Reformatting problem

I hate to be a noob here, but I'm trying to reformat an older P.C. and put in a bootable copy of 2000 server. It currently has ME and a 6 gig scci HD. When I go thru the steps and try to delete the primary (and only) partition, it says I can't because it CAN NOT be locked. ??? I just want to wipe out everything and start fresh. Any ideas? Also, the hcl on M$ website is the same for ME and 2000 so am I right to assume everything will be O.K.?

 

boot with ME boot disk.. run fdisk and delete all partitions. then create desired partitions. then format c: .. reboot with win2k cd in drive.

 

Thanks for the response. I don't have the ME disc. It's an older P.C. a friend gave me. Is there any way to wipe out the HD without the ME disc?

 

can you boot into ME? if you can, grab a floppy disk and go to ADD/REMOVE in the control panel, then select the tab that lets you make a boot disk. ...make boot disk.. then boot with disk.

 

Thanks, gonna try it now then I'll update.

 

I tried it again with a 98 boot disc in and then tried it with a 2000 boot disc in and I still get the same "Could not change partition, because the disc could not be locked". Do I have to make a ME boot disc or is it something else?

 

*BLINK*

 

boot with the disk and at the prompt type
LOCK C:
hit enter and then run fdisk

 

I typed that and it says "locking operation failed"

 

make sure you're doing it from within a dos box in windows..

 

I went to start>run> and typed in commanad. Is this correct? I also tried it from start>programs>accessories>dos prompt and got the same results.

 

no.. get out of windows.. boot to a dos prompt using the 98 boot disk.

 

When I re-booted with the startup disc in, windows seems to just start normally except it asks to pick between windows 2000 and windows. I picked windows, but tried it both ways.

 

I have the bios open now and it has SCSI listed first in the boot order and then floppy. Do I need to change this?

 

the windows 98 boot disk should give you three options.
1. boot do dos command prompt (something like that)
2. boot with cd rom support
3. boot without cd rom support.

I want you to chose item one. OR just hit SHIFT +F5.. either way, I need you to be at an A: prompt..


on a side note, this is only the second time I've ever seen this error message. First time I saw this was in 1997.

 

No, the boot disc doesn't give any options. It's set to boot to SCSI first and then to floppy, do I need to change this?

 

yes captain, make sure floppy is first boot.

 

You were correct sir. I wish it was a bad floppy and not a stupid error by me. So, now I'm ready to delete the partion and instal 2000 server, but it's on a bootable disc. Do I have to change the boot order again or can I just use the CD?

 

You can use the CD rom so long as there is no floppy in the drive.

 

I booted with CD rom support after deleting the only partion and it says insert a system disc. I put the 98 floppy and that puts meI in a dos promp window. I can't get this CD to run at all and I'm not even sure of the drive letter. Any clue here?

 

the windows2000 disc is bootable. Just boot off that. You did it once before, you can do it again. In the bios, make sure that the hard drive is set to last boot in the boot order. Don't put a floppy in, put the cd in and boot that biyatch up

 

O.K. The SCSI harddrive is third/last in the boot sequence. I rebooted and a little ways thru bootup during start-up on the PCI listing device page, at the bottom it says:
Verifying DMI Pool Data........
DISC BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISC AND PRESS ENTER
I've pressed enter and it gives me the same message (but just the part in caps. Is my disc bad?

 

no, your disk isn't bad. there is no OS on the disk so it's going to give you a boot error. You need to install an OS. This is the step we're at.

You can either
1. boot from cd
or
2. boot from floppy with cd support

and install the OS.

NOTE that you really really really should have smartdrv.exe on the boot floppy if you plan to load from boot floppy with cd support. If you use the boot floppy you need to type SMARTDRV.EXE at the A: prompt after all the cd detection is done. If you don't load smart drive then the copy process with take an hour or more.

So.. what do you want to do.

 

The 98 boot floppy was made in add/remove programs so I'm not sure how to add SMARTDRV.exe to the floppy. I have selected "boot with CD support" when it boots from the 98 CD, but I dont know how to start the CD. From the dos prompt, I selected D>/ and typed in setup.exe but it said "cannot run this program from here". Also, I tried typing smartdrv.exe at the prompt that comes up and it says "bad command". I'm sorry if I didn't explain it right before, I've never used dos before. I'm not sure what else to do.

