Best Link For "Formatting" A New Hard Drive?

G

gsbadbmr

New Member
Well, last week i had someone format a 160GB Hard Drive, however since i am running Windows 98SE it won't recognize it because it is too big.

Can someone give me a really good link on "how to format a new hard drive" so that i can do this myself? I am buying an 80GB hard drive because i already have a dozen of them so i know they work fine with my system. Is this a "DIY" job, or should i have someone experienced do it? Do i have to "F-Disc" it first?

Thanks to anyone who can point me in the right direction.:D
 
Since you have Win98, you need to create a boot disk, and use fdisk to format the drive. It's a DIY job, no need for a tech support guy.
 
This new 80GB hard drive will be a slave and will be placed in my sliding tray drive "D" when i transfer files from my "C" drive.

I just need to know where to go and how to format it so that it will be recognized. By brother used to come over to my place and do it for me but he has no time whatsoever to travel...he lives quite far. He said i should be able to to do it myself with a good link from the web.

Thanks for the help!
 
[-0MEGA-] said:
Since you have Win98, you need to create a boot disk, and use fdisk to format the drive. It's a DIY job, no need for a tech support guy.
Click to expand...

Would you have a step by step link by any chance? I really would appreciate it alot. My "C" drive is full!

Thanks!
 
Im not an expert on Win98 since i havent had it for many years, but if i remember correctly, you boot into Windows and go to add/remove programs, and there is an option for windows components. Go there and click on the "create startup disk" button. Then boot from the disk, run fdisk, and follow the directions on the screen.
 
I was also wondering, do you know what is "NTFS" exactly? I read that a this isn't compatible with windows 98, but what exactly does it mean?

Thanks!:P
 
NTFS is the file system that was created with Windows 2000, its not compatible with Windows 98. NTFS stands for "New Technology File System"

You need to have your hard drive formatted as FAT32 for it to work.
 
Ok, thanks alot for the help and feedback. It finally makes sense to me now. When i purchase my new Hard Drive tomorrow at the local computer shop do you think they would be able to format the new drive easily for it to work with my computer that is running windows 98SE? If so i think i will just have it done there.
 
Well you need to plug it into a computer to format it, and it can take around 30-60 minutes to complete, so im not sure if they would do that, but they may for a fee.
 
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