How can I tell if my harddrive is working?

I just put together a PC from scratch. I turned it on and it boots up
without any warning beeps. I load it with a boot disk in the floopy
and choose the option to run with CD rom support. I am trying to load
Windows 98 on it, so I change to the e: drive where my Windows 98 CD
is and type in setup.

The get an error: Windows requires 730032 by

I try to switch to the C: drive and I get the abort, retry or fail
message. Does that mean my harddrive is not working? When I go into
the ROM BIOS is says I have a primary harddrive installed. How can I
map it to the C: drive?

This is only the second time I have built a PC and the last time was 4
years ago. Any help is greatly appreciated.

(Michael Jones) wrote in message . com...
I just put together a PC from scratch. I turned it on and it boots up
without any warning beeps. I load it with a boot disk in the floopy
and choose the option to run with CD rom support. I am trying to load
Windows 98 on it, so I change to the e: drive where my Windows 98 CD
is and type in setup.

The get an error: Windows requires 730032 by

I try to switch to the C: drive and I get the abort, retry or fail
message. Does that mean my harddrive is not working? When I go into
the ROM BIOS is says I have a primary harddrive installed. How can I
map it to the C: drive?

This is only the second time I have built a PC and the last time was 4
years ago. Any help is greatly appreciated.

You should first run fdisk. If I remember right, Windows 98 will not
install without first formatting the harddrive.

Aaron

Michael Jones wrote:
I just put together a PC from scratch. I turned it on and it boots up
without any warning beeps. I load it with a boot disk in the floopy
and choose the option to run with CD rom support. I am trying to
load
Windows 98 on it, so I change to the e: drive where my Windows 98 CD
is and type in setup.

The get an error: Windows requires 730032 by

I try to switch to the C: drive and I get the abort, retry or fail
message. Does that mean my harddrive is not working? When I go into
the ROM BIOS is says I have a primary harddrive installed. How can I
map it to the C: drive?

This is only the second time I have built a PC and the last time was
4
years ago. Any help is greatly appreciated.

if "Aaron"'s responsedidn't help, then i can suggest one thing. visit
http://www.knoppix.org (sorry if I'm pushing linux on you, but this is
actually an excellent "big guns" solution, if you need it) included
with knoppix's latest ver is a piece of software called qtparted, which
allows you to create, delete, resize, and move partitions, it's best if
you liken it to partition magic. to use, first download knoppix, then
burn the image to a CD. Knoppix runs directly from the CD, so no need
to worry about needing hard drive space. once knoppix loads, you neetd
to go into terminal (looks like a little computer monitor icon in the
taskbar. type "sudo passwd root" then it will ask you to enter a
password for "root" enter anything you want, it will prompt you again,
make sure you enter the same thing. i think qtparted can be started
from the terminal by typing "su", then your root password, then
"qtparted" if that doesn't work, then you'll have to search the K Menu
(similar to the start menu in terms of location, layout, and purpose).
qtparted should be under "system" or "utilities"