 

Your CD wil be E:

Win98 creates a Ramdisk D: If you cd to E: you should be able to access setup.exe

When you've booted off the floppy and got to the A: prompt type E: then press enter. this will take you to the E: drive, your CD.

 

you can grab smartdrv.exe from any win98 machine or ME, doesn't matter. and just copy it to the floppy. You may get a message saying there isn't enough room. If so, open the floppy and delete the README.TXT it's not necessary and it should fit on there ok.

I'm trying to figure out why you can't boot from the CD>

 

I read in the help files that it often changes the CD to one drive letter up but when I try switch to E: it says "invalid drive specifacation". The D: comes up though but I'm not sure how to start it from there. I tried typing setup.exe, but it said I can't run that program from here.
I'm gonna try to copy smartdrv.exe right now.

 

O.K. , I copied smart.exe to the floppy and booted with it. It asks (as it did before) if I want to boot with CD support and I hit yes. I then put in the bootable 2000 server CD. Nothing happens so I switch to the D: drive. I typed in dir and it appears to be the CD files. I assume I had to type in "setup.exe" to run it, but when I did it says "that program can not be run from dos". Thats where it sits now. I'm going nuts....How can I start this disc?

 

ok 2 things you're doing wrong.
1. In order to BOOT from the cd you MUST NOT USE the 98 boot disc. The windows 2000 CD is ALREADY bootable. If you want to boot from it, then don't use the floppy.

2. if you're using the floppy. after you choose boot with cd rom support at the a: prompt, type SMARTDRV.EXE it will load though nothing will show. Then move to the drive that is assigned to your CD ROM (E and move to the i386 directory by typing CD i386. At this point we type WINNT and hit enter.


choose your option.

 

O.K. I used option #2 and everything started to work, then.....right at the start of setup it says "Windows 2000 requires a harddrive volume with at least 269 megabyte of free disc space. Setup will use part of this space for storing temporary files duiring installation. The drive must be on a permanantly attatched local harddisc supported by Windows 2000, and must not be a compressed drive. Setup was unable to locate such a drive with the required amount of free space. Setup cannot continue. Press ENTER to exit."
Could this be because it is a SCSI drive? In an earlier post I mentioned that the HCL for 2000 was the same for ME which was installed before so I figured it would be compatable. Is there something else I need to do for it to recognise a SCSI drive?

P.S. I just rebooted again with only the 2000 disc in and I get "Disc Boot Failure, Insert System Disc And Press Enter"

 

you didn't format the harddrive did you.. *poke* huh.. come on ..say it.. "Yes, Kodo.. I didn't format the drive.. " *poke* lol..

format the drive and try again..

 

After typing "Format C: " at the dos prompt, it says :
Format Not Supported on Drive C:
Format Terminated.

Anyone have an idea why this is?

 

when you ran fdisk and dumped the partition.. did you make a new one ?

 

Thanks for your patients with me Kodo. I would have given up a long time ago. I now created a new primary partition with the default (entire disc) size and after going thru the steps in Kodo's choice #2 from his previous post I still get this message:

"Windows 2000 requires a harddrive volume with at least 315 megabyte of free disc space. Setup will use part of this space for storing temporary files duiring installation. The drive must be on a permanantly attatched local harddisc supported by Windows 2000, and must not be a compressed drive. Setup was unable to locate such a drive with the required amount of free space. Setup cannot continue. Press ENTER to exit."

Also, the drive letter of the CDrom finally changed from D to E. Is there any other reason why this just will not recognize the drive?

P.S. This post was edited before I read your current post Kodo, I'll try those steps now.

 

yes,
here's a 123 of how it goes..

boot with floppy.
dump partitions
make new partition(s)
set active partition if not already set
format c:

boot with boot floppy or cd
install

 

I just went through all those steps....AGAIN.... and everything seems to be working fine. Setup is copying file right now. Not sure what was differant , but this time the formatting took A LOT longer. Thanks again for your patience Kodo. This is stuff I should know, but I'm a Geek in training and I'm old (38 in 2 weeks) so I don't retain info too well. Thanks again, I just learned a lot the hard way; by embarrassing myself in a chatroom. . I probably be back in a few days and ask all the same questions again...j/k .

 

that's how we learn.. we make mistakes.

 

Kodo..you da man!