Best Way to reinstall operating system or install new one

[Poncherelli]

I'm currently running windows98 and i plan on reinstalling it cause i've added a lot of hardware and stuff and have been told to reinstall the OS since its been on there for 2 years now. I have a 20 gig HD with 16 gig of it used, and a free 8 gig HD. What is the easiest way for me to reinstall win98 for now (and 2k when i get it)? Also, will i have to reinstall all of my drivers or anything. I would like this to be a painfree process. Thanks.



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[Paul]

Hmm, first of all bckup anything not replaceable or stuff you're too lazy to download again on hard drives or CDRs. I'd recommend putting the operating system on the best performing hard drive that you own. Make sure it's the 1st IDE device and is drive C:. You can move the backup files to the other drives.

Things to consider saving or have on other drives.
Email, favorites, my documents, game saves, mp3s, downloads, device drivers.

Now, after all that, create a Windows 98 bootdisk by going to Start>Settings>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs>Startup Disk

Then, after making sure that you backuped everything. Put bootdisk in floppy drive, Windows 98 CD in CD-ROM and reboot. Load with CD-ROM support and then when it reboots and gets to dos prompt, type in

format c: \q

Then go to cd-rom drive and type setup

If you want to install Windows 98 with ACPI support, there is a command line switch but I forgot it. Maybe someone else knows. Good luck.

 

[bacillus]

<< have been told to reinstall the OS since its been on there for 2 years now. >>


while that's a long time, are you experiencing any software problems or has your system slowed down alot to neccesitate a reinstall?

 

[Poncherelli]

my system runs horribly now. Lots of errors, BSODS, lockups. Trying to improve it until i can get ahold of win2k. I reinstall is pretty necessary, i just want it to be easy and not require reinstalling anything besides the OS.

 

[j0lly]

The /p j switch should enable ACPI support. Can anyone else confirm this?

Edit: Also consider uninstalling unwanted applications and defragging (if you have not already done so )