need help reformating

[zippimom]

Zippiboy, my son is away at school but he is a mac user anyway. I have windows 95. I need windows 98. Zippiboy sent me a copy of windows 98. I need to reformate so I can clean install windows 98. Have I got that part right? I'm total clueless on how to reformate. I'm good at following instructions but I need the instuctions. Can you guys help me?

 

[airfoil]

Hi zippimom,

Are you prepared to format your hard drive and lose all other data? How is your Hard drive partitioned? If you have had Win95 installed on the C:\ drive and dont mind losing whats on it:

1. Copy the contents of the 'Win98' folder to the D: drive (assuming you have one)
2. Create a bootable floppy for Win95. (Control Panel>Add remove programs>Boot Disk)
3. Restart the PC using the boot disk you just created. You should find yourself at the A:\ prompt.
4. Type format c:\
5. After the format is complete, type sys c:\
6. Restart PC, after removing the floppy from the drive.
7. You should now find yourself at the c:\ prompt. Type d: & hit enter.
8. At the D:\ prompt, type cd win98 & hit enter
9: When the screen prompt shows d:\Win98 you can type setup & hit enter.
10. This should start your Win98 installation. You can select the default options and keep clicking 'Next'. Keep the 16 digit CD Key (Should be on a sticker on the rear of the Win98 CD case) handy, you will need to type it in at a later stage.
11. BEFORE you do all of this, I suggest you find and confirm that you have all the drivers for your PC's peripherals, viz. Video card, Sound card, modem etc.
12. Post you experiences here at AnandTech! You can get more help, as & when you need it(you will have to use a different PC until you get it running!
13. If possible, get the help of your son's friend(s) or anyone who is comfortable with this stuff, should anything go wrong.(not wanting to sound discouraging, but its good to have a backup plan!)

 

[zippimom]

I have 2 notebooks that I can get online with but they are dialup. I have bootdisk disk from before when I reinstalled win 95 [like 4 times now] so can I use that. I copied my address book and my favorite lists. The last time I re installed win 95 the microsoft guy talked me thru it. So I don't know how it tell it if my Hard drive partitioned.

 

[xpaf077]

The boot disk you have is fine. In my computer you will see "C" drive, "D" drive if you have a second partition, "A" drive for the floppies and control panel ect. If you only see "C" has hard drive there's no other partition on drive. You'll have to copy your important files to floppies before formatting. Hope this helps.
NB. You could just install Win98 over 95 without formatting, it will just overwrite the files and registry, and you won't loose anything. all your programms and information files will still be there and working!

 

[zippimom]

I have an a, c and d drive. I already tried to install win98 over win 95 but it said that I had the wrong version.
A:\format c:\ gave me the response Parameter format not correct - c:\

 

[hominid skull]

Type format c:

without the \

That should do the format..

 

[zippimom]

Thanks guy! I running win 98 now. I had to make make a 98 start up disk. I was unable to find the d drive. But I got it. Thanks again for you help.