clear then 98

ok i formatted my hdd to clear the mem. but i used FORMAT C: \S
when i needed to use
FORMAT C:
so... that \s left a little of windows 95 on there still
and i read that 98 only installs if theres no other trace of anything on the hd
soooooooooo........i need to know how to clear the HD
i tried just typing FORMAT C: but it says wrong command or action. (sometin like that) i've sorta given up i cant find anything that will work


........................Problem #2

i was stupid and didn't install my new cd drive before i formatted the HD
and i cant use the cd drive now ssooooo i cant install 98 because a cant use the disk, but i have the boot disk on floppy. i'm wondering if theres any other way to install 98 without the CD


please don't don't say hopeless if it is than just say........ idk just freakin say hopeless

You can use FDISK on the floppy to delete all the partitions on the HD and create a new one. It makes no difference that you didn't install the CDROM Drive on the PC. The CD has to be bootable. As long as the BIOS detects it and the boot sequence is set properly, it will boot.
May I suggest a newer OS such as w2k or XP Pro?

well my ram isn't large enough for them (trust me i checked) but thanks anyway
okay you said use the fdisk, how do i run that? or should i just google= how to use fdisk i'm gona try it

okay i tried it and the DOS said again "bad command or file name" the computer didn't even blow up, i mean if it's not gona work it should just self destruct or something..........waste....

http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

This program will erase your hard drive

i tried that before and it just say "bad command or file name" again....
could it be the floppy drive? it worked before i formatted, but maybe.... i dont know

would DOS say MS-DOS on top or what cuz my "MS-DOS promt" just says

Microsoft(R) Windows 95
(C) copyright Microsoft Corp. 1981-1995

C:\>

i'm not sure if that right or what......

If you booted the machine with a floppy and the floppy has format.com on it, type a: and press enter. Then the command prompt will be a:\>
From there, you can run format /q c: or use whatever switch you want.

okay.........um i kind of know what i'm talking about but i dont know what a switch is for formating the hdd. i know i used format c: /s but i dont know what q etc. is for. is it like a section of the hdd or something?

The /q switch is a quick format. That's all.

sorry it's so late, but it's still not working i just "bad command or file name"
and if i type (lets say the disk is called w95_org) "w95_org" at the c:\> prompt it says " cannot run file inMS-DOS"

Reread my post of April 14th. As I said, you have to run the command from the drive you are booting from which is a: if you are using a floppy to boot. You must type a: and press enter, then you will see the prompt as a:\> and you can run
format /q c:
I can't say it any clearer than that.

i know i typed this
a:\> format /q c:

with the floppy in and nothing

If that's not working and you have fdisk on the same floppy, then run it and choose the option that says show all partition information, then delete those partitions. After that, create a new partition and you should be able to do a clean install.

i've tried that to! it's like my DOS isn't responding or something....