One provided from Microsoft might do it

There's some steps there for fdisk...this is where you might get stuck, but if you do, let me know - as you might need to delete the old "partition", which might be causing this problem. But i doubt it


How to Install Windows 98 on a Computer with No Operating System

Hello,
So I tried typing "Fdisk" and got the "Your computer has a disk larger....Do you wish to enable" So I typed "y" and got this "Error reading fixed disk."
I just don't get it.
Any suggestions?

Well, sounds like your hard drive is crashed! If that's the case, not a whole lot can be done about the fact that the data is still on your drive.

Yup. I have to agree with tractor driver. The hard drive appears to be faulty in the laptop

Due to the age of the laptop, there's no real chance of getting a new hard drive...unless you find a 2nd hand one...but sti ll, the data is most likely lost

A question vtech.... do you know how much room was left on the HD when you left?
98SE will require a large space to install/reinstall the Operating System...doesn't matter that it was already there...
IF fdisk ran at all... all data will be gone.. period. A regular format does most... but fdisk? Count it gone. Partitions and all...

GaRHaR? I would love to see that guide you talked about.. think you could dig it up?
I need to look a little more at what vtech is having troubles with, but I have seen this before with 98..I'm just missing something, and it's not even a big issue... lemme check back thru my notes.. even if tractor is right and the drive tossed, a good tech shop can probably access enough of it to transfer data off it.

Man that's frustrating when you know the answer is right at the tip of your fingers!!!

No, I don't know how much room was on the HD before. At this point, though I wish I could save everything on the harddrive, it doesn't matter if it's all lost, I just need to get this laptop working
But I let the computer do a test on itself and it says the harddrive(and everything else)is fine. It just seems like it should be something simple, I just don't know what it is I don't know very much about setup and configuring, so I don't know how to do anything about the "Cannot create a temporary directory. If you have HPFS or NTFS installed on your hard drive, you will need to create an MS-DOS boot partition to set up windows" and the "Error reading fixed disk." issues. On the plus side, I got the old ibm 380xd running and online, but the downside, is the Toshiba is a faster computer with more memory and really is the one i need and want.