Newbie Questions: How To Re-Format And Install

[ninefivezero]

Hi, my friends computer is probably the most messed up things ive seen in a while, so I figured its time for a full reformat of the hard drive, but i have not done such a thing in quite a while, and forget what to do.

could you please run me through the steps of reformating the hdd (do you just type format c:?) and then creating a partition to install win98 on?

thank you for your time

-Scott

 

[Kartajan]

For Win 95/98 you must go into DOS.

If you need to do partitions, run FDISK and set up your partitions as you desire

; then reboot and "format C:" with a boot disk

; finally install your OS.



Edited due to my ignorant comments- I had posted a non- OS specific response.
If you need more detailed answers, feel free to ask again...

(make sure you have a good boot disk set up before formatting!)

 

[sapphoo]

better make sure you have all the required driver cd's and stuff first..

Also not all bootdisks are that well suited. You could download a general one at http://www.bootdisk.com/ or another similar site to have a backup if your own somehow doesn't work (it happened to me once).

And Fdisk can be a bit confusing if you are not used to working with it.
you could visit dear old Microsoft to find out what to do first maybe:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q255/8/67.ASP#1

make sure you have backed up the data that cannot be replaced, like personal documents...after the format command it will be too late.

 

[night]

u dont really need to bother with a partition.

if u have 98 and assuming you have the disc its plenty easy.

- go into the bios and set the bootable to the cd
- let it boot off the windows CD and choose with cd support
- go into the CD:\win98 directory
- type Format c: /q (this is a quick erase format. which is all that is necessary)
- go back to the CD:\ root directory and type setup

and hopefully he has a fast CD drive and it wont take long at all

 

[ninefivezero]

alright, thanks. i just wanted to make sure before i did it.