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I have been given a computer and want to install
Windows 98se. I understand from the previous owner
that he had Windows 98 installed and that he accidentally
deleted some files and now the computer does not boot up.

I have made a windows startup disk from the Add/ Remove
in Control panel. ( am I correct a startup disk and a boot disk
is the same thing?) I also made a bootdisk from Bootdisk.com
for Windows 98se.
I have tried the startup disk and I can start up the computer
after that I am lost as I have never previously installed an
operating system.

This is what I want to do. 1) Format the complete "C" hard drive
2) Then install Windows 98se.

When I do a Google search on formatting the hard drive every
link seems to have a different way of doing things.
There are no programs or files I need to recover they can all be
deleted.

I also do NOT want to partition the hard drive, I want it to be
just one whole drive. I want this to be as simple as possible
nothing special.

Can somebody please help me to Format the hard drive
and Install Windows 98se in a basic way?
I have the Windows 98se operating system CD.

Thanks in advance
Denny B

Denny B <> wrote:
> (snip)
> Can somebody please help me to Format the hard drive
> and Install Windows 98se in a basic way?
> I have the Windows 98se operating system CD.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Denny B

Use a Win98SE boot disk to boot into dos and format the drive. (format
c.

If you need a disk you can get it here:
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

The boot disk will also allow you CDROM support, so insert the disk and
browse to it. Your usual CDROM drive (D may get bumped up a letter
temporarily (E. Run "setup" found on the CDROM. The install process
should start.

--
: :: : [haphzrd] : :: :

On Thu, 9 Jun 2005 21:36:28 -0600, "Denny B" <>
wrote:

>I have been given a computer and want to install
>Windows 98se. I understand from the previous owner
>that he had Windows 98 installed and that he accidentally
>deleted some files and now the computer does not boot up.
>
>I have made a windows startup disk from the Add/ Remove
>in Control panel. ( am I correct a startup disk and a boot disk
>is the same thing?) I also made a bootdisk from Bootdisk.com
>for Windows 98se.
>I have tried the startup disk and I can start up the computer
>after that I am lost as I have never previously installed an
>operating system.
>
>This is what I want to do. 1) Format the complete "C" hard drive
>2) Then install Windows 98se.
>
>When I do a Google search on formatting the hard drive every
>link seems to have a different way of doing things.
>There are no programs or files I need to recover they can all be
>deleted.
>
>I also do NOT want to partition the hard drive, I want it to be
>just one whole drive. I want this to be as simple as possible
>nothing special.
>
>Can somebody please help me to Format the hard drive
>and Install Windows 98se in a basic way?
>I have the Windows 98se operating system CD.
>
>Thanks in advance
>Denny B
>
>
>
Use your floppy you made to start it.At command prompt type A:\fdisk
Once in fdisk ,choose delete partition.Then create a new partition.
Restart computer w/ same floppy.Type a:\format c: to format the new
partition.Reboot and choose with cd rom support.Switch to whatever
prompt your cd rom is e:,f: or whatever and type setup.

A startup disk and boot disk are the same thing.

A drive that is one whole drive, has 1 single partition that takes up
100% of the drive. Technically speaking, you don't format a drive, you
format a partition.
I am told that all hard drives nowadays come ready [partitioned and ]
formatted.

If you have problems then you know it's not formatted or not formatted
properly. You want it formatted as FAT32. So, as ppl have posted. You
boot off a floppy disk, then you get to where it says A:\> and you
type
A:\>format c: <ENTER>

And if it's not partitioned, then formatting won't work ('cos you'll
have no partition to format). So you'll have to run fdisk
A:\>fdisk <ENTER>
and follow the simple options to create a primary partition taking up
100% of the disk.
Then format it
A:\>format c: <ENTER>

If you partition it wrongly then just run fdisk again and delete the
partition you created and recreate the partition.
There's no risk here, since no important data is on the drive. Feel
free to experiment. If you want to learn then you may want to try
different things , even 'wrong things' just to see what happens.

To start from the CDROM, there are 2 ways.

* Boot from floppy, then browse to your cd drive
A:\>D: <ENTER>
D:\> setup

or it might be E: (it depends).
Try both. Whichever works. The wrong one will give "bad command or
filename"


The other way :
* Restart, Hit the key to go into the BIOS. Change the boot sequence
so CDROM is first. Save. Quit BIOS. And let it restart. It will boot
off the bootable win98 cdrom.


Note: You may have to use format c: /s instead of format c: I think
it should work without the /s though. There's no harm in using /s