How to completely erase Windows 98 SE from hard disk \ VOGONS

How to completely erase Windows 98 SE from hard disk

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First post, by assortedkingdede

Posted on 2022-12-19, 20:21

assortedkingdede Offline

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I have been trying to resolve an error where Windows 98SE starts into dos mode, beeps twice and then shows a bunch of gibberish on the screen. When I reinstalled the operating system the same error happened. How can I completely erase the contents of the hard disk so everything is clean slate. (Update: installed in different directory same error).

Reply 1 of 4, by leileilol

Posted on 2022-12-19, 20:45

leileilol Offline

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Insert a boot disk then formatting the hard drive clean.

though what i'd also try to do is run F-PROT to see if there's a funky prehistoric virus in there, and if not, it could be a RAM/voltage/caps issue, or perhaps the hard drive corrupted a device driver like himem.sys

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Reply 2 of 4, by assortedkingdede

Posted on 2022-12-19, 20:50

assortedkingdede Offline

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leileilol wrote on 2022-12-19, 20:45:

Insert a boot disk then formatting the hard drive clean.

though what i'd also try to do is run F-PROT to see if there's a funky prehistoric virus in there, and if not, it could be a RAM/voltage/caps issue, or perhaps the hard drive corrupted a device driver like himem.sys

Well I know it is a configuration issue involving a DOS shortcut since it happened after I changed the batch file setting. I tried using FDISK on the startup cd command line but it would not even acknowledge the existence of drive C but I was able to access C drive in the command line.

Reply 3 of 4, by Cosmic

Posted on 2022-12-20, 00:56

Cosmic Offline

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You could try dban if you want to be totally sure there's nothing on the disk. A single zero pass should be sufficient. The last version that runs on standard i386 CPUs and fits on a floppy has filename "dban_1_0_7_i386.ima".

Reply 4 of 4, by assortedkingdede

Posted on 2022-12-22, 00:39

assortedkingdede Offline

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Issue resolved, I pulled out another hard disk that had a windows 98 installation and used that to format the broken one.

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