Due to a nasty virus, I finally gave up, and decided to reformat my hard drive. I followed a guide I found online, and got to the point where I was going to reinstall Win 98. Uh-oh. It starts, then stops, saying:

"Cannot create temporary directory.

If you have HPFS or NTFS on your hard drive, you will need to create an MS-DOS boot partition to set up Windows."

I started looking some more online, and now see other guides that include directions to partition your hard drive first. Nice. Not sure why the one didn't include that, and this is my first time doing a reformat.

Is this my problem, and, more importantly, is there any way to fix it, now? There's got to be, right?

Thanks. Bill

Assuming there is a floppy drive on this machine, boot the machine with a Win98SE Boot Disk*, choosing without CDROM support. When you get the A:\> prompt, type in fdisk. Remove the non-dos partition. Create a new dos partition. Exit fdisk, reboot. Format the new partition.

If you need help with fdisk, this site will provide step by step instructions;

http://fdisk.radified.com/fdisk_partition.htm


*The above bootdisk image file is a self extracting file and has to be executed (run) from a running Windows(9x) machine in order to create the actual startup diskette on one of your floppy disks. (This image file produces the same bootdisk which 98SE creates.) This downloaded image file will format the floppy disk to ensure its integrity, write the files to the disk, then verify the file write, so it'll take a minute or three to create the bootdisk.

Ensure the floppy drive is set as the first boot device in the bios. http://www.d-a-l.com/articles/library/23.html

NOTE: When you boot a machine with this boot floppy, it creates a RAMDRIVE in system memory to contain DOS system tools/drivers. Thus it will move your "normal" CDROM device/drive letter "up" one level. (If your CDROM is normally E: it will be F: when booting with this bootdisk.)

The path to the found CDROM will be set with the bootfiles, so entering A:\>f:\setup is the same as entering A:\>setup at the A:\> prompt. There is no need to include the cdrom drive letter. The CDROM device letter will be assigned near the end of the floppy boot process, right after MSCDEX is loaded.

Also, after reinstalling. please reload all the motherrboard and chipset drivers (provided by the system manufacturer), or your computer will never be the same...

Windows generic drivers does not work properly on all hardware.

Chris