Reformatting wih 98se

[Jenni Elizabet]

Hi, Im tring to get info on reformatting my hard drive. I have an old Compaq
Presario 5000t. It has a full version of 98 se and a upgrade version of XP
pro on top. My ex was bad on the comp, had a habbit of deleteing things. So,
it has 2 versions of both on it. And only has a 10gb hard drive in it. I need
to clear the drive and reinstall. Mainly because all the updates have taken
all the space. Please help.

 

[Mike M]

Jenni,

The first thing you should do is save or write down all your various
passwords and userids that you use for e-mail, software, browsing secure
sites and the like.

You should then be able to clean install XP using your upgrade version.
Yes even with an upgrade version, what will happen is that at some stage
during the install you will be asked to remove the XP CD and insert the
Win 98SE CD to verify your rights to be using an upgrade version of XP.
When you start the XP install choose to format the disk rather than choose
Repair and this should mean you now start off with a nice clean system.
Do not have your PC connected to the net whilst doing the install. Next,
enable XP's firewall before proceeding further (this is the default for
SP2 on, perhaps even SP1 but not for the original XP). Now connect to the
net and download and install an antivirus application, a good example is
Atwil's Avast which is free (http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html).
Now visit the Windows Update site and after a couple of minor downloads
such as the latest WU agent and WGA download and install XP service pack 2
or if offered service pack 3.

Once you've got XP up and running and if you need further help it might be
better for you to post to a newsgroup supporting those running XP rather
than this one which is intended for those running the older Windows
Millennium operating system but given the low traffic here I'm sure no-one
would object if you continued to post here.

Best of luck.
--
Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com


Jenni Elizabet <Jenni Elizabet@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Hi, Im tring to get info on reformatting my hard drive. I have an old
> Compaq Presario 5000t. It has a full version of 98 se and a upgrade
> version of XP pro on top. My ex was bad on the comp, had a habbit of
> deleteing things. So, it has 2 versions of both on it. And only has a
> 10gb hard drive in it. I need to clear the drive and reinstall.
> Mainly because all the updates have taken all the space. Please help.

 

[Mike M]

PS If you particularly want to go the Win 98SE route then you need to boot
from and use a Win98SE (or Win Me) startup floppy disk and then run FORMAT
C: from the command prompt to format your C: drive. Note that this will
use the FAT32 filing system whereas if you install XP directly you should
have the option to format using either FAT32 or NTFS.

If you don't have the boot disk that should have come with your Win 98SE
CD you can download a copy from www.bootdisk.com. Download and use either
the 98SE or Win Me OEM variants. Download to your desktop and then Run
and follow the prompts to create a bootable floppy. Don't simply copy the
downloaded file to the floppy - that doesn't work, or rather it doesn't
create a boot floppy, instead it creates a floppy containing a copy of the
downloaded file.
--
Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com


Mike M <No_Spam@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote:

> Jenni,
>
> The first thing you should do is save or write down all your various
> passwords and userids that you use for e-mail, software, browsing
> secure sites and the like.
>
> You should then be able to clean install XP using your upgrade
> version. Yes even with an upgrade version, what will happen is that
> at some stage during the install you will be asked to remove the XP
> CD and insert the Win 98SE CD to verify your rights to be using an
> upgrade version of XP. When you start the XP install choose to format
> the disk rather than choose Repair and this should mean you now start
> off with a nice clean system. Do not have your PC connected to the
> net whilst doing the install. Next, enable XP's firewall before
> proceeding further (this is the default for SP2 on, perhaps even SP1
> but not for the original XP). Now connect to the net and download
> and install an antivirus application, a good example is Atwil's Avast
> which is free (http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html). Now visit
> the Windows Update site and after a couple of minor downloads such as
> the latest WU agent and WGA download and install XP service pack 2 or
> if offered service pack 3.
> Once you've got XP up and running and if you need further help it
> might be better for you to post to a newsgroup supporting those
> running XP rather than this one which is intended for those running
> the older Windows Millennium operating system but given the low
> traffic here I'm sure no-one would object if you continued to post
> here.