Gentle Readers:

I am trying to load a 486DX4-100 system with
Windows 95b. The installation gets to the
FINISH screen which advises Windows will
now restart and run for the first time. Of course,
it doesn't. It loads Win95, gives the Windows
starting screen then gives the "Now safe to
turn off your computer."

I have swapped out the RAM, and every other
component is a known working part.

I suspect the hard drive, which is a Western
Digital 203 MB drive (Caviar AC2200). I have
run the Western Digital drive diagnostics and
did the zero-out the drive routine (the Pseudo-LLF).
No errors are reported.

I want to Low Level Format this WDC IDE drive.
Does anyone know of a shareware/freeware
utility for this? Or could you recommend a cheap
commercial product. . . ?

Obviously, with the low prices of drives, I don't
want to spend much money to return this drive
to an usable state.

Thanks, in advance.

John Chin