Preserved Topic: I need HELP! (Page 1 of 1)

Ok, my crappy PC is acting up again, and this time i've had it. It constantly locks up, I', never able to use my taskbar or Start menu as of late, and for the love of God Photoshop won't run!!
Is there anyway to just wipe out my hard drive? Like, can I delete everything at one time, then pop in my Win98 startup disk and start anew?
As it stands right now, there is only a little over 1GB of hard disk space left on my computer, and I know for sure that my things are not taking up that much space.
I've lived with these problems(no Photoshop) for almost a month now, and I just want to wipe the slate clean with my hard drive.
So, can you tell me if there is any way to (safely!) do what I want to do?

Thanks!

Do you have all your files backed up somewhere? If so, you should be able to just start up from the Win98 CD and do a fresh install with hard drive format.

-jiblet

Well, there are only s few things I want to backup, like Photoshop, Illustrator, and my folders with artwork.Plus a few misc things. Other than that, I don't really need anything else. Win98 comes with IE and Office doesn't it?

hehe. I'm sorry, but that's the funniest thing I've heard this week.

No, Win98 does not come with Office, but it does come with Explorer. If you do a full install, you'll have to install all your programs again, i.e. photoshop, illustrator, office, etc.

As far as your data, as long as you don't format that drive, you shouldn't lose anything.

I don't understand why you would want to "backup" Photoshop and Illustrator, but oh well.

This may not help you now, but it may help you if you ever do get things straightened out. I have my HD partioned (so it acts like two drives)--on one partition is my OS and all of my applications (things I have on CD and can easily reinstall) and on the other partition are all my data, documents, etc. (which I still backup onto rewritable CDs, just in case). That way, if something ever goes screwy, I can just wipe out the "apps" partition (after saving things like bookmarks, preferences, etc., of course!) and leave all my data untouched. Granted, it is a bit of a pain to reinstall all those programs, but it's a lot neater than having everything on one drive (partition).

Thanks for the responses, but nobody told me if there was an easy way to delete everything? So, is there?

yer
stick in your boot disk that you can create by
To do this insert a blank, virus free, disk into your floppy drive. If Windows is up and running, go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Add/Remove Programs/Startup Disk and follow directions. (This gives you a bootable floppy plus some handy utilities.) If not, go to a DOS prompt and type "format a: /s". This will make the floppy a system boot disk. Copy the driver for your cd-rom and the file "mscdex.exe" (found in the c:\windows\command directory) to the disk. Go to notepad or type "edit" in DOS to open a text editor. Type "DEVICE=A:\WHATEVER /D:NAME1" replacing WHATEVER with the name of your cd-rom driver and NAME1 with the name of your cd-rom(usually something like MSCD001). It doesn't matter what you call the cd-rom as long as it's the same in both config and autoexec. Save this file to your boot disk as "config.sys".


after you've done this
stick in your boot disk and type in

format C: /s

replacing C: with the drive letter

format can be format or Oformat

that will clear your whole drive wait for that to finsh
and follow on screen instructions

A nuclear bomb would do that.

First of all i think the swapfile is and the memory are too small... this could slow down the machine in a terrible way.

But that is not the answer you are looking for.
So try these next steps.

1) back-up the needed things.
2) Go to- "start"
3) Select the execute command
4) Type "format c:"
5) enter...

Or for the best effect:
1) backup
2) restart
3) before win98 loads press F8 (you enter a menu)
4) choose "normal - dos"
5) type "Format c:"
6) Answer "Yes"
7) get some coffee....
8) reinstall everything.

!!Warning : fomat does wipe out Everything on your disk and cannot be undone !!
(well i can, with the right tools, but then you need to know the name of every single file on the disk... nice thing to do with all those thousands and thousends files on a normal disk).

<edit-on>damn too late...<edit-off>
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[This message has been edited by Rinswind 2th (edited 07-09-2002).]

I'm surprised no one has suggested that he just try repairing the installation. It may not work, but it's worth a try.

Boot up just like you would install 98 all over again and choose to repair your Windows installation. I just did this when I was having a font problem and it worked just fine. (Granted, that was with 2000, but I think 98 has a repair option, too.)

Thanks, you guys are saints!
One question, if I'm not in DOS, and my computer is up and running, and I do that Add/Remove program thing, will I still have to backup my CD-ROM and CD-RW?
And can anyone verify(like, by experience) that the directions I've been given will work?
Also, Rinswind 2th, you said "First of all i think the swapfile is and the memory are too small... this could slow down the machine in a terrible way.", What did you mean?

hey can i just clrify something as far as i know you cant
go into windows and then go into doc
to run format on your system drive
simply becuase you cant delte files in use
and if it's your system drive you've got all of windows there and well that is in use and cant be deleted
if thats not the case some one please correct me

secondly whats a swap file?
The term swapfile (virtual memory) is used in Windows and refers to the amount of hard drive space that Windows uses in the event that it runs out of available RAM.


ehum as for can anyone confirm these directions will work
well surely the people who have given you the advice use these ways
and there all online helping you so there computers must be usuable

my technique simple just deltes everything on your harddrive so you can chuck in the windows instalation disk


secondly what do i use to make patrions anyone?
Fdisk?


[edit] just saw your post about backing up your things
yes back up everything you need for fouture refrence now ok
then make the boot disk turn your computer off put in the boot disk it will load up and wait till you get to the comand prompt follow the insturctions i posted befor*


[This message has been edited by Trigger (edited 07-10-2002).]

1) You are right trigger, you cannot run "format C:" in windows. Not without any options that is... but that is a different story. But by pressing F8 you get a computer running without windows just plain old dos. Then Format C: is possible. It is the same as booting from a floppy.

2) Wes, the repairing of the win98 is only possible when some win98 part is installed wrong that is not the case.
Win2K has a better way of reparing things. And when Win98 is not an "Second Edition" it has no repairing functions whatsoever as far as i know.

3) Swap file. Windows uses a swapfile to buffer the RAM memory. When the amount of RAM is low the data is written to the swapfile on the harddisk. When the RAM is too low the computer is swapping constantly to the hard disk. And then reading from the same disk. Since harddisks are way slower then RAM modules this could be a serious problem. And since Photoshop uses a lot of Memory this could be a problem.

You could try a search in "windows 98 and swapfile" or something simular on the net or on the microsoft website for more info. I have to go back to work now. So i will be back later on.

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