Reformatting Windows 98 Hard Drive

[Nelson Bradford]

Question: How difficult is it to do that?

That's what's been suggested to get my wife's computer up and running and I've not got a clue. I HATE the idea of spending close $100 on a computer she seldom uses, however, when she does she'd like for it to at least co-operate.

And I've learned in 51+ years, it's best, believe me that is BEST!

If reformatting and reinstalling Windows 98 etc does not work it's headed for the trash.

Curbside services to follow.

-neb

[Garth Lahana]

Nelson

Re-installing Win98 is quite simple Nelson. I would first create a Win98 emergency floppy disk. You can do this by going to the Control Panel, starting System and as far as I can remember, there should be a tab to create the emergency rescue floppy. This is needed to start the PC later so that it can read from the CD once the PC has no more data. Once you've made the disk, restart the PC with the floppy in the drive. If all goes well, you should end up with a black DOS screen. Place the Windows 98 CD in the drive, and try to get access to it, by typing d: or perhaps e: at the prompt (c:\) If the prompt changes to D: or E: you are in business to empty the C: drive, by formating it. Now type A: to go back to the A: prompt. At the A: prompt type format c: This procedure will erase ALL your data, so make sure you have all the data you need off the PC before doing this. Once the format has completed, you can go back to the CD drive as you did before, and at the prompt (d: or e: ). Type cd\win98 to get into the folder where the setup files areand in there type setup to get the setup going. The rest should be quite simple to get done...

I hope this doesn't sound too tricky for you... any questions, and you know how to find me!
Go for it ;-)

Garth

[Marsha Lynn]

Nelson, you'll be glad to hear that reformatting a hard drive is extremely easy. The computer will get antsy about it and ask you a couple of times if you know what you're doing, but all you have to do is persist in your quest for an empty hard drive and it will happily dump every bit of your data back into the 1s and 0s bucket.

Reloading Windows 98 is equally trivial. The only requirement is your Windows 98 CD and Microsoft license number. (Those requirements are non-negotiable.) Oh, and if your Windows disk is an upgrade from Windows 95, you'll also need the Windows 95 CD.

It's after you're back up and running in Windows that things get hard. All your data is gone. Your programs are gone. Your printer driver is gone. So are all your other drivers and tweaks and customization as well as your internet setup if you have one.

Plug and play helps for reinstalling the peripherals, but if there's a printer connected to it, I'd make sure I had a printer driver available before reformatting. You may need license numbers for some of the software you hope to reinstall. Sometimes you can find those numbers by looking at the "About this program" window (find it under 'help'). Other times you need to find the original packaging for your software or the special place where you write down numbers of such significance. If you have a modem, you'll need information about your ISP in order to set up your dialer.

I would say you need to take two steps in preparation for this project.

1. Make sure you have all the ingredients to make your computer work again before you start the process. Look at everything connected to the computer and all your programs that you'll want to keep and make sure you know how they got there and how to get them back.

2. Have the number of a friendly "computer guy" on your speed dial in case you get stuck. (If you're unsure if you've completed step 1, you might need to consult with the "computer guy" before you start.

Hope this helps.

Marsha


Question: How difficult is it to do that?

That's what's been suggested to get my wife's computer up and running and I've not got a clue. I HATE the idea of spending close $100 on a computer she seldom uses, however, when she does she'd like for it to at least co-operate.

And I've learned in 51+ years, it's best, believe me that is BEST!

If reformatting and reinstalling Windows 98 etc does not work it's headed for the trash.

Curbside services to follow.

-neb

[Joel Merrill]

I was afraid it might come to that. I won't add to what the others have said except to say, Good Luck.

Joel

[Nelson Bradford]

That's me - the BIG FAT CHICKEN!

I'm afraid to get into reformatting the hard drive!!!!

But I DO really appreciate all of your suggestions and tips.

Here's the deal (as if this is necessary.)

Beginning Mon my wife is returning to work at ONU - Secty - and will have email access there.

Our 10 year old grandson has 1,183 (approx) games on that old computer (probably contributing so some of it's problems) that might be gone forever if I reformatted.

Therefore I'm just going to leave it alone for now - and if/when the time comes to put it out at the curb then and only then I'll "write to zeroes" - deleting everything on the hard drive first.

Thanx again
-neb

[Cecil Wallace]

That's me - the BIG FAT CHICKEN!

I really get nervous, just thinking about doing something like that.
The main reason?
I have not done it before.
And I'm too "chicken" to try it, even though the responders here make it sound very easy.

Lotsa luck.:fav18

I hope you can find some other solution.

[Joel Merrill]

That's me - the BIG FAT CHICKEN!

I'm afraid to get into reformatting the hard drive!!!!

But I DO really appreciate all of your suggestions and tips.

Here's the deal (as if this is necessary.)

Beginning Mon my wife is returning to work at ONU - Secty - and will have email access there.

Our 10 year old grandson has 1,183 (approx) games on that old computer (probably contributing so some of it's problems) that might be gone forever if I reformatted.

Therefore I'm just going to leave it alone for now - and if/when the time comes to put it out at the curb then and only then I'll "write to zeroes" - deleting everything on the hard drive first.

Thanx again
-neb
Nelson,

Reformatting takes some time to do by the time you have everything set up again but it is not hard. Perhaps you have a friend or relative who can come over and help you?

If your grandson has that many games downloaded on your computer it's a safe bet that he has downloaded something that is slowing you down. I'll bet if you took those games off it would run like new. Many of these games are designed to get kids to download spyware and other bad stuff onto their parents computer. Even if they don't have spyware, these designers don't care if it slows down a computer or not.

DON'T EVER set a computer out on the curb or throw one away with the hard drive still in it!!!! You can delete everything, you can write over everything, there is nothing you can do to make it safe! People can still get information off if it. People drive around looking for computers on curbs for that reason. If you throw away a computer, take the hard drive out and burn it or pound it to bits with a hammer.

Joel

[Nelson Bradford]

a) I AM going to remove all the games and see if that makes a difference.

b) But first I need a nap.

c) thanx for the suggestion re:smashing up the hard drive - but I don't even know what it LOOKS like. So what do I smash? 8-)

d) But first I need a nap.

-neb

ps - thanx Joel

[Joel Merrill]

When you uninstall programs with Windows 98 it will often ask you if you want to delete certain files. It will say that they may no longer be needed or something to that effect. Never delete them! Sometimes you do need them and once they are gone, they are gone. A few extra unused files don't hurt anything.

Getting rid of the games will probably speed up your computer but if you have things that just don't work right, you may have missing files. I'm not taking about documents. There are lots of kinds of files like DLL and EXE and others that tell your computer how to work. It seems like Windows 98 just seems to lose files gradually over time. If too many are missing, you may still have to reformat. But I would get rid of the games first and see what happens.

Joel