Lets take for granted that you have to redo your system,wether it is because of system malfunction or virus or whatever follow these steps to insure safe a full installation,of your operating system.
You will first need a boot disk,depending on wether your system is still running,will determin how you will make it.If you are redoing the system because of a virus,call a friend for a bootdisk!
If its just because the system messed up,wether from an uninstall you have done,or any other reason,and you can still start your system good.In that case you can use the windows cd and the add/remove utility in the control panel which uses the windows cd to make the bootdisk.Or you can goto C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\BOOTDISK.BAT,this file will make a bootdisk from the files on your computer.
Windows98 does not place format.com on the bootdisk,so you may place that on the disk yourself,by copy and paste in windows or from the a prompt (A:\) type copy C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\FORMAT.COM ant it will be copied to the bootdisk.to make a bootdisk in dos from the command prompt C:\ you will also have to goto the command directory.C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\BOODISK.BAT which will make the bootdisk also.
NOTE;go into the bios and in the setting confurations turn off any antivirus hardware that may be there,most are called chipsaway or such like that,because this will affect anything you do after this point.I myself have been 3/4 of the way through setup to have it lock up or mess up because of not truning this off.What this does is stops anything from writing to the bootsector of your harddrive.
NOTE;For the most part if you plan to redo the system because of system malfuntion,you may not have to completely redo the system.
Windows98 lets you run the system over itself and reset the files.You can do this by restarting the system with the bootdisk and sellect start the computer with cdrom surport.at the a prompt A:\ you will go to the cdrom drive letter.Note here that the bootdisk makes what is calles msram drive and uses the drive letter D:\.
So if you have only one hard drive then the cdrom would be drive letter e:\ .there just type setup and let it run its course,when asked if you wish to backup the current operating system sellect no,and then follow through with all that is asked of you.
You will need the key code that came with the windows cd of course.When do it will restore your syetm and you will have all the icons that was on your desktop and shortcut in the startmenu still there.This just resets the system configurations and files.
Ok so now that you are this far you have the bootdisk and the windows cd you are ready to redo your system.Let me take this time to explain hard drive setup.First depending on why you are redoing the system,lets start with just because,well if you wish to start from new cool,thats the easy thing to do.A simple format of the hard drive will clean all files off the drive,"though in realitiy all it does is erase the file names"to truly clean the drive is another matter and for this you don't need to worry about it!
We will start by rebooting your computer with the bootdisk,you do not at this point need to worry about cdrom surport"as long as you have a clean bootdisk".Note some computers bios have settings that let you boot from the cdrom if so thats better and safer,but you will have to sellect start windows setup and let it go through
its things and then exit it by hitting the Esc button.
Either way you will have now started your computer to a dos prompt A:\ or the cdrom drive letter.Here it is simple and striaght forward.At the A:\ prompt type in "format c:\" at which point it will infrom you that by doing so you will lose any files on drive and ask if you wish to proceed,by typing in a Y for yes or a N for no,sellect yes.
This can take some time to prefrom this,because of the size of some of the new hard drives out these days.After the drive has been formated the computer displays
the proporties of said drive and asks you to type in a name"you can be imaginative if you wish but are limited to only 11 spaces or letters"if you type in now name then there will not be a name for the drive but C:\.
Now its best at this point to do a full scandisk of the harddrive to find any bad sectors,which if windows places files in will enevitabliy mess up the system again.This also will take some time,but its for the best really,though windows does a scandisk befor
install,it only does a prilimanary scandisk and does not test the surface for bad places.
After you have done this you are ready to run the system into the computer.
There are a few ways of doing this,if your computer bios surports cdrom boot,restart the computer and it will ask you if you wish to boot from the harddrive or start windows
setup from cdrom,of course you will sellect setup windows here.And you will be on your way to setting up windows.The first thing it does is scan the registry and then does a
prilimanary scandisk of the hard drives,if you did the full format and scandisk as I directed you then there should not be any problems noted in the scandisk.
If there is that may hinder the windows instalation process at a later time.Common things is miss reporting sectors or invalid drive size reported,scandisk will prompt you to let it fix these problems,and offer to make a undo disk you will not need it here,but do not be alarmed if windows hits an error because of this,I'll disscuss this in a few moments.Upon hitting the exit scandisk the windows setup will startup,first thing it does is copy system files to your computer.
Windows is basicly a self install program so not much will be needed from you,though you have to enter diffrent settings like time and location,the winodws key code of course,your keyboard type and such other things like this.If you can read you can do most all this,and you are reading this so you will do just fine.When windows starts setting up hardware it may ask you for hardware systems disk that it does not have the drivers for,but for the most part windows contains most all the drivers needed for hardware setup.
Your computer may restart several times while setting up the hardware though,the only time it asks you to restart it is the first time after system files have been copied other then that it will do it on its own.After all of windows has been installed your computer will rebbot for the last time,upon starting windows it present the name you have given as the owner,and ask for a password,if you hit ok without typing in a password you will not be asked again.Then windows will start the first time,showing you the windows spalsh screen,there is a check at the bottom of this right hand side, that if you uncheck it you will not see this screen again.From here you can change the system to suit yourself.
Now if you are redoing your system because of a virus,there are other things you may have to do,because the bootsector could have been afftected as well as the files of the system.
For this you will have to be sure to have a clean bootdisk that is write protected"in the corner of the floppy there is a little thingy that you can slide over if you cannot see through it it is not write protected" Now because of how virus's can act you are best off to do fdisk,there are two types to do for a virus infection that has comprimised your system,and its best to do them both.
