# Could not format!



## tezkalow (May 29, 2009)

I just downloaded a MS-DOS 6.22 boot disk from http://www.bootdisk.com/ and mounted it on floppy disk. It works well, but typing "format c:" or even "format c:", it tells me "invalid drive specification". I tried to type "format c", another message appeared:"Parameter format not correct" Anyway, the floppy disk can only load itself. I checked for the bad sector and it did not have. The boot disk may have been a corrupted disk, I think. I need to format the hard drive ( C: )! Anyone can help with this? Thanks.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Is there a partition present to be formatted? What size/type?

Are you sure you want DOS formatting and partitions?


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## tezkalow (May 29, 2009)

Floppy disk cannot load ( C: ), FDisk show the partition of ( A: ) drive.


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

DOS 6.22 can only format floppies and FAT16 partitions, or partitions that are not already formatted.

Fdisk doesn't show partitions on a floppy; it can't, because floppies don't have partitions. If you are seeing an *A* under *Status*, that is not a drive letter, it means the partition is *A*ctive.

A DOS 6.22 disk can only see the first 8 GB of a disk. It can't see anything larger. And it can only see and create 2 GB partitions.
The attached screen shot shows what a DOS 6.22 disk sees of a 40 GB hard drive, formatted NTFS. It sees it as a 2GB HPFS partition. It can't format it, it will give the *Invalid drive specification* error. All you can do is delete the partition, then create a 2 GB FAT16 partition

What OS is on the C: drive now?
And what are you trying to do; erase personal info from the drive, or format the drive prior to re-installing an operating system?. If the latter, what OS are you going to install?

Jerry


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## tezkalow (May 29, 2009)

Format the drive prior to re-installing Microsoft Windows XP. C drive: 160 GB. thanks.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

There is no need to format prior to installing. That can be done during setup. So just start the installation and read the pages as they appear.


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