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ReFormat Hard Drive & Re-Install Windows Applies to: Win XP Win 2000 Win Me Win 98 Win 95 PREAMBLE: This procedure should ONLY be carried out by someone who is comfortable and knowledgeable about hardware/peripheral drivers. They should also be fearless and willing to gamble on the outcome..... STEP 1: Back up everything that you have created and things that you can no longer find on another data source. Backing up is essential to any type of clean install or upgrade of an Operating System(OS). Depending on how badly damaged your Win95/98 OS is, this procedure could vary. Let's assume that you can still start up in Windows. If not, you will need a Windows Start up Diskette There are a few areas where backups are probably needed: Data Files: Look in places like My Documents and anywhere else you have stored Word documments, Excel spreadsheets or whatever. Internet Username/Password: Look at your Dial-Up Networking(DUN) icon and copy down your username, your password and your connecting phone number (if applicable). Email Messages and Settings: Since the email program which you use vary, I will provide instructions for the standard email program included with Windows 98 -- Outlook Express. The best way is to navigate to the "C:\windows\application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express\Mail" folder and copy all those files to floppies or another hard disk that you can use. The same procedures can be repeated for your News group settings. Simply go under the News directory under the Outlook Express folder. Address Book information: Goto the "C:\Windows\application data\Microsoft\Address Book" directory and backup everything in there. Favorites: Favorites can be found in the "C:\windows\favorites" folder. Simply copy everything in there, sub directories included to a floppy or some other hard disk BookMarks: Goto the directory where you installed Netscape and look for a file called bookmark.htm, back that up. Wallpapers: Ok, I'm begin a little too careful here. But if you have some special wallpaper you like, you might want to back those up too. Of course I assumed that you still have Windows still available to you. Now, if you don't or can't get into Windows, here is a quick review of vital DOS commands that you use if you have to start the computer with the Windows Start Diskette: Copy - Copies files. Syntax: Copy [source file\location] [destination file\location] Example: copy c:\lastwill.txt a:\lastwill.txt Ren - Renames files. Syntax: ren [old name] [new name] Example: ren a:\lastwill.txt a:\newwill.txt Deltree - Removes a specified directory and everything under it. Syntax: Deltree [/Y] [directory to delete] Example: deltree c:\backup /Y Move - Moves files. Syntax: Move [source file] [destination file]. NOTE: It can also be used to rename directories(folders) Example: move C:\windows C:\win98 Doing things from DOS will be a little difficult since you won't be able to copy down your Internet Service Provider(ISP) info, and directory(folder) names because DOS limites names to 8.3 with no spaces Example: c:\My Documents would show as c:\mydocu~1 STEP 2 Boot Diskette Creation When you re-format your hard drive, everything is gone. This includes the CD drivers that the computer uses during start up to enable you to have access. If they are not present during start up, the computer does not know that you even have a CD drive. The following is a method of creating a boot disk to have the CD-ROM accessible after rebooting to DOS: Open My Computer with a blank floppy in the A:\ drive Right click on the floppy drive Select Format Choose your Format option of either Quick or Complete, select copy system files Click OK Then copy these other files to the new Startup Diskette. They should be found in the C:\windows\command folder. FDISK.EXE FORMAT.COM SYS.COM MSCDEX.EXE EDIT.COM HIMEM.SYS AOATAPI.SYS VIDE-CDD.SYS SETVER.EXE The next text file has to be created on the new diskette named CONFIG.SYS It must contain: DEVICE=SETVER.EXE DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS /testmem:off device=emm386.exe ram auto DOS=HIGH,UMB files=40 devicehigh=ansi.sys devicehigh=A:\aoatapi.sys /e:atapicd DEVICEHIGH=A:\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:MSCD001 Another text file has to be created on the new diskette named AUTOEXEC.BAT It must contain: prompt $p$g path C:\; lh tmouse.com loadhigh MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 This completes the BOOT diskette. Place it in the diskette drive and re-start your computer to ensure that it works properly. You should also place a CD in the drive and see if the computer can find it after you boot from the diskette. If the CD is not recognized, run the install file of your CD-ROM driver and copy the files to your floppy and edit