# drive partition error



## treeman31 (Apr 20, 2000)

this might get complicated, bare with me. i have an ibm thinkpad 720 (OLD) with a 486 running win 3.1. somehow, it no longer loads into windows, probably battery went dead. it loads to dos, windows files are there, but won't load. i've tried to format c:\ , but nothing happens. then, used the dos disk i have, format starts, then quits. gives me an error message, "there is an error in a drive partition, format aborted". what can i do to get windows to load? how can i format the hd?
treeman


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## LarryCore (Aug 26, 1999)

Well, you need to fix the partition error before you can do anything.

There are 3 or 4 things that can cause a partition error. The most common is a virus, so I would scan the system before doing anything else.

Once you are sure it is not that... It is ok to wipe everything that is on here, right? If so, boot from a floppy with FDISK and FORMAT on it and at the A prompt type FDISK and then remove all partitions. Reboot from floppy and run FDISK - there shouldn't be any partitions now, so make one using the whole drive. Reboot from floppy and type FDISK /MBR to recreate the Master Boot Record, then format c: /s

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## teejay (Apr 8, 2000)

Don't forget if you go for a full reinstall that Win3.xx was not an operating system.

You will first have to reinstall DOS completely, then install Win 3.xx.

Good Luck


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