Ok I need to *sigh*,reformat.

bugler

Right lads.I need to....*sigh* format my HD.
BUT,I do not want to lose all my mp3's,Half life mods,some other stuff.so can I partition this away to one side and the reformat the other larger part?
If so,I need a detailed run down on how to do this,as I am a fool. I appreciate that maybe this is alot to ask,so some important pointers and a link to a site that will tell me this would maybe be a realistic expectation.also,will following my manual instructions of reinstalling win 98 SE format my HD(it doesnt make it clear if it will or not) or will i just lose my windows settings/favourites etc?
Any info appreciated

Jademan

What you need is a program Like Partition Magic 6 http://www.powerquest.com. This program allows you to change, move and create partitions. Therefore it will allow you to create another partition out of the free space you have (if you only have a c drive)On yopur hardrive, to store relevent data.


If you a format on your HD you will loose al data unless you have a thrisd party app for restoring data, you will loose everything.

Feel free to e-mail me!

Renton

Oh my god well here goes !

This method im going to explain to you takes absolutly ages. Like its really gonna take ages. I promise ya.

Okay im gonna put it in step form

[Step 1]: Gathering Information

Click Start -> run -> regedit
Goto Edit -> Find
Search for "Product Key" (no "")
and then write down that long ass string onto a piece of paper
its in the form: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Okay so now you have your Product Key which you will need later on.

[Step 2]: Backing up crud
Right now what the best way I have found of doing this is aso.

a) create a new folder in the root c:\ called backup

b) put all your files you want to keep in that folder, stuff like mIRC, CS configs, documents, anything you've downloaded, basically anything you want to keep.

c) Double check that you have everything and dont come back crying if u lose something due to your own stupidity

Now you need to make a folder in the root again called win98 (c:\win98) and copy all the files in the folder d:\win98 (on the 98 CD) into that folder
i.e. copy d:\win98 c:\win98

[Step 3]: Doing the "pseudo-format"

When I say pseudo I mean not real. but heres what you is gonna do. U got ur pen ready ? good.

Start -> Shut Down -> Restart in MSDOS mode
C:\WINDOWS>cd\
C:\>cd backup
C:\BACKUP>md cmd
C:\BACKUP>cd cmd
C:\BACKUP\cmd>copy c:\windows\command\. .

(it will then copy all the windows dos based proggies to c:\backup\cmd)

C:\BACKUP\cmd>cd\
C:\>path = c:\backup\cmd
THIS IS THE IMPORTANT/DANGEROUS PART so be careful
C:\>Deltree *.*

Now it will ask you do you want to delete folders, one after another, You want to delete ALL EXCEPT c:\backup and c:\win98
KEEP BACKUP AND WIN98
but get rid of the other ones, Program Files and Windows etc. Cos u are reinstalling them.

now thats the bit that takes ages. Deleting Windows takes ages.. like an hour+,

[Step 4]: Installing Windoze
At this stage everything on your Hard Drive should be gone except backup and win98

right so now
C:\>cd win98
C:\WIN98>setup
and follow the steps as you like, you have ur product key. and you should be laffing. I would go into more detail but i have go out in a hurry. Bleh you'll also need drivers, someoen explain 2 him how to gettem'

RentZ

(running running running running ..........)

Renton

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Bard:
Usefully enough, when I bought my PC originally, I made sure I had 2 seperate physical hard drives in it so that any time I wanted to to a scratch down (fdisk, format, reinstall, etc.) I could just lump all my data onto the 2nd drive and work away. Might be an idea to borrow or buy a 2nd HD if you can and do that while you're doing the re-install</font>

That without a doubt is the best and fastest solution to your problem bugler. If you can get a lend of a 2nd Hard Drive, thats what to do, If you cant, You can contact me (rento@eircom.net) and i'll lend you a 2 gb or something.

