# format not supported



## Lil Chris (Jan 28, 2003)

Hi there can anybody give some advice. I am trying to repair a computer for a friend,it's a early machine,(Amd 700 duron) I discovered the harddrive had failed.I had tried a 60 gb drive but It did not recognise that drive,realising there maybe a bios limit I managed to aquire a 3.2gb drive which I have put in. I have booted with a win 98 floppy and used fdisk using large support (fat32) and made sure it is active but it won't let me format the drive. I have tried format c: and other versions but I get the same message...
format not supported on drive c:...format terminated. I have looked on microsoft help but can find no refferance to this error message. I have checked the floppy and it has all the programs required on it ie format.com,I have used it many times before I have even tried the (extract ebd ......)it tells you on the microsoft website to make sure.A strange thing, I thought once you fdisk a drive and partitioned it,it remained that way unless you wipe
it again,I noticed that after turning the machine off and going into fdisk it said the drive was not partitioned,or does it just remember this in the ram drive?.
Any help appreciated Iv'e been fixing this machine for a few weeks and I'm not getting anywhere.
ps, I am doing it for nothing.Lil Chris


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## CouchMaster (May 26, 2003)

Boot with the floppy, fdisk, create a new partition and then format it.


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## Lil Chris (Jan 28, 2003)

Sorry but I have used fdisk and partioned but it WON'T LET ME FORMAT, it says "format not supported on C: drive. Format terminated"


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

If you "noticed that after turning the machine off and going into fdisk it said the drive was not partitioned", it is no wonder you can't format the C: drive and you need to get that resolved first.

Have you confirmed that the computer will not recognize a 60 gig drive? 
Did you try to get a BIOS update?


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## CouchMaster (May 26, 2003)

at the Arompt you type format c:/s and you get the error?
You can also type fdisk/status at the A: prompt to verify that your HD is present.


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## Lil Chris (Jan 28, 2003)

Hi there thanks guys for your replys.Bob I have even downloaded your boot disk for in case mine was faulty. I am using a 3.2 gb drive not 60gb. I used f disk to partition the drive and make the the partition active, then reboot and checked in fdisk that there was active partition that was ok then back at A prompt type format C: and thats when I get the error message. I bought the drive from sh dealer, I was told the drive was formated . The drive shows up in the bios at the correct capacity.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Must admit, I have never seen a 3.2 gb drive. 

So you can power down, restart, and it now shows a single partition that is 3.2gb?


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## Lil Chris (Jan 28, 2003)

Hi bob thanks for your reply again,sorry for time delay been to bed and then work. I have just booted machine up now from win98 floppy, I got the message no valid partition etc, but went into fdisk and the partiotion is there status A PRI DOS 3089mb system unknown usage 100%.
Just typed format c: and got the message again "Format not supported on drive c: Format terminated". There has to be a reason for this.
I have just tried booting from your boot disk, using fdisk shows the partition,but trying to format the drive using "format c:" I get "invalid drive specification" in fact trying to change from A: to C: produces the same error.
I have also just tried fdisk from your floppy but I get the same result, I can only conclude I have another duff drive, what do you think?
Also typing "fdisk/status" at the "A" prompt as CouchMaster suggested shows the drive as 3091mb.


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## Rockn (Jul 29, 2001)

I am wondering if there is some drive overlay software installed on the drive. Either that or the virus protection in the BIOS may be enabled, but if that were the case you never would have been able to partition it either. Try a different drive letter....format D:


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## Lil Chris (Jan 28, 2003)

Hi guys, I have just tried something differant, Disconnected both drives in my machine and connected the 3.2 drive to my machine booted from the floppy and fdisk/status showed the partition ok so I formated the drive and succsessfully proved that the boot disk is ok. Just tried the disk in the machine it still says the same drive not valid partition or formatted. There must be a fault with the mb, I have even tried resetting cmos and put new battery in just in case. Think I will give up on this one unless anyone has any good ideas.Thanks for all the attempts to help.


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## slashnburn (Oct 9, 2004)

Boot with Bob's floppy disk; type FDISK / MBR, and press Enter. That command will erase the existing Master Boot Record and create a new one. Next, press the F3 key; that will repeat the last command in the keyboard buffer (which is FDSIK /MBR); press Enter again. Then, press F3 and Enter a dozen more times; you'll erase and recreate the MBR each time. I've seen instances where the MBR was not completely overwritten by only using the FDISK /MBR command once or twice, so do it several times.

Next, reboot the system. Then run FDISK again, and DELETE any existing partitions you find. Reboot again, FDISK /MBR again (SEVERAL times), then use FDISK to create a NEW partition, and set it as the Active partition. Reboot AGAIN, and use FDISK /STATUS to check the results of your work.

If everything seems to be working correctly, type FORMAT C: /U /S, and press Enter. You should then be able to format the disk; the /U switch forces an UNCONDITIONAL format, without saving any of the old formatting information stored on the disk. The /S switch will write the system files (IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS) to the drive, and it will then be bootable.

Good luck; let us know what happens. It IS possible that the section of the harddrive where the MBR is written has been damamged, though I doubt it. You won't hurt anything by repeating the FDISK /MBR command several times, so take advantage of that. Odds are good that you'll be able to make just about ANY HDD work by using this method.


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## Lil Chris (Jan 28, 2003)

Thanks Slashburn for your help. I have given up on this one and given the machine back. I did originally try fdisk/mbr when I first tried to fix the computer and could get no joy with fdisk or format, the original harddrive being dead, I could not even see it when connecting to my own machine. I was then putting a new 60gb drive in a machine I was upgrading and tried that drive, but that would not work,maybe a limit in the bios as it is a early machine. Since then I managed to pick up the cheap 3.2gb drive to try but no joy with that, but on connecting that drive to my machine I successfully partitioned it and formated it without any problem. It still came up as a error on the faulty machine so I have concluded rightly or wrongly there to be a fault somewhere on the mb or perhaps the disc controller. Thanks for your tip on using fdisk/ mbr must admit not having tried it like you suggested. I had tried to format using the /U switch but kept getting the same message whichever switch I tried to use,I was getting paranoid about if my boot disk was faulty thats why I downloaded Bob's. Thanks again to everyone for the ideas and hints thats why this site is so good. Chris


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