
Please remember when you format a hard drive you wipe off all the data.
Once the format process has started all your data has gone.
So Before you start to format your hard drive make sure you have backed up all your data.
Here is a link to one of the best
backup software programs.
First you need to set your computer to boot from your floppy disk drive.
You do this in the setup or BIOS screen.
To access your start-up or BIOS press F2 or the DEL key when you boot up your computer.
If one of these two commands do not work then look on your screen when you boot up your computer to see how you enter your start-up program.
Once you are into your start-up or BIOS you need to go to the boot page and set your computer boot priority to boot from your
floppy drive first.
This is usualy on the advanced page or the boot page.
As all BIOS are different you will have to look for this.
Once you have set the computer to boot from the floppy drive make the second boot device your CD drive and the third boot device your hard drive
Make sure your windows 98 boot up floppy disk is in your floppy disk drive.
Now save changes and exit your BIOS.
Your computer should now restart and boot from the floppy disk.
You will see Searching for boot record from floppy. OK. on the screen.
The floppy disk is booting DOS, Just leave it until you get an A prompt.
This is the black screen with A:>
Next type FDISK then press enter.
You will now see a lot of writing with
do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N) [Y]
Press the enter key.
You will now see a screen with 4 choices and at the bottom Enter Choice: [1]
Leave option 1 Create DOS partition or logical drive in the brackets then press enter.
On the next screen again leave number 1 in the brackets to Create Primary DOS Partition and press Enter.
The computer will now verify the drive integrity. Leave this until it has finished.
On the next screen leave the Y in the brackets and press Enter.
Your computer will now create the partition.
Once the partition has been created you will be asked to restart your computer.
Restart your computer by pressing the CTRL-ALT-DEL keys at the same time.
You computer will now format your hard drive.
On the next screen after you hard drive has been formatted you will get the message.
Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none).
If you dont want to name your hard drive just press the Enter key.
That is how to format a new hard drive with a windows 98 boot disk.