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HELP!! Newbie wants to reformat hard drive...

J

jinjen

Senior member
Masters,

My windows program (win 98) gives me an error message when
I boot the system (some weird error message) and I am not able
to log on to the web (some kind of IE error).

I am advised to reformat my hard drive and reinstall windows by
my ISP tech support, but they tell me it is "illegal" to instruct over
the phone...WTF????

I am a real novice, and did my homework search here on Anandtech,
but with no results. Please guide me through step by step in formatting.

Thank you in advance.
 
Boot from a win98 boot disk. Type fdisk c: and press enter. Follow the instructions.

On a side note: You do realize that by formatting the hard drive you will lose all data on that disk.
 
First like the post from minendo states - REFORMATTING WILL RESULT IN THE TOTAL LOSS OF ALL DATA.
OK, now do you have a recovery CD from the PC manufactor? If you do usually booting from that CD(s) will guide you through reinstalling Windows back to when you first got the PC.
If you don't follow these steps:
1. Boot off a Windows 98 startup disk
2. Run fdisk, view the partition information (write it down) and delete the partitions and reboot.
3. Boot off the Windows 98 startup disk, run fdisk and create a partition (like what you wrote down) and reboot.
4. Boot of the Windows 98 startup disk (be sure to choose option 1 to enable CD support) and run format c:.
5. Type md windows
6. Type cd windows
7. type md options
8. type cd options
9. type md cabs
10. Go to the CD drive letter (usually E🙂. On the Win98 CD browse to where the cab files are, there will be many of them all ending in .cab.
11. type cd cabs
12. Copy everything in the folder with the cab files to c:\windows\options\cabs.
13. Go to c:\windows\options\cabs and run setup.
 
Gentlemen, does he really need to repartition? Every time I've reformatted, all I've ever done is:

1. If you don't have a boot disk, you need to create one. Do that by going to Control Panel, Add/Remove. The tab at the top gives you the opportunity to create one.

2. Boot up PC with start (boot) disk in Floppy Drive.

3. Choose to start PC with CDROM support.

4. When it gets to the A prompt, type format c:

5. When drive C is reformatted, make sure to label your drive. Mine is usually Drive_C

6. Back to the A prompt, type E:, hit enter, then remove your start disk. Insert win98 CD, type setup, hit enter, and you're off! -kd5-
 
he probably doesn't need to mess with his partitions; fdisk will just complicate things further, especially since he hasn't done this type of thing before.

do make sure that you have a copy of windows and the key to reinstall before formatting though.

brian
 
Guys,
Is it really necessary to format at all? I had 98se and every time that a re-install was required I just booted from 98se CD and ran setup. This installs Windows and does away with all the fuss of losing you're data or having to find storage for it.
 
Masters,

Thank you all for your support.
I am currently postponing doing anything out of fear.

The first error message I get when I power up the system is
LOADQM, and when I click on the box, it just disappears.
Then, when I click on the explorer icon, I get a IEsomething
error, probably related to the Explorer and it won't let me access
the web.

Somehow I had the same problem (IE) with my other PC, but it
did let me get into the internet. then I downloaded the newest
version of IE(6.0?), but it still periodically displays the IE error.
So I decided to change my pc, but now with the problems mentioned
above.

BTW, the new system had virus problems(nephew downloaded contaminated
games) and had it serviced, but I guess the repair wasn't complete, thus
contemplating the reformat.

I don't mind losing everything as long as it clears up the problems.
I have a set up disk(floppy) that was made when I inserted windows se upgrade
cd-rom. but when I put that in, I don't know what to do next...I can't find the "A"
promt. where do I type in "fdisk"?

Sorry for all the questions....I am such an idiot....
 
If its a virus problem, a format is your best bet. First, back up any data that you need, either to cdr or floppy (for docs).

Now put in the boot disk you made, choose start computer with cdrom support.

type format c: then follow instructions

after the format is done, put in the windows cd, type d: (assuming your cd is drive letter d) when the a prompt changes to d, type setup. that should launch the windows setup program. if its an upgrade cd, you may have to pop an older version of windows in to verify.

don't worry about fdisk, you probably only have one big partition anyway.

you should be all set. good luck

brian
 
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