First off you will reboot the computer,being sure to have truned off the
bios antivirus thingy,boot to the floppy disk"your bootdisk"and you dont need cdrom surport for this either,but does not matter.At the a prompt (A:\)type in this first fdisk /mbr,"A:\FDISK /MBR"and hit enter,what this does is rewrites the master bootrecord, wiping anything like a virus out of it completely.Note I have had to do this also with some software that I had installed befor hand,noteablitly nortons software.
When this is done ,which only takes a moment to do,you will be at the same A:\ prompt you was at to begain with.Here at this point you can do a complete format and a scandisk,but I always do an fdisk of the harddrive itself after a virus infection,
that I have had to redo the system with.To do so you will type in at the A:\ prompt fdisk"A:\FDISK"this will open the fdisk utility,the first thing it asks is if you wish to have surport for large drives.If your harddrive is more then 512 megs hit yes"Y"now the utiliy will open.
It will display 5 to 6 options depending on how many drives you have on your computer.First thing is to sellect option 3 I think,any way the one that displays the drives,make sure the drives vatility and size, also write them down for the next step.It will also tell you what partions are on this drive if any,write what you see down,to be sure of what you have for later use.If there is more then one partion they will all be labeled as drive letters starting with drive C:\, drive C:\ being the only one set as active at this point.
If no other partions no worries.Hit the Esc button to go back to the first screen,there you will sellect delete primarary or dos partions,the number that is,delete the c drive partion,it will ask you to confirm this option do so and then it will ask you which drive and then the drives name too,and then to confirm it again,just in case you was not sure the first time.when this is done hit the Esc button to return to the main screen.There you will sellect the letter which sayes create primaray or dos partions,it will scan the drive for its size and how many sector there are and then ask you what size you wish to make this drive.
Here you have a few options, lets say you have a 20gig harddrive,which is rather alot of space for windows to run"seeing as a full install of windows98se uses about 300megs of space"you have to take into account that the sysem need space to run and other software you may install at a later time needs space also.So here you can split the drive into two partions"if you wish that is,but note if it is split into two partions and for some reason you lose your operating system again and have to format the harddrive you have a valuable place to keep your own files and not lose them!"
But note also if you do so its like having another harddrive,it will have the drive letter D:\,its not recommended to install software to a drive other then the C:\ drive,though you can in any case,warning though if you do install into a drive other then
the C:\ drive,and have to reinstall the system at a later date,do not atempt to move software from the second drive to the C:\drive as system malfuction can accure as a result.
Now to make the first partion you have the notes I instructed you to take of the drive size, here you will use them,you can either split the drive in half"for larger drives,best to have at least 8megs running space if possable but not a must"I say * megs because with the size of software and games these days thats not really small.
by typing in the size you wish and hitting the enter key you will have made the first partion of a dos nature.
Next make another partion if you plan to go this far,and use all avilabile space left for this partion,"the fdisk utility somewhat explains what is happening and explains the
options to a degree"to create each partion you will have to do so and then hit the Esc button and go back to the create partion thingy again.After you are done you can hit the number which says it will display drives paramitors,or what ever
make sure the drive C:/ is active.If so then hit the Esc button two times which will exit the fdisk utility,at this point you will be instructed to reboot the system to reset the drives as you have set them up,and also that you must format any drives you have partioned.
This is a must because the format sets the drives fat partion tables "fat16 or fat32"and make the drive readable,if you don't do this and try to access the drive you will be infromed the drive has an invalid media"try it and you will see what I mean".
After the format is done and a scandisk performed,you are ready to install the windows operating system again,follow the steps I stated above less the format and scandisk,be cause you just did them.Note that if you partioned the harddrive into two drives you will
have to format both partions to be able to access them,and formating is best done in dos so its best to do so right now too.
Damn after reading all that you would think I would not have anything else to say!But I have a few things you may need to know.There is a fast way of formating your harddrives in dos,they are simple and done like thus.At the a prompt A:\ type format C:/q"A:\foramt C:/q"where the "q"stands for quick,and also you can use the s command to copy the system files to the drive like this"A:\format C:/q/s"where the s means to sys or copy the system files,to make the drive bootable.The characters "\","/" are switchs,where the \designates the directory such as C:\WINDOWS\COOMAND the /is a command switch and typing that into the string means format the C:drive quickly and copy the system files to it,A:\format C:/q/s.
If you do the fdisk you cannot use these commands was as you have to do a full and complete format.There is is a full list of the switch commands which I'll post on another page soon.
If at this time your computer gives you problems loading windows,it may possably be a bios issue in which case you can enter the bios and goto the bottom left hand side it will say,reset defualt settings,but that will also reset which drive boots and also turn the antivirus chip back on,so you will have to reset those values as I have said befor.
This should be all you need to do for most computers,though some of the older computer have funny ways of setting them up,hewlette packard for one and compaq can be funny too,but compaq more because of the bios setings are diffrent.I intend to post the bios setup manuals for phoenix award and ami bios setting.for your use,as they are all diffrent,and it seems they are also sorry asses that won't place them online for those of us who buy computers from other then retailers.
I hope I have discussed this is enough detail for most users,but anything I have missed I would gladly accept from others and add to this also.Feel free to print this out as you wish if you intend to follow what I have wrote here,it will benifit you greatly by doing so.
Wish I had the White houses telephone number to give you to call for help.eheheheheheheheheheheh!
