TSGL: Reformat Restore Can't Do It

Tue Sep 12 19:27:01 EDT 2006

Hi Don,

Sorry for the late reply.  More Dr. appts.  I'm afraid I'm at the point like
the CD x 10 you referred to.

You wrote:
In response to the error msg I reported: <<"Drive HITACHI DVD-ROM
GD-2500-8BHAR is reporting Partition percentage has exceeded 90%.">>
>
> Is this telling you that your hard drive, or at least the partition
> containing the OS, is near full?  That would be one reason why W98 won't
> start, and you'd have other problems as well. You need at least 10% of
free
> space.

Answer, Don, I thought that message was referring to the IBM OEM
Reformat/Restore CD Disk which was inserted into the Hitachi DVD ROM Drive
and not the HD.  The Hard Disk where the OS is the IBM Deskstar and has what
should be more than adequate free HD space (see below).

And you wrote:
> Or, if your other computer is on broadband, I could send you the contents
> of my W98SE boot floppy--all you need to do is copy them onto a floppy,
> then change the boot order in the BIOS.

Answer, Don, I don't have broadband.  I have dial-up.  Is the file too large
for me to receive via dial-up?

And you wrote:
 You can reformat from the boot floppy, provided your system is FAT32.

Answer, Don, I think my system is FAT32 ... but is there a way for me to
tell?

And you verified:
The life span of my archived CD-R data disks is limited.

My reply:  I have many "new" TDK disks that I haven't even used yet.  Are
they also to be considered "used-up" as far as life-span goes?  If so then I
wouldn't be able to use them to copy the data previously saved on the older
CD-R's would I?  Some are also Sony CD-R's.  I have both brands plus some
Imation brands.  These un-used ones are probably in the 4 to 5 yr. old
range.

New Question:  Is the life-span of a "floppy" disk also limited like CD's?

And you wrote:
> I would guess your "Fonts" problem might be symptomatic of deeper
> problems---unless you have so many fonts that your RAM + Memory Swapfile
space on C-Drive has been completely overwhelmed.  Hardly likely unless you
had thousands of them.

Answer, Don, Re Fonts:  I think there were just over 900 fonts installed on
the system.  Every piece of software I installed insisted upon installing
it's own fonts which resulted in many font duplications.  I wish they gave
the option to install or not install their fonts.

My Reply, Re Memory:
I don't think that should be a problem as it is now showing "C" Drive:
14.2GB Free
4.72GB Used

My Reply, Re RAM:  The RAM sticks did not all go in easily when I installed
them and when I removed the one 256MB stick I wondered at the time if there
was a particular _order_ in which the RAM sticks should be in and if I might
have removed one which resulted in the remaining ones being in the wrong
slots order.

My Reply, Re Fan/s:  It only has one fan which was serviced a couple years
back  when the whole system was serviced, cleaned and the "shut-down" patch
installed.  Now it won't shut down again.

New Since Yesterday, Re:  Rolled System Back To A May Full Registry Save:
Now when booted the system goes thru installing new hardware & then states
that it must be re-started for the new changes to take effect.  But now it
won't shut down at all.  I have to manually power it down and then
_sometimes_  (not always) it just goes thru the same process again up to the
point where it states that it must be re-started, etc., etc.  Sort of like
one of the TV Time Travel shows where they could never get back beyond the
point where they went back in time and were locked in an endless loop.

But just now I finally got it bring up a "normal" Windows desktop.  OK now
here is where I can check the "C" Drive to see how much free space there is:
14.2GB Free
4.72GB Used

This is where I am at right now.

Thank you for your in-depth reply and all the information and help you can
give me.

Dave Feese

----- Original Message -----
From: Don Penlington <deepend at tpg.com.au>
To: Tech Support Guy Mailing List <list at tsgserver.com>
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 8:58 PM
Subject: TSGL: Reformat Restore Can't Do It

> Dave wrote:
> >I apologize
> >that this reply is so long, too long, I'm afraid.>>
>
>
> A question cannot be too long. But it can (and often is) too short.  The
> more info given, the easier it is to not only diagnose the problem, but
> also to eliminate or confirm certain possibilities.
>
> <<"Drive HITACHI DVD-ROM GD-2500-8BHAR is reporting Partition percentage
has
> exceeded 90%.">>
>
> Is this telling you that your hard drive, or at least the partition
> containing the OS, is near full?  That would be one reason why W98 won't
> start, and you'd have other problems as well. You need at least 10% of
free
> space.
>
> For boot disks and related info:
>
> http://www.bootdisk.com/
>
> http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/floppies.htm (You can download a W98
> boot floppy image here).
>
> Or, if your other computer is on broadband, I could send you the contents
> of my W98SE boot floppy--all you need to do is copy them onto a floppy,
> then change the boot order in the BIOS.
>
> You can reformat from the boot floppy, provided your system is FAT32 (one
> of the few advantages of W98 over XP).  I've never had to do it, but I
> think the command from the C: prompt is:
>
>      format C: /s.
>
> That will reformat C and copy over the basic system files. Others may
> confirm or correct that. Some people prefer it without the "/s" switch.
I'm
> not sure which way is preferable. Dave will know.
>
> <<It's 7 years old.
> Does that life span also apply to CD-R's?  I have archived much data on
> CD-R's.  It would be very disappointing to find out they are no longer any
> good.>>
>
> Yes. You should duplicate any important disks. Labelling can shorten the
> life of cheaper CD's drastically. Read Fred Langa's archives on this--he
> researched it about a year ago.
>
> << I can "read" the IBM
> Restore Disk so wouldn't that indicate that it's OK?>>
>
> Not necessarily. You may be able to read the index of contents---but that
> does not mean that no data has not been corrupted. On a Windows install
> disk, one missing letter or dot COULD trash a vital file---enough to throw
> the whole installation out.
>
> I can't help feeling that the error messages you are seeing are related to
> the fact that the restore disk is not "seeing" a clean computer---one of
> the huge negatives of manufacturers restore disks.
>
> I suppose there COULD be similar issues if RAM was defective. Try
> re-seating it again, can't do any harm.
>
> I would guess your "Fonts" problem might be symptomatic of deeper
> problems---unless you have so many fonts that your RAM + Memory Swapfile
> space on C-Drive has been completely overwhelmed.  Hardly likely unless
you
> had thousands of them.
>
> <<I probably made a mistake at that time as I renamed the
> Fonts folder in Windows System and copied & pasted the Fonts folder from
my
> other IBM PC. >>
>
> That in itself shouldn't have created any problems.
>
> <<I found there were too many fonts
> loaded, but as stated above, I couldn't read or delete any of them>>
>
> That seems to confirm a faulty RAM problem.  Remember, all Fonts are
loaded
> into memory every time Windows boots.
>
> Also check that all fans are clean and working. Overheating can cause some
> mighty funny and unpredictable error messages. On an old computer, you
> could also suspect failing mobo, power supply.
>
> I agree with Dave---it's uneconomic spending too much money on a W98
system
> which is now well beyond its use-by date. If the computer is 7 years old,
> you can expect things to start failing. (Like us, multiplied by 10).
>
> Don Penlington
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
> Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
> http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html
>
>
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