RentZ

bugler

Hmmm.Thx for the replies guys.Renton you are much too kind,I'm off in another part of the country though,so lending me a HD is not really practical for you.I'll keep your method in mind,as I won't definetly go through with this,i'm waiting to see if tribes 2 team produce a working patch

po0k

yeah, all of the methods above are great....
I myself have a 30Gb hdd, and had to re-install win98 before Christmas there as it was riddles iwht viruses, bloody exes over e-mail....Grrrrrr
Anyways, Bugler, do u have a lan card? get one, u'll never look back, if ur in Glaway call into lanfest and ask (nicely mind) for Ronan. He'll set u up......
And get some sort of backup system in place.......
What size harddrive do u have? make a small (5Gb) partition on it and store ur stuff, only stuff u can't replace. try to back up some parts of u registry or wexprot them if u did any swining with Microsoft games (buying the AoE2 expansion pack and inatalling the borrowed copy of the full game then ) etc.
Get SCSI if u can. IDE is fine for a family PC but not so hot for anything serious. I made the mistake and from now on I'll build my own PCs, much more control and knowlage over/of what goes into it then
The Lan card is a sound investment though, but make sure u get a combo one and a fairly common chipset, the Realtek 8029 is a good relble buy, very good. !0mbits is fine for home use, but if u have the cah get a autoswitching 10/100 one.

bugler

Hold your horses boyos!
Got tribes 2 to work.
Reformat/reinstal of wondows postponed......indefinetly

Renton

ALL THAT TYPING GAH!
hehe wan

RentZ

Bard

Usefully enough, when I bought my PC originally, I made sure I had 2 seperate physical hard drives in it so that any time I wanted to to a scratch down (fdisk, format, reinstall, etc.) I could just lump all my data onto the 2nd drive and work away. Might be an idea to borrow or buy a 2nd HD if you can and do that while you're doing the re-install. A small bit of hardware knowledge would definitely be useful if you're going to do so.

Also, if you can, seeing as you're re-installing, I'd recommend moving away from Windows 98 altogether. It's bugged, slow, doesn't multitask brilliantly and you'll probably just end up doing the same thing again with it within a year. I'd recommend Windows 2000 Pro ... naturally enough, that may not be a viable financial choice.

A CDR or CDRW or at least a Zip Disk drive might be an idea also, as opposed to getting a 2nd HDD... would be useful for those essential backups.

Make sure you have all the drivers you're going to need in one handy location.

Sorry if this is no real help, btw

---

Bard

---

"and there was much rejoicing..."

Hobbes

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Jademan:
What you need is a program Like Partition Magic 6 </font>

Or if you have W2K make sure you set up your machine with Dynamic Disk support and it will do all that.

bit late now though.

Jademan

Long tern solution would be to use a program (another one) called Norton Ghost so that when you rebuild your system this time you could take a ghost image of it store it on a spare partition and if you run into problem down the road, just reghost your machine.
http://www.symanatec.com

bugler

Ths jade,your full of helpful links
What i think i'll do is buy a 30 gig or something,maybe when i get some cash together.should tide me over,anyway I'm grand for now

Jademan

Anytime,need help just e-mail me!

bugler

It's back from the murky depths of a few months ago!

Ok,Renton, I'll follow the method u gave above, but what about this drivers lark? My manual gives instructions on how to reinstall drivers from my windows resource cd, will this method be ok?

I need to format.

_CreeD_

Hmmm, does Win98 not encrypt your product key after you enter it (Dont have one near so cant check)?

Bearing in mind that corrupt driver files may be part of whatever problem you're suffering. If you aren't sure what you will need later, do not delete your Windows folder. Rename it instead. delete all files in the C:\ root and things like program-files.
Install Win98 from scratch to C:\Windows again (damn, too long since I did this, can't remember if you have to delete Win.com and winver.exe, if it won't install as theres a previous version on the system just delete these 2).
When it looks for various drivers point it to your renamed Win98 folder. Say you called it Winold

Typical Locations

Initial driver - C:\winold\INF or C:\Winold\INF\Other
DLLs - C:\Winold\System
EXEs - C:\Winold
HLP - C:\winold\help.

Between those you should pick up just about everything.
When that's done copy things like your favourites folder, desktop, dial up networking ( .DUN) files etc. across to the new installation. Use it for a few days and when you're sure all's okay delete Winold.
And then definitely GHOST it and keep if for next time (dead handy).

Renton

Okay Drivers...

Firstly, You need to know whats in your pc, best way it to physically look inside your pc.

