Formatting Parameters?

I just acquired a Toshiba 2545CDS laptop w\Win 95 installed on it. I have a Win 95 Boot Disk and can get to an "A" prompt because I want to format this HD and install Win98SE on it. At the "A" prompt I type in 'format C: \' which doesn't work. I've tried different variations of that but can NOT get the right one:cry What is the proper formatting parameters? I haven't had to format a drive in over 2 years and I cannot remember what the correct parameters are. BTW, when I turn the machine on I cannot get to the desktop, but rather a message that states something like 'replace system disk and try again.' But when I put the floppy is when I can get the "A" prompt. Anyone know the correct parameters?? Thanks!!!

 

Fdisk is your friend, you can't format a disk until it has a partition.


EDIT: Wikipedia MS-DOS commands.

 

For that matter, a Win98SE disk contains fdisk - just boot to the CD, and follow the prompts for partitioning/formatting/installing.

 

I love DOS - I just wasted 30 minutes studying that page! :-Drolleyes:-D

 

Thanks you two, I do appreciate the assistance!! I got it up and running with Win98 SE thanks to fdisk. I can't believe I got such a major 'brain freeze!':-o Now that it is up and running, I gotta figure out what I'm going to do with it! After all it's powered by an AMD K6 with a whopping 96 megs of RAM!! NOT a powerhouse, that's for sure!:-D I'll probably just give it to my son and let him play some of his older games on it, because that's about all it's good for! One thing's for sure....I will NOT forget the word 'fdisk' again! Again, thanks a lot for the help!

 

Good job, Stubby!

Yeah, Win98 is a good old OS - I've got a 98 machine with 768 mb PC-133, 1.8 gig Athlon, 20 gig WD, Radeon 9600 256 mb, and it rocks the socks off of older games like Half-Life, Soldier of Fortune, NASCAR 2003, etc.