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by jamesboyz

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Could someone tell me the best step by step procedure to wipe an old hard disk (under 10 gig) and reinstall an operating system such as win 98 or ME. It never seems to go the same twice.

7 replies

by hinrgman

Use the windows startup/floppy disk that came with your windows software.

boot up from that floppy and at the A: prompt type in format C:

Answer the step by step questions.

after the format is over reboot from that floppy and, choose the cdrom support that matches your cd rom.

Once that is loaded type the cd rom drive letter

example d, e, or f :setup

that will start the windows setup for installation of your OS.

Just follow the instructions and read all the screens before answering.

by thechas

1. Boot from the startup disk.
2. Run fdisk, and delete all partitions and logical drives.
3. Reboot
4. Run fidisk, and set up the drive as desired.
For 10GB, I would set up 1 8.2GB primary, and the remainder (1.5 - 2GB) extended.
(create a logical drive in the extended partition, and copy the install CD and device driver files to the drive.)

5. Reboot and format the drives.
5a. Copy OS CD and drivers if desired

6. I reboot, though it is not necessary.
Either place the OS CD in thedrive,
(for ME, W2K, or XP you can boot from the OS CD if your system supports boot from CD)
or, navigate to the folder with the Windows CD files, and run Setup.

6a. I always choose custom, and select the options that I want installed.

7. Complete the OS installation.
Do not install any device drivers just yet.

8. After Windows settles down, and stops re-booting every few minutes, begin installing device drivers.

8a. motherboard / chipset (including port, SCSI, and IDE / RAID cards)
8b. DirectX
8c. Video card
8d. Modem
8e. Sound card
8f. Other devices

9. Reboot at least once after all the drivers are installed, then scandisk and defrag the drive(s)

10. Install Windows updates, including new browsers and security updates.

11. Begin installing application software.

Chas

by nickmkhn

Just one note to add about the best way to wipe an old hard disk, and prepare it for Windows 98/ME installation.

after booting from Win98 Startup floppy or WinME install CD:

1 - in order to clean up the boot sector of your hard disk, run

fdisk /mbr

2 - do unconditional format by adding " /u" to the command:

format C: /u

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