Problems with Win98 FDISK \ VOGONS

Problems with Win98 FDISK

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First post, by vladstamate

Posted on 2016-07-09, 19:37

vladstamate Offline

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I m trying to repartition a disk which had both Win98 and WinXP on it. Now all I want is a single partition for Win98.

The problem I am having is that FDISK is reporting 1 partition type EXT DOS with no logical drivers. If I am trying to display the logical drives it tells me "No logical drives defined."

So I am trying to delete it ("Delete Extended DOS Partition") but when I do that it tells me: "Cannot delete Extended DOS Partition while logical drives exist."

Ok, I am pretty sure FDISK told me there were none, but whatever so now I am trying to delete this non-existant logical drive by selecting: "Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition". Guess what? Yeah it cannot do that, it tells me:

"No logical drives defined."

So back at the beginning. What can I do?

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Reply 1 of 6, by Jepael

Posted on 2016-07-09, 19:59

Jepael Offline

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Interesting issue.

You could partition it on another computer with another partitioning tool, or boot another OS to repartition in current PC. For example Linux boot CDs and FreeDOS install floppies have partitioning tools.

If you want to stick with just Win98 boot disk, you could alter or clear the MBR with debug.exe if it exists there.

I don't know if the "fdisk /mbr" command will help here, but did you try it?

Reply 2 of 6, by vladstamate

Posted on 2016-07-09, 20:08

vladstamate Offline

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Yes I've never encounter that. I thought about "fdisk /mbr" but that only changes the mbr loading code. I tried it just in case and it did not erase the partition table itself.

Your idea about Linux Live CDs is a good one. I'll give that a try. Debug.exe is also an option true.

Reply 3 of 6, by Oldskoolmaniac

Posted on 2016-07-09, 20:14

Oldskoolmaniac Offline

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best bet is to to use a newer machine with a drive reader and format the drive using this program ----> http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm just click the picture to download.

After formatting you don't have to worry about fdisk at all just run windows 98 setup.

I hardly ever use fdisk, but if you don't have a driver reader there very cheap on ebay ----> http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=drive+re … reader&_sacat=0

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Reply 4 of 6, by Jo22

Posted on 2016-07-09, 20:54

Jo22 Offline

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As the others said. And for DOS there's also XFDISK from FreeDOS.

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Reply 5 of 6, by vladstamate

Posted on 2016-07-09, 21:00

vladstamate Offline

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Thank you all. I managed to delete the partitions using an Ubuntu LiveCD. It seems there was an NTFS logical drive in the extended partition that somehow the Win98 fdisk app could not see.