Re-Installing Win-98

You will probably have to uninstall some programs and then reinstall after the upgrade. Even if you install 98 on another drive, you'll need 25MB

"Typical Upgrade from Windows 95:

Requires approximately 195 MB of free hard disk space, butmay range between 120 MB to 295 MB, depending on your system configuration and the options you choose to install.

Full Install of Windows 98 on a FAT16 Drive:

Requires 225 MB of free hard disk space, but may range between 165-355 MB depending on system configuration and options selected.

Full Install of Windows 98 on a FAT32 Drive:

Requires 175 MB of free hard disk space, but may range between 140 MB - 255 MB, depending on system configuration and options selected.

Also, if you are installing Windows 98 to a drive other than C, Setup can require up to 25 MB of free disk space on drive C for the system and log files created during Setup. "

First, I am not sure that you can gain much by converting a 2GB drive to FAT32.

Next, have you cleared out the c:\windows\temp folder?
There can be a lot of files there.

Also, clean out your temporary internet files and Cache.

Next, move ALL user files and documents to the logical drives.

Look in the root of the C: drive for configuration backup, and checkdisk files.

Are you using a fixed size Swap file?
If so, switch to a dyanamic file until you get Windows re-installed.

Also, run scandisk, and have it remove cross-linked and other bad files it finds.

Chas

Pat,
I'm sure getting a larger drive has crosssed your mind. But from what you've said here you want to keep the system as is and not format and restart from sratch. I wouldn't either.

Here we go. First keep in mind that you don't want to delete sytem files. Also when available use add remove programs in control panel to uninstall software instead of just deleting the folders or files. The suggestions mentioned allready will get you some space.

The C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS folder is thedefault location for the windows setup files. If you have those installed delete the contents of this folder or move the files to a folder on the other drive (partition). Keep the original folder where it's at.

You can move the contents of the My Documents folder as well. Don't move the original folders just move contents into a folder you've created on the other drive. that way you won't loose the default paths and once you get the space you can move things back.

If you have the install disks for the larger software packages like Office (my version is over 300MB), uninstall then reinstall on the second partition.

Uninstall the virus software since it's best to do that before converting to fat32.

This should give you more than enough room to do the fat 32 conversion. Search for the WINDOWS UPDATE SETUP FOLDER. It'll have a text file that says it's safe to delete the contents of this folder. Dump that it can be small or large depending on what all updates you've performed.

One of my tricks is to move the system swap file from its' default location on the c: drive to one of the other partitions.

This is done by going to your system icon in the control panel, selecting performance and then optimizing youre memory configuration. Uncheck the let windows manage memory and completely remove the memory space associated to the swap file on your c: drive to another partition. Make sure you make the initial size of the swap file equal to the current RAM on the system, and set the maximum size to 2x that number.

Also, any temporary internet files, recycle bin or .swp files can be deleted for more space.

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