Linux partition question

[seung]

Hello guys,

I have installed Fedora Core on one of my old machines a few years back, and I recently dug it up to wipe Fedora out and install Windows 98. When I deleted all the partitions on it, it seems that there is a 4 mb unallocated partition on it (which on Windows is usually 8mb?) which I couldn't get rid of. I used the Ultimate Boot CD to kill everything on it, and now it shows that everything is unallocated, but I'm not sure if that 4 mb is also taken care of.

The reason I brought this up is because maybe I thought this was causing the problem to stop me from installing Windows on this machine. Every time I tried to install the OS, it would tell me "Setup cannot intstall Windows 98 on your computer. An error was detected while formatting your primary hard disk partition. Press ENTER to exit setup."

I have used so many different utility to try and delete, wipe, unpartition everything to start clean, but I have yet to succeed... If anyone knows what I could do to fix this problem, give me some advice please.

Thanks in advance.

(Oh yeah, I have tried reinstalling Fedora back on the machine, and that went smooth w/o problem, so I figure it has to be something with the partition table that Windows does not like.)

[John A]

If you still have your Fedora installation disk (or just about any Linux install disk, it doesn't really matter), boot off it and go into recovery console mode. Once there, run the following command to zero out the entire hard disk:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda

...assuming hda is your hard drive. This will replace everything with zeros: partition table, all partitions, wiped, gone. Once this is finished, you can proceed with installing Windows.

[DimaYasny]

and if you've no linux to do that with you can always download a bootable floppy with disk manager from the hard drive manufacturer's website, and boot from that. the option you're looking for is "low level format" or "zero write drive"

[seung]

If you still have your Fedora installation disk (or just about any Linux install disk, it doesn't really matter), boot off it and go into recovery console mode. Once there, run the following command to zero out the entire hard disk:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda

...assuming hda is your hard drive. This will replace everything with zeros: partition table, all partitions, wiped, gone. Once this is finished, you can proceed with installing Windows.

I tried booting from FC 5, and it seems that there is no recovery console mode... It just goes straight to installing again. Is there any specific way for me to get into the mode, or is there any known easy Linux distros that I could use to get to it?

[DimaYasny]

livecd - knoppix or ubuntu

[jbennet]

Its normal. Ive tried everything and XP always sees 8mb dont worry about it

[seung]

Tried everything listed here, still of no use :(

Anyone else have any idea? I'm getting desparate.

[John A]

Tried everything listed here, still of no use :(

Anyone else have any idea? I'm getting desparate.

So you zeroed out your hard drive and you still get the error from the Windows installer? I'd seriously question the current health of your hard drive right now, as writing zeros over the hard disk pretty much restores it to factory condition.

[jbennet]

it does it on brand new hard disks its a bug methinks

[Belrog]

Basic question, just to make sure. After you deleted all the partitions (or zeroed the drive) you did create a partition to install Win98 on?

Also check your partition is not too big for FAT32.

[jbennet]

aha yes it must be a bug

I just installed XP on a virtual machine and it still had 8mb left over and virtual pcs dont get bad sectors, therefore it must be a bug.