eep...reformatting issue -- OS wont install, lost HD space

[sho0]

I know this is long but eep. I need help, hopefully ive put enough information...

Every year I usually reformat my WIN98 but this time it screwed up or something..

At first, when I typed (at the A: prompt) "format C: /s" it would tell me my C: drive wasn't in the right format or something and format would terminate...

Somehow, I figured my way out around that... I think I went into FDISK and deleted the partition, created a new one, then reformatted. It went smooth, and OS installed but then as I was installing a large game I have it told me I was out of memory! which is like near impossible since its 40GB and I had just reformatted!

I checked C:'s properties, and it turned out that it gave me 1.06 GB...however it was in FAT32 format ..so what the.. that should make the drive bigger, should it not?

I reformatted AGAIN and.. then it gave me 8GB and claimed that that was the max size my HD could hold, which is complete BS lol... I eventually fixed that by restarting and pressing F1 to get into setup and it had the wrong number for I think it was the clusters or head or something.. so FINALLY it registered as 40GB (about time)

When i put in the system floppy disk thats supposed to install MS DOS 6.22 or my CD-ROM drivers it tells me I need a WIN95 cd and crap.. which I dont recall ever having.. (guess Ill have to borrow a neighbors XD *waits for the e-police to catch me lol*) and it doesnt even bother to attempt to install MSDOS...

i've used the floppy that came with my HD to reinstall it several times, which includes the partitioning and formatting, within even the past hour in hopes itll somehow fluke out and work..

When I do
D:
Setup (for my WIN98 CD)
it says "If you have HPFS or NTFS installed on your hard drive you will need to create an MS DOS boot partition to start up windows" I have no idea what HPFS or NTFS are and yea... im cluess..what is it talking about and what do I do? Did i finally manage to massacre a computer? lol..

I would take it to a shop but.. I dont really want to be charged 500$ for something i can figure out eventually... although its been like 3 days..

here's the disks I have and used:
System Disk (MS-DOS 6.22 or CD-ROM drivers)
WIN98 Startup Disk I created
MAX BLAST + (Maxtor HD install utility)

any other info u may somehow need:
WIN 98 Gateway, HD is from 1997 -- is it maybe time for a new one?

plz respond asap...my comp is like my life, lol


----
and now, it thinks 8GB is the max again..dammit. I guess its time for a new HD? any suggestions

[brad]

What are you trying to do... Format and install Win98? Just want to clairify this before we go any further.
brad

[sho0]

reformat my HD and reinstall win 98

[Restek]

First up, don't bother with the Dos6 disk - dos6 cannot see FAT32 partitions. You should be able to just boot off the win98 floppy disk & run the setup program from the CD. You may also find that you need to use the format program that came with your hard disk because your BIOS cannot support such a large hard disk.

[sho0]

Thanks
although I fixed the problem on my own an hour before I read the post lol
but now I know dos 6 doesnt like FAT32..lol *feels retarded*

after the format command at the A: prompt thing didnt work I used the disk my drive came with.. but yea it was still screwed up.. eventually I decided 'what the heck' and installed the CD ROM drivers..which I doubted it would need since my CD ROM is new.. and then it could read the WIN 98 disc and voila.

Thanks again for ur response

[Restek]

Glad you got it sorted