fatipa
regular
Reged: 11/11/2001
Posts: 2515
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I have so much clutter and obsolete stuff on my PC I'd like to format the whole of the hard disk, then reload specific programs from the original CD's or wherever and finally reload a few saved data files. At the same time I want to upgrade my OS from W98 to XP. I have the MS CD and key to do this.
What I'm scared of is that if I format C drive I won't be able to boot the PC up which will prevent me from loading the new OS from the CD drive. Once I've got the OS loaded I can handle everything else.
Can anyone offer any words of wisdom before I stuff myself completely? What is the correct formatting command string? Do I need to backup any system files before starting the process?
I'm very nervous but I feel there are enough clues and slow running to point to this making such a drastic (for me) step worthwhile. Apart from a few Word files which I'll back up, there's nothing I really need on the PC, I'm just nervous that once I format the C drive the PC will refuse to boot up.
Thanks for any advice.
Brian.
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BrendanS
regular
Reged: 11/06/2002
Posts: 36988
Loc: Me: Wilts. Boat: Lymington
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Once you've formatted the hard drive, you cannot boot from it, it will be blank. You need to make a CD or floppy drive boot disk if you don't already have one.
Do you have a sufficiently powerful pc to run XP - check your memory particularly, XP is a huge RAM hog, and needs about 128Mb just to run XP before you think of running any applications.
If you are installing XP, you shouldn't need to back up any system files, as 98 and XP system files are different.
To format, simply open a DOS window on 98 and type 'Format c:'
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Strathglass
regular
Reged: 16/05/2001
Posts: 1649
Loc: Fife
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Just done that. It was a bit of a pain.
I have two hard disks in the system. I use one for the operating system and programmes. The second one. The slave, I use to store photos, all correspondance, and all other stored data.
The slave was disconnected before I started and I didnt reconnect it until the new system was up and running with windows. That way I lost no data.
The problems I had were-
Drivers, some of my driver CD's were only for 98 not for XP
This included the modem and the scanner and the scanner is still not yet working.
The system disk is not formatted using the fat system but with some other. I did not do this initially and ran into problems.
I was also changing the motherboard, processor (500Mhz to 2.6Ghz), ram and adding a video card.
The first new motherboard would only work with one strip of ram and would not accept the slave hard disk.
After a new mother board was fitted (different make) and XP reloadad the system is quite different.
Boot up time is a fraction of the old 98 system.
The system is much more stable and user friendly.
Everything is much quicker even though I am stuck with a 56K modem as broadband is not an option here.
The human interface is much more user friendly.
All the info on my hard disk is now available and better presented than before.
I do not think that just changing from 98SE to XP home on the old system would have been much of an improvement.
(it was an AMD K2 500 Mhz processor with 512Mhz of pc133 ram)
XP is very greedy on ram and uses a lot of hard disk.
I now use 5Ghz instead of 2Ghz of hard disk.
I now have a 2.6Ghz Athlone processer and 1Ghz of DDR ram but the new motherboard can take a 3.2Ghz Barton processor and 2Ghz of ram if I find the need for speed in the future (and when the price of the bits tumble)
Think very carefully before you update your operating system.
Make certain that your hardware will not limit any benefits you will get.
Once the hard disk is formated it is much easier to install XP than 98.
Iain
Sorry for not answering your questions directly but I thought that my experiences would be of use to you.
Iain
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webcraft
regular
Reged: 08/07/2001
Posts: 4252
Loc: al shop for local people
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If your machine is slow running Win98 it's likely to grind to a halt with XP . . . make sure you've got a minimum of 256Mb RAM.
One thing to check - is the XP copy you have a full version or an upgrade? If it's an upgrade you won't be able to install it on a blank drive - you'd have to install 98 first.
Also - will all your peripherals run with XP? For example, there are no XP drivers for some scanners.
You are quite right to worry about booting the machine once the drive is formatted - I've seen this happen to keen formatters loads of times. The secret is to make sure you have an alternative method of starting the machine BEFORE you do anything drastic.
The XP CD should be bootable, but you'll probably have to go into the bios (setup screen) to tell the machine to boot from CD. Make sure you can do this BEFORE you wipe the C drive and you should be OK. If you can't boot from the XP CD then you'll need to make sure you have a boot floppy. You can make one if you don't have one - look it up in Win98 help. If you are going down this road, make sure that you can boot from the floppy and that you can access the CD drive once you have done so - again BEFORE you do anything drastic.
RE. formatting - I always prefer to run fdisk prior to formatting - wipe the primary DOS partition and create a new one prior to formatting C
Have fun,
Nick
http://www.bluemoment.com
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fatipa
regular
Reged: 11/11/2001
Posts: 2515
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Thanks peeps, I'll take on board everyones advice, I'll do my backups tomorrow with surgery pencilled in for Tuesday so if I don't post for few weeks after Tuesday you'll know why.
Cheers, Brian.
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oldsaltoz
regular
Reged: 04/07/2001
Posts: 2622
Loc: Australia, East coast.
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Download JV16 it's free, run the registry cleaner and delete all the items with a green button next to them, this may well be your problem, system full of old rubbish. You can also clean out all the temp, tmp and many other useless files with the JV16.
Very powerfull and not for the faint hearted, keeps my Win 98 flying on a 56 k modem, have been using it for aver a year now.
A friend loaded it and found just over 4,000 registry entries that did nothing, just left over from old programs that had been removed.
Also download 'DISKEEPER LITE' another freebie, it will defrag your hard drive in minutes.
Run both the above at least once a week.
Well worth a try.
I hope this helps
Old Salt Oz  Growing old is unavoidable. However, growing up is still optional.
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fatipa
regular
Reged: 11/11/2001
Posts: 2515
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Thanks oldsaltoz, I'll use those progs once I get back on the air with my new all singing all dancing XP operating system. Am about to press the button so toodle pip wish me luck as you ......... speak to you next millenium.
Cheers, Brian.
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ianwright
regular
Reged: 16/05/2001
Posts: 690
Loc: Home: Peterborough, Mooring, H...
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Thank you, I tried it, it works,,,,,,,,,,,,
IanW
Vertue 203, Patience
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fatipa
regular
Reged: 11/11/2001
Posts: 2515
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Well it only took me a mere 4 days to get the job finished which is fairly good by my standards. Unfortunately though the XP upgrade went fine the ADSL modem wouldn't work. Called in favours from various experts but no joy until my son tried his own modem which works fine. No real reason for it and we're putting it down to one of lifes coincidences in that my modem popped it's clogs on the same day I upgraded the OS. Doesn't sound very rational does it but who cares - I'm back on and at what appears to be twice the speed I was working at and with a really great feel to the screen. I love it!
Cheers, Brian.
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BrendanS
regular
Reged: 11/06/2002
Posts: 36988
Loc: Me: Wilts. Boat: Lymington
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Well done. A celebratory drink in order I think!
Well, I'm going to have one anyway
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