems to revolve around the network which is my weakest subject and I cannot understand about the Multimeadia Audio Device, which I do not have connected showing up as a fault?

However, thanks, I will read through the links you have given, all the best. Ron.

Hi everyone. Well I have had a good read of the links John supplied and from this it seems that the main problems a about the network system. This pc was on a network with others
Laptop on 98se(cable)
2 XP pc's(cable)
laptop xp wireless
xp pc (wireless)

Router is a Netgear.

Problem is I have no network neighborhood on the pc now and so cannot get anywhere. do a search etc on HD and 98SE CD.

Sound is not available
cannot change the monitor res
Both these were ok before changeing HD and installing 98se.

I am getting close to thinking that I will do a reinstall of 98se, this time with nothing external connected. Is this the best way? because without being able to get connected to the internet via my network and broardband I feel lost, cannot even update 98se. The previous had been kept up to date, but this CD installation used is not.

Anymore help, like how to get network neighborhood, would be welcome. I can get Network, but that is I assume different from what I need. All my other PC's show the network neighborhood symbol.

All the best, Ron.

Hi. Just to bring this all up to date, I must confess that I made a very, very, basic mistake.
All my problems were due to not installing the drivers for the motherboard!!!!!

The PC is over 2 years old and I have no idea where the motherboard installation disc is. To be honest, I had completely forgot about doing this. Which really was somewhat silly because I have built many PC's and the previous day had reinstalled an operating system for someone else and yes, used that motherboard drivers disc. It was there to use, mine was not. Only excuse, well old age I guess.

Sorry for the wasted time on this thread, but if it helps even just one other person, maybe it was worthwhile.

So, the message really is. If you are reinstalling your operating system, make sure you have your motherboards installation disc ready.

All the best, Ron.

Hi All,

Just another thing anyone reading this may need to be aware of. If you install the Windows networking (which I think those files pertain to) and Windows asks for the Windows CD, make sure the drive letter is correct, as often there isn't a Browse button you can just use to browse for the files. In other words, when Windows is installed, the Install Path (i.e. which drive letter the CD-ROM is) may be set to D: for example. When you first start Windows, another drive (like a Zip drive) may then steal the D: letter and the CD-ROM moves to E:. If your Windows asks for the 98 CD, it may still be looking for the CD in D: (which isn't there now). You can just change the path to E:\win98 (or whatever).

One last tip to try is finding the files in these directories:-
c:\windows
c:\windows\system
c:\windows\system32

Usually they're there, but Windows doesn't bother looking there for them - it just wants the CD.
They may hide in those folders, so just try each of the possibilities for each file Windows asks for.

Sorry if these answers were found in the Microsoft links. I was too lazy to check.