Unless of course you have a working operating system, you can go into System in Control panel, scroll down and read the names off you individual devices (sound,video,modem,nic etc)

If you DONT have an operating system, and you need to get the drivers and ur knee deep in Sh*t, open up the case of your computer, and Read whats written on the black square chips on the cards.

You can also find out what type of graphics card you have by going into a Dos prompt, loading up Debug and typing dc000:0 , then press d again once or twice (depending) on the length of the text.

Once you have the drivers, they are easy enough to install, find the folder in the drivers that contain the (.inf) file, which is like the instructions, when it asks for your disk, point to that folder and you should be laughing,

sorry i cant elaborate any more on this but im in a bit of a rush

G'luck

RentZ

bugler

I'm not really suffering any problem Creed, just my HD is getting tight on space, and I have so much shít on it its time something was done about it.I can see the list alright from system Renton, everything is there

I'll be doing this later tonight I think...

bugler

I tried to this tonight, and got stuck at an early stage.In MS DOS mode should i choose start with cd support or without? More to the point, when i get to enter the first command

C:\WINDOWS>cd\

I get 'bad file name or command'
After harassing Kegser in IRC, he said he thought you meant C:\WINDOWS>cd.. but that didnt work either, neither did C:\WINDOWS>cd or any of that lark.Oh I hate my pc! If anyone knows why this is happening, plz guide me onwards

_CreeD_

Okay....this may be really patronising, apologies if so, but you are just typing "CD\" and not "C:\Windows\CD\" right?.
CD is part of your command.com which is resident in ram when you boot, it's not an individual file on your system.
The only way this could give you an error is if you're boot disk was corrupt.

bugler

Errr I'm typing in the command lines exactly as specified by Renton above.
e.g I have A:\> on my screen and so i type
'C:\WINDOWS>cd\' and get 'bad command or file name'.

Skeptic1

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by bugler:
Errr I'm typing in the command lines exactly as specified by Renton above.
e.g I have A:\> on my screen and so i type
'C:\WINDOWS>cd\' and get 'bad command or file name'.</font>

You appear to by typing the msdos prompt "C:\WINDOWS>" as well as the command "CD".

What I think you are trying to do is get to the root of the C: drive from the A: drive.

So type: C: and press enter.
then type cd \ and press enter.

Note: Renton's instructions include the command prompt (i.e. "C:\WINDOWS>" as well as the command to be typed. In MSDOS the command prompt is normally set to indicate your current working directory. It is very important that you be in the correct working directory prior to issuing a command.

Now the fact that you had "A:\>" as your prompt might mean that something went wrong up to this point. Normally when you go into DOS mode from windows you go into the "C:\WINDOWS\" directory. Did you have to boot from floppy?

[This message has been edited by Skeptic1 (edited 12-07-2001).]

bugler

Yeah it wouldn't restart in ms dos mode without my win 98 floppy in the drive

Ok ok. I got part way through it, but when i got to the C:\Deltree *.* part i got bad command or file name

For whats it worth, I don't think i ever got the line 'C:\WINDOWS>' I saw 'C:\>' only....
Any ideas on the deltree part? It copied the dos based progs fine and all....I thought things were moving well...

[This message has been edited by bugler (edited 12-07-2001).]

tarzan

had you typed in the following line like renton said ?

C:\ path = c:\backup\cmd

that way, dos knows where to find the deltree program.

Renton

You are seeing a prompt in front of you, You are typing the prompt AGAIN followed by the command I gave you, thats wrong, here look to make it easier, i'll draw a picture



^^^

Make sense now ?, Dont try the prompt, just the command...

C:\WINDOWS>cd\
The command is the bold bit

RentZ

Renton

Ya see you put ur backups into c:\program files .. Which you deleted..

You were meant to put the backups in c:\

sorry if i didnt make it clear enough

Hey if ur in dublin and u need the patchs and stuff i'll burn them to CDR for ya..

RentZ

bugler

K I got it done there yesterday, and I'm happy, except as regards my programs, I thought by putting them from backup folder into program files folder that they'd be there, but they are not, do I need to install them again completely? Provided I have the install on my HD.This isn't aserious prob, as I have the files I want most i.e cs 1.1 and hl 1106...just wondering about the others.