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Reinstall Windows 95 Transfer Windows 95 to a New Drive
Reinstalling Windows 95
There are several reasons and ways to reinstall WIN95:
Something is not working properly. Might be easier to reinstall than trying to fix. A partial reinstall will not fix all problems but it will fix quite a few problems.
You have been deleting programs by using delete rather than Uninstall or the Add/Remove programs control panel.
You have been installing and removing a lot of downloaded programs to try them out and your computer has become somewhat of a mess.
You’re running out of hard drive space and it might be a result of all the stuff you have been trying which was not totally deleted.
Your computer seems to perform much worse than it used too.
Ways to re install:
A complete reinstall, meaning reformat the disk and start from scratch. This requires that you make a boot disk including the CD-ROM drivers. You should also make sure you have all necessary drivers for your hard ware available. It will also require reinstalling all programs and application afterwards. Quite time consuming.
Delete the Windows folder and reinstall Windows.
A partial reinstall, a refresh - just installing on top of existing installation. This requires the least effort and will solve quite a few problems but will not reclaim disk space and clean up. It will solve quite a few problems associated with WIN95.
Reinstall from a backup.
Preliminaries for any reinstall:
Make sure you have backups of all your important data. That means data files like your word document files, excel files, database files etc. All that stuff you might have generated for which you do not have an install disk. You should have this whether you plan a reinstall or not and keep it up to date.
Make sure you have the upgrades and patches needed for Win95 as well as any applications you have. You can always download and reinstall after completion but it is easier if you have them saved.
Make sure you have a system boot disk with CD ROM drivers and that it works. Try booting to it before doing anything.
Make sure you save important data you may have whether it be picture files, documents, spreadsheets, mail or databases. Also, it is a good idea to save or write down configuration information like phone numbers, mail addresses and save your favorite URLs. Don’t forget ICQ if you're a user.
Partial Reinstall
This is the easiest one and it will retain most of your configuration settings. Everything should work as it did prior to after your done and it requires no install of applications and programs following the WIN95 refresh. It will fix quite a few problems but not all.
Insert the CD-ROM in the drive and start setup. You may have to do this from safe mode or DOS. It is preferable to do it from WIN95 then safe mode and last choice is the DOS prompt.
This is a standard install and will utilize your existing configuration files. You are likely to get several messages during the install as to whether you want to overwrite newer files. My preference is to answer NO unless you have experienced problems with related applications and sub systems of WIN95.
You may have to reinstall some of the WIN95 updates after completing this.
Deleting the Windows folder and reinstalling 95
Windows 95 deteriorates over time, as you set up and delete games and applications, download stuff over the Net, and install updates. At some point, the system gets sluggish and Applications that once ran splendidly suddenly blow up without notice. I believe that reinstalling Windows every 6-l2 months is a good idea. Here’s how to do it.
Back up your system. I mean, back up everything. It may take a zillion floppies if you don’t have a tape drive or removable hard drive, but it will let you go back to a known state if you get into trouble. (Backing up to a second hard drive is acceptable.) Do a file-by-file backup; don’t use one of those "partition image" tools. Next, make sure you have all of the installation CDs and floppies for all your applications. Have the driver disks for all your hardware available, too. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can set up a directory on a hard drive or zip drive to contain all the drivers in their own separate folders. If you have the upgrade version of Windows 95, make sure you have the original setup disk 1 from your Windows 3.1 disk set, as Windows 95 will ask you for it during the install. Also, make sure you have all the necessary serial numbers handy.
Now that your stuff is all backed up, run SCANDISK with the "Full" option, so it performs a full surface scan of your drive. This way, if bad spots have developed on the drive, they will be marked as bad and won’t be used later. Next, defrag your hard drive (we’ll do this once more, after the reinstallation). If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you can even reformat your hard drive, but this is necessary only in dire circumstances.
The next thing to do is set up your system so that reloading Windows is easy First, copy the contents of the C:\windows\command directory into a different directory (since I don’t have MS-DOS anymore, I copy all the files into \dos). Then copy HIMEM.SYS from the \windows folder to the root folder. Next, if you don’t already have it, create a CONFIG.SYS file that has the DOS real-mode driver for your CD-ROM drive. Then make sure that MSCDEXFXE is loaded in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. There are some other things you’ll want loaded as well. Here’s an example of what the file should look like:
Now reboot. When you see the "starting Windows 95" message, press the F8 key Select "boot to the command prompt" menu item. You’ll now be at the DOS prompt. Now, change to the \dos directory by typing "cd\dos".
