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Partitioning, Formatting and Reinstalling in Windows 98
Format and reinstalling windows 98 is very easy if you have the right know-how.
This article will discuss how to format, partition and reinstall trademark 98 on your PC.
Before going ahead and doing this, it is essential to be comfortable with the terms format, partition and file systems.
Formatting creates magnetic markers, which define sectors where the data is stored.
Basically you might want to format your hard drive if you are experiencing constant problems with your function system. Another reason could be to clean out the registry, which gets clogged up over time by installing programs (and spy ware and third social code which get installed without your knowledge).
It's also a good idea to format your hard drive if you are upgrading to a new operating system.
Partitioning is the process of dividing the space available on the hard disk into blocks.
One reason for partitioning is that it helps in organising the data.
I.e. lets speculation you have an 80 GB hard disk drive away. You can partition it to organize data into various categories like a drive for your Windows and system files and for your personal work. You can then have another separate drive for storing the rest of your programs.
You can even have one more for storing all your multimedia files, and maybe even one for storing backups of all your important files.
Before going ahead and partitioning a drive it is important to understand how partitions actually work.
There are two kinds of partitions: primary DOS and extended DOS, and you can create logical Os partitions outside the extended partitions.
The primary partition is your active partition and this is from where your computer boots, division of like a system partition.
The extended partition is a placeholder where you can create all the other logical partitions.
File System is basically the agential that files are stored on your computer. Windows 98 supports two kinds of file systems: File Portion Dining table 16 (FAT 16) and file Allocation Table (FAT 32).
FAT 16 can support a fight of maximum 2 GB in size. For example, if you have an 8 GB hard disk, then you can have 4 drives of duo GB each.
FAT 32 on the other hand can support a drive of up to 2 Terabytes in size.
Before actually depart ahead and doing the reinstall it is advisability to back up any and all of your data and device drivers as a format will wipe out all your data on the drive.
There are span ways of backing up your data and device drivers:
* Save them in a tankage media variety magnetic disk drivers, CD's, zip disks etc.
* If you have a partitioned hard disk and you do not plan to format a particular drive then back downwards all your data there.
After enactment your backups it's time to puzzle down to formatting and partitioning (if you want to do that as well) your hard drive.
First you need to decide on a few things:
* Do you recognise to partition you hard drive or change the way it is partitioned currently?
* The file system you want to use. Windows 98 support
two file systems FAT 16 and FAT 32.
To format your PC and reinstall windows 98 you ask to do the following:
1. Make sure that you have the start up disk that came along with your operating system CD. You can also make a showtime up disk by going to the Control Panel> Add/Remove Programs> Create Start up Disk, click on the button and insert a floppy ligne your floppy drive.
2. Eject the floppy intervertebral disc after the start up disk has been created.
3. Turn off your computer.
4. Insert the start up disk in your floppy drive.
5. Recommencement your computer.
6. Instead of booting from the hard disk, your computer give now boot from the floppy and a menu will appear.
7. From the menu select "Start without Compact disc support."
8. After the files are loaded and you square measure returned to the prompt "A:/" type FDISK
9. The FDISK tool is loaded and allows you to efface the existing Inr partition.
10. Choose the file system you want to use.
11. Delete the existing DOS partition by following the prompts on screen. (Option 3))
12. After you have deleted the partition press the 'Esc' key to issue to the main menu.
13. Now you need to create a new DOS partition.
14. Type in FDISK again and go through the various steps to prefabricate a new DOS primary partition (Option 1)). Assign it all the space available (100%).
15. Exit FDISK and reboot system.
16. Now you pauperize to format your drive, so type in FORMAT Driveletter: (where Driveletter is the letter of your hard disk, Tonic: by default)
17. After the split switch over to your CD ROM, by typing in the drive letter for the CD Compact disc read-only memory drive (D: by default) and typing in setup.exe to begin the installation of os 98.
Creating extended and logical DOS partitions
Follow steps 1 to 14
Now in order to create other extended and logical DOS partitions make sure that you have not assigned all the space to the primary partition. Decide beforehand how much space you want to allocate to the primary partition.
14.1.Instead of exiting FDISK, re enter the FDISK options bill and select the option to create Extended DOS partition (Option 1)) and assign it the rest of the space that is still unallocated and follow the various prompts on screen to create the extended partition.
14.2 Again re enter the FDISK menu. This time select the option to create logical DOS partitions and assign space to it.
14.3 Follow the above step in order to create more logical drives.
Follow step 15 and 16
16.1 Information all your other drives by using the format command i.e. FORMAT Driveletter:
Follow step 17 in order to in install windows 98.
Deleting existing extended partitions and creating new ones
If you square measure not happy with the way your hard disk is currently partitioned you can also delete the existing partitions and create new ones.
Follow steps 1 to 11
11.1 Instead of exiting, re enter the a la carte and delete the rest of the partitions (Option 3).
Follow steps large integer to 17
About the Author
Ashish Jain
M6.Net
http://www.m6.net
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