the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to loadhigh the drivers. Copy your CD-ROM driver files Autoexec.bat and Config.sys and CD driver files to the floppy (download this filewhich contains a CD-ROM driver,autoexec.bat and config.sys) If you choose not to use our files be sure to run the install file of your CD-ROM driver and copy the files to your floppy and edit the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. DOS After you've tested your boot disk your ready to run Fdisk. STEP 3: Skip the Fdisk section if you do not wish to change your paritions. If you want to change partitions, see STEP 3B below Delete Existing Hard Drive Partition with FDISK as follows: Type FDISK and press ENTER key. When presented with the utility menu select option 1 for FDISK. When prompted press any key to continue. Enter Y to enable 32bit FAT. N for FAT16 (note: you will be limited to creating partions of 2.0gig in size. Enter 3 to delete existing DOS partition. Enter 1 to delete the PRIMARY DOS PARTITION. Enter 1 to select PRIMARY DOS PARTITION. When prompted for VOLUME LABEL, look at the partition information at the top of the screen. Type in exactly what is written under Volume Label for the first partition. If there is nothing there, press the Enter key. Type Y to verify deletion of the partition. The primary DOS partition has been deleted. Press the Esc key and the system should reboot to the utility menu. Create a New DOS Primary Partition. Type FDISK the at the command prompt and press ENTER: Click #1. Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS drive' and press ENTER. Click #1. Create Primary DOS Partition' and press ENTER. Follow the instructions to create a primary partition of the desired size. Set your Active Partition. Select 2 from the FDISK Main menu, and set your active partition drive. It should be your primary partition. Now that's done, get out of FDISK and reboot your system and boot from your boot disk. When you again arrive at the DOS prompt, you can use the format command to format your hard disk drives: At the A:\ type Format X: Where X: is the drive you want to format(ie. C:). Format will ask you if your sure you wish to continue and at this point the data has been long gone so just hit the Y key. STEP 4: Install Windows 9x Operating System Power up the system and insert the Microsoft Windows 9x CD and wait approximately 20-30 seconds to allow the CD-ROM drive to spin up. Press the Enter key and Setup will copy the files needed for installation to your hard drive (this will take a few minutes). Press the Enter key when this is complete. Windows 9x installation will now begin. When asked, choose Typical from the options given. Enter the Product ID and your name when prompted. Click on Next when Setup asks you which Windows Components you want to install. When prompted, choose No, I do not want a startup disk. Click on Next again and then wait for the percentage bar to reach 100%. The computer will restart and ask you to wait again. Eventually it will ask you for your time zone. Pick the appropriate zone for your location. It will then ask you to set up a printer. If you do not have a printer connected to the computer at this time, just click on Cancel. You can set-up a printer later. After this, the computer will restart again. Windows 9x is now installed. STEP 3B: Create a New DOS Extended Partition and Logical drives. Note: When creating the primary partition do not choose to use 100% of the hard drive for C: Example 1: using a 4.3gig Hard Drive During the Primary partition creation stage select 50% of the drive that will give you a 2150gb partition for a majority of your needs. Finish the motions of this process except the exiting FDISK Reenter option 1 select create extended partion, usage for this you should input 100% usage. Reenter option 1 select create logical drive, usage for this should be a percentage of the extended partitioncreated for the first logical drive created. Reenter option 1 select create logical drive, usage for this should be a percentage of the extended partition created minus the amount of space taken by the other logical drives. NOTE: The drive sizes should go from largest to smallest. If not you need to delete the partions and start over. What will happen if not? The partions will disappear without a chance to save the data once used. Follow the above steps for each logical partition created inside of the extended partion. Format Hard drive and Logical Partitions. After the FDISK reboot at the A:\ type Format X: Where X: is the drive you want to format and press ENTER. Format will ask you if your sure you wish to continue and at this point the data has been long gone so just hit the Y key. After the format, you can switch to your CD-ROM drive and run setup.exe. Note: Don't worry about the volume label for the drive(s) at this time.