Take a deep breath. Did you backup everything? Now, to ensure that your CDROM drive is working properly under DOS, put your Windows 95 CD in and type "DIR D:" (assuming D: is your CD-ROM drive). If you get a directory of the CD, you’re ready to zap Windows. Type "defter c:\windows". (If your Windows directory is something else, substitute that directory name.) Your hard drive will chum for a while and then Windows will be gone. Savor that feeling for a moment. Now change to your CD’s drive letter, and type "setup". Follow all the usual instructions. At some point, Windows will reboot the system. When it does, press F~ at the starting windows" message and once again boot to the DOS prompt. Change the disk to \dos and type: "edit c:\autoexec.bat". You may find that windows setup has commented out the mscdex line; if so, uncomment it, or you may not be able to find the CD drive when windows asks you; this is silly and annoying, but necessary.
Finally, after a couple more reboots, you’ll be back in a clean version of windows. The hard work of installing drivers will begin. Note that users of newer motherboards may also have to restore their motherboard INF files (this is also known as the "P1IX4 patch" and can usually be found on a diskette that came with your motherboard or computer). Restoring the motherboard INF files will remove extraneous undefined devices in the Device Manager. After you’ve reinstalled all of your applications, rerun Windows 95’s Disk Defragmenter.
DOS= high
DOS=umb
Device—c:\himem.sys
Device =c:\cd\atapi_cd.sys /d: mscd00l (This example uses an IDE CD -ROM driver)
And an Autoexec.bat with at least the following line:
C:\dos\mscdex.exe /d:mscd00l
Complete Reinstall - Reformatting the hard drive
This is a fresh start. It will fix any WIN95 problems. There are some exception were re partitioning may be required. It will not fix problems that may exist in hardware. It will give you a fresh start, reclaim disk space and most likely make your computer appear faster and more responsive. Make sure you have backups of what you need, have all your drivers and configuration items saved and written down and have a workable boot disk with the CD-ROM drivers installed prior to starting. This boot disk should also include Format.com; Fdisk.exe; Sys.com and any other utility you may need. I like to have edit and attrib.exe and scandisk installed. Check them before starting. If you have multiple hard drives or partitions for that matter, it might be an excellent idea to make install directories where you have all your drivers needed ready
Time to "bite the bullet". Boot your system using the boot disk. Make sure everything works. That means your CD-ROM, and the utilities you wanted.
Re partitioning (may be skipped - go to step 6). NOTE: This information is for using FDISK and assumes you have smaller drives or your BIOS handles larger drives. If using overlays like EZ Drive, DiskManager or Ontrack read the information there on how to repartition and reformat. Type Fdisk at the prompt (I’m assuming you are using Win95 or Win95A thus you have no 32 bit FAT option and that you only have one partition). Note: do not Fdisk the second drive if you have one and make sure you are partitioning the proper drive. There is no need and you might have saved the data there while doing this. Delete the partition Win95 is installed on. If you want to redo a drive with multiple partitions and multiple logic drives then delete the logic drives first then the extended partition and then the primary partition.
Reboot and type FDISK at the prompt. Re partitioning the drive. Use menu item 1 to create DOS partitions. First you want to create a primary partition (size limit is about 2.1G) and then create and extended partition which is then divided into logical drives. Note: Unless you want to resize partitions and change you do not need to redo all. Make sure you remember to set the primary partitions as active <menu item>.
Partitioning can be done much easier for you by software applications like PartionMagic if you feel uncomfortable with the DOS FDISK program.
Reformatting: whether you decided re partitioning was needed or not, this is the time for formatting.
You should have booted to the A: drive. Type Format /s/v. You will be asked if you really want to do this. Be Brave and say yes!!!.
When completed: Reboot the computer to C drive. It should boot. If you get an error message and you re partitioned - try booting to A and make sure you made the partition active.
Run scandisk with the thorough option. Surface scan.
Install the windows CD-ROM and change to the CD ROM type and type setup. Your on your way to a new clean refreshed installation
Following the installation of WIN95 you will need to reinstall everything. All your application and programs and reset all your configuration settings.
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