Bizarre behavior from fdisk \ VOGONS

Bizarre behavior from fdisk

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by EvieSigma

Posted on 2020-01-16, 02:38

EvieSigma Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 586
Joined: 2020-01-05, 04:32
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

I decided to reinstall Windows 98SE on my computer that I had swapped the motherboard in, using that Unattended Boot CD with all the drivers on it. But I've ran into a bizarre issue. When I run fdisk it creates a partition without even giving me the option to name it, and when I reboot the computer the volume name is gibberish and the setup fails with an error when it tries to format it:

What could possibly be causing this? I'm using the same boot floppy I've used for a long time now and I never had any previous issues with this hard drive (it's a Western Digital 40GB drive from the early 2000s).

Reply 1 of 5, by Horun

Posted on 2020-01-16, 03:33

Horun Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 5968
Joined: 2019-09-19, 02:19
Location: USA

My guess is that "Unattended Boot CD with all the drivers on it". The boot floppy is just to get the CDROM active, the actual not retail/not OEM Windows CD media is what cause it.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 2 of 5, by EvieSigma

Posted on 2020-01-16, 04:22

EvieSigma Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 586
Joined: 2020-01-05, 04:32
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Horun wrote on 2020-01-16, 03:33:

My guess is that "Unattended Boot CD with all the drivers on it". The boot floppy is just to get the CDROM active, the actual not retail/not OEM Windows CD media is what cause it.

You know what, that would be the most logical explanation wouldn't it? I'll try reinstalling with a normal 98SE disk tomorrow then.

Reply 3 of 5, by canthearu

Posted on 2020-01-16, 04:24

canthearu Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1200
Joined: 2018-05-26, 01:00

If that doesn't work, reset everything again by using DBAN to zero out the hard disk.

The old partition and MBR information may still be partially intact, confusing fdisk.

Reply 4 of 5, by SirNickity

Posted on 2020-01-16, 19:09

SirNickity Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1304
Joined: 2018-11-08, 04:51

Partitions don't have names. File systems do. 😀 So what might be happening here is whatever is on the disk looks just enough like FAT for fdisk to think it's a formatted partition. If you boot from a floppy or CD or whatever, then "format c: /v:NewName", you'll have a volume label that does not contain upper ASCII.

Reply 5 of 5, by EvieSigma

Posted on 2020-01-16, 20:17

EvieSigma Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 586
Joined: 2020-01-05, 04:32
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Okay, so when I did the install with a normal 98SE CD instead everything was fine. I guess that was the issue then.

That driver CD works inside Windows too so I should still be able to get the motherboard and graphics card drivers off it after Windows finishes installing.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware

Main menu

Common searches