format problem

[MIKE JOHNSON]

HI I HAVE AN OLD ACER DESK TOP THAT WAS WINDOWS 95 BUT HAS WINSOWS 98 INSTALLED. I WOULD LIKE TO REFORMAT THE HARD DRIVE TO CLEAN UP BUT IT DOSENT SEEM TO BE WORKING. I PUT IN A WINDOWS 98 BOOT FLOPPY AN RESTART COMPUTOR THEN I CHOOSE 2 FOR CDROM ASIST AT THE PROMPT I TYPE d: AND IT RESPONDS D:/> THEN WHEN I TYPE IN format: c: IT SAYS READINDG HARD DRIVE INPROPER COMAND FAIL ETC. IVE TRYED SEVERAL DIFERENT WAYS AND EVEN TRYED TO DO THE WINDOWS 95 FORMAT AND AT THE PROMPT A:\ FORMAT C:/S AND STILL NOTHING JUST WRONG COMANDS ETC. THE WINDOWS 95 TRY WAS WITH A WINDOWS 98 BOOT FLOPPY SINC I DONT HAVE A 95 BOOT FLOPPY.
ALSO CAN I BUY A NEW HARD DRIVE AND FIX THESE PROBLEMS AND SPPED THE SYSTEM UP TO ? IF SO HOW BIG SHOULD IT BE AND WHAT BRANDS WORK THIS WOULD BE JUST FOR AVERAGE USEAGE NO GAMES ETC. THANKS FOR EVERYONES TIME AND ANY HELP WOULD BE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED.
ALSO WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE

[JimP]

Hi, Something doesn't sound right starting up. Boot Disk should give you a choice of CD support, No CD support and Help. The one you want is #1, CD Support. After that just wait for the A:> prompt to appear. Now you can run FDISK to partition the drive and Format /s to format it. The /s makes the drive bootable. You really don't have to partition unless you want to alter the partitioning. If you decide to do it and want to use the entire drive as C: then just take the defaults (Just keep hitting ENTER). If you make more than one partition be sure to make the first one ACTIVE. Now you can insert your CD and load the OS. Now that that is said, Do you have all the Mother Board drivers and drivers for anything else that the system has? If not find them before you wipe out the drive. Anyh other questions, just ask. Luck, Jim