BleepingComputer.com: reformatting hard drive

I have been told that I need to reformat my hard drive. I have windows98SE.Can anyone tell me where I can fins a step by step guide to take me through this, I am scared to death!I know that I have to copy all the files I want to keep on to CD and I also have a list of my email addresses but my knowledge stops at this point.I need very clear idiotproof instructions.Please help

See my next post below:

This post has been edited by pip22: 12 February 2005 - 12:04 PM

No sweat, nita. Foramatting is quite simple to do.
First of all, make sure you saved anything you don't want to lose on to another disk if you have two fitted, or save to a collection of CDs if you have a CD writer.
This is just a case of saving files you have created yourself, plus any downloaded files you want to keep. Don't worry about Windows itself, or any of your programs, as long as you've got the Windows install CD, and the discs for your programs. You also need to check you have the driver-discs for your sound-card, graphics-card, modem etc.

With all that out of the way, you are ready to format the C: drive.
You will need a Windows 98 Startup Disk -- a floppy disk sometimes called a 'Boot Disk'. You should have made one of these with Windows -- they call it an 'Emergency Boot Disk'. If you didn't make one, and Windows is already 'broken' so you can't make one, you can download a free utility to make one from here: http://www.bootdisk.com

You will, of course, need a working PC to do that. On bootdisk.com, download the 'Windows 98SE OEM' boot disk.

When the startup disk has been made, put it into your PC and start it up.
Eventually you will get a white menu on a black screen.
Choose the option to 'Start Computer With CD-ROM Support'.
Press [ENTER]
Eventually the screen will stop at the DOS prompt like this A:\>

Type FORMAT C:

Press [ENTER]

You will get a warning about losing everything on drive C: Are you sure?
Press Y and [ENTER]

How long it takes depends on the size of your C: drive.
At the end it will say somthing like:

"Volume Label [ENTER for none]"

Just press [ENTER]

Formatting of C: drive is now done!

I assume you will now want to re-install Windows 98SE, so find the CD, stick it in the drive, give it time to spin-up.
With the keyboard, change the drive-letter from A: to the letter used by your cd-rom drive. If you only have one hard disk, this will usually be E:
You may think it should be 'D:', but the startup-disk uses that letter to create a temporary drive. Don't forget to type E: (with a semi-colon)
Press [ENTER]
Now type SETUP and press [ENTER]

Hopefully Windows 98SE will begin to install.

Sorry to be so long-winded. Didn't want to miss anything out!

Take a deep breath before taking the extreme measure of reformatting.
WHO told you that you need to do this, and WHY was this recommended?
Regards,
John

I was told this because my resources are low, I have tried adding memory but it didn't work. I did a pcpitstop test and it said that Windows needed attention. The antivirus(NAV) and the online antivirus come up clean.I run spybot andspyware blaster regularly.I always come up with the same 2 problems on spybot, they are dropper and Xer0x, they get fixed and are back again the next time I run it.
At best when I click on to my computer, properties, performancethe resources are 45% and this is when I have just turned the computer on and am not knowingly running anything.

1- make yourself a bootdisk in windows
2- copy to that floppy disk format.com and sys.com
3- after backing up all the files you want to keep you can process
4- put the disk in A: drive
5- it usualy boot to the disc
6- from a: type format c:/q/s and press enter
7- answer yes to the question
8- let it format till you get the end process message
9- the drive is ready to reinstall Windows.

Launch Spybot. Go to "tools" then look for the system startup folder. Open this folder, and you find a list of programs. The ones with a green check beside them lauch on start up. You can reference these to the BC start up database (top of the BC screeb), and delete those you do not need. This will free up some system resources.

Boot your computer into "SAFE MODE" by tapping the f8 key whilst booting your computer. IF you have system restore turned on, disable it. Run you anti-virus in safe mode; this may allow it to quarantine problems that it could not in normal operating mode. If these problems still appear thereafter, let us know, and we can go from there.

Cheers,
John

Thankyou John,I just launched spybot but cannot find tools or start up except in the helpsection which is basically a tutorial.What am I doing wrong? I did tell you that I don't knoe much.Obviously if I can avoid the reformat it would be great.
Thank you everyone who has responded with such clear instructions.
In preparation for the possible reformatting found the list of emails(pst.files) but couldn't open it.

OK John, I found the tools on spybot( mode advanced) Ideleted a number of startup items(on msconfig) The resources increased to 68%
. Please what is is BC screen?
I booted up in safe mode, ran NAV and came up clean. How do I know if I have system restore turned on?

Hi Nita

Forget about 'System restore'

Windows 98/98SE doesn't have that feature.

This post has been edited by pip22: 13 February 2005 - 09:50 AM

Nita you can boot straight to SAFE MODE by tapping F5 . Both get you there . You just avoid the Boot Menu that pops up with F8 . Also if you want the boot menu to auto start go to msconfig select the advance tab at the bottom and check the Show Boot Menu at Startup .





acklan

Glad to see you have more resources now and hopfully the two problems that kept showing up will be gone permanently.!

I was referring to the top of the screen here at BC; the startup database is the fourth item along the top. Here is a link to it---this is a rather complete list of possible start-up programs that tells you what each does, and whether it necessary, optional, or should not be allowed:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/

If you have not done so recently, go back into safe mode and run scandisk and run your defrag program. This in itself will not increase system resources, but defragging will make your computer run faster.

Best regards,
John

Would just like to add, while I appreciate all your motives in advising Nita to avoid formatting, it wouldn,t do him/her any harm to learn how it's done as I advised in my first post. She would then have much more confidence to attempt it a second time when it becomes necessary, he/she will have added to her computer knowledge, and her PC will thank her for it. A good spring-clean occasionally is no bad thing, and formatting is the only surefire way of getting rid of all the accumulated junk files as well as the problem ones. It's no big deal. I was terrified of the prospect too, 10 years ago. Now I think back and wonder what I was worried about. provided you save all your data first, it's the only way to learn. As it stands now, she's probably still terrified of formatting thanks to you guys talking her out of it ----- and she only asked for instructions on how to do it ---- not IF she should do it. Please give her some credit for knowing what she wants to do!

This post has been edited by pip22: 13 February 2005 - 03:35 PM

Quote

I agree.
Fresh starts are good.
Everyone should learn how to do it on their particular machine.

This post has been edited by phawgg: 13 February 2005 - 03:34 PM

Well put Pip . You are right .



acklan