Invalid media type???

I've got a computer I'm trying to get put together and I'm having a hard time. I've gotten through about three snafu's but now have another thats got me pulling my hair out.
I've got an old hard drive that is a 12 gig out of a Compaq that had two partitions on it. I deleted both and set up a new one. Now when I reboot, go to C: and try to format I get "Invalid media type reading drive C:"
If I go straight to d: and run setup all I can get to is "Scanning system registry...
Windows needs blah blah amount of space to install.
There's a line flashing under the W in windows and thats it. Nothing else ever happens.
The mother board is a Asis with a 1700+ AMD processor a new CD rom and floppy with the old quatum hard drive. Win 98 SE is what I'm trying to get installed on it.

 

Just tried another HD that I had laying around and the same thing happens:
"Invalid media type reading drive c:"

?????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

try fdisking the drive and blowing away the partitions on it and then creating a partition on it making that partition active and then format it.

 

I am not sure as I am old and my memory gets foggy but after you get all that crap about how much space windows needs don't you then get the option to format? Or aren't you stopping too soon on the install