goldwing Posted April 5, 2003 Share Posted April 5, 2003 What are the basic steps for wiping and rebuilding a systems.Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted April 5, 2003 Share Posted April 5, 2003 Can you be more specific? Are you talking about software? or hardware rebuild? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot Posted April 5, 2003 Share Posted April 5, 2003 As Thunder said, you need to be more specific about what you're looking to do and why. Also, what version of Windows? What file system are you using?In my experience, people all too frequently resort to "wiping their hard drives" when they often don't need to do that. And it brings up new problems when they're not prepared to properly configure their hardware after the fresh install.WinMag did a series of articles called the Essential Guide to Installing Windows that may help you.You can find links to those stories here:http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/wmlinks.htmBut I hope you will post back here and let us help you first. -- Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldwing Posted April 5, 2003 Author Share Posted April 5, 2003 Thanks. I checked the winmag & it might help.Basically have an older desktop with w98 and a small drive that is maxed out with a lottt of junk. Want to wipe & reload w98 and start over.Also, when a primary disk drive dies, and a new one is installed, are the above procedures the same for reloading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havnblast Posted April 5, 2003 Share Posted April 5, 2003 Formating and reinstalling Win98 operating system - my procedure - backup what ever files you want *****make sure you have a boot disk*****- restart machince with boot disk and at a prompt format c:- select yes to question--> are you sure? when it asks- reboot with boot disk - start with cdrom support- insert OS disk into cd-rom- change to your cd-rom drive letter and type in setup - Win98 will take off from there.Formating erases everything!!oh yea when adding a new hard drive I do the same procedure - format, partition, install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greengeek Posted April 5, 2003 Share Posted April 5, 2003 I make a directory called CABS98 (or whatever OS I'm installing) and copy the CABS to the hard drive first, less hassles later.Joy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redbreast Posted April 5, 2003 Share Posted April 5, 2003 If your existing system is functioning, you should first of all ensure that you have all the requisite device drivers to hand, and a fresh, *tested* copy of the Win98 Startup disk.By using the system as it is now, you can identify all the devices very precisely, and still using the working system, download all the latest drivers. This is especially true of motheboard drivers, and its BIOS.You could use the excellent free Aida32 to help with identification:http://www.aida32.hu/aida-download.php?bit=32BTW if your board has a VIA chipset, it is essential IMO that you install the VIA driver set first: you can get the latest 4-in-1 driver here:http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2Finally with Windows 9x do use the excellent Emergency Recovery Utility that comes with it. This packages a set of the essential Windows Registry files and then allows you easily to revert to a prior set of registry entries. See this link for an explanation:http://goinside.com/98/8/msfteru.htmlWhat I do is run ERU before *every* major change during installation, whether a new device driver or item of software. I keep a detailed log of every installation step I take, and run ERU to create a recovery set in a dedicated folder named MMDDhhmm so that a set created on April 5th at 10:05 would be saved in folder C:\ERD4051005. This convention ensures that the folder length is no longer than 8 characters (since to recover you need to boot to DOS) and also that the folders are sequenced correctly.I perform several rebuilds as part of my business, and IMO the three key principles are painstaking preparation (and hence a plan or script); ensuring that before each significant change, you have built-in a recovery step; and finally detailed logging since this will allow you to solve problems (possibly via this excellent forum) by posing informed questions.HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redbreast Posted April 5, 2003 Share Posted April 5, 2003 OOPS! The folder mentioned in the penultimate para should be C:\ERD\04051005 - note the second backslash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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