I have tried to anticipate any problems you may encounter and cover them in a check list type manner. Please read through this completely as many times as it takes to be sure you understand what is required. If you have any questions, contact me BEFORE you start.

If you are in the middle of the procedure and run into trouble, feel free to contact me but I may not be able to help long distance. There are just too many variables.

Best of luck to you!


Basic Checklist:
1. Ensure the Windows 98 CD you have is for a "full" install, i.e., one where there is nothing at all on the hard disk. If you have an upgrade disk this will not work unless you have a previous version available! You have the proper serial number and a legal copy.

2. Make a backup copy of every piece of non-recoverable, important, unique data from your Hard Drive, i.e., poems and diary.

3. Make sure the data you backed up can be recovered back to your hard drive.

4. Create an emergency boot disk (see below).

5. Partition your hard drive (see below).

6. Format your hard drive (see below).

7. Boot from your Emergency boot floppy. This will give you access to your CD-ROM drive without having to copy possibly extraneous files to your hard drive.

8. Install Windows 98

9. Re-install any applications

10. Replace your backed up data.




Create an emergency boot disk:
1. Click on the Start button.

2. Click on settings.

3. Click on Control Panel.

4. Double-click on Add/Remove Programs.

5. Select the Startup Disk tab.

6. Click on Create Disk...

7. Follow the prompts.

8. When finished you should have a floppy disk that will auto-detect your CD-ROM when you boot using it.

          !!!!!!!!!TEST IT BEFORE DOING ANYTHING ELSE!!!!!!!!!

9. To test your boot disk and make sure you can change to your cd-rom drive 
From the A prompt type D or whatever your cd-rom drive letter is, then type DIR. If you see the contents of the cd listed then your ok to go ahead. Make sure your windows disk is in the cd-rom drive

10. If your boot disk works properly, add the following programs to it (you may have to search to find them):
edit.com
edit.hlp (if it will fit)
fdisk.exe
format.com
any special drivers needed for your system like CD-ROM, DVD, etc. if you know what and where they are. If these don't fit on the boot floppy they may safety be saved to another blank floppy disk.






Partition Hard drive:
1. Boot your computer using your boot floppy disk.

2. From the DOS prompt, type in the command:
fdisk

You will be asked if you want Large Disk Support.  y = enabling large disk support and using the fat 32 file system.

3. Delete all partitions. This step is necessary to ensure there isn't some extraneous information out there that will cause problems later ... like Novell.

4. Create one or more new partitions. If the disk is small enough (10GB or smaller) I would recommend just one partition. If it's larger use your own judgement. Sometimes it is nice to have extra virtual drives on the same hard disk. In either case, use FAT32 or convert to FAT32 later.

5. While in this step, if you are not happy with the results, just go back to step #3 until you are happy with the way your Hard Disk is set up. It's better to experiment now while there is no data to be destroyed than to realize you would have preferred a different setup after everything has been re-installed.

6. Re-boot the computer for the new partitioning to be recognized by the hardware. Keep your Floppy boot disk in the A: drive. Remember, there is now no operating system on your HD.





Format Hard Disk:
1. Once your system reboots and you have a stable DOS prompt, type the following at the command line:

format c: /s /u   if you get a memory error drop the  /u switch

This will format your C: partition, add the OS files needed to boot with (/s), and not prompt you for any input (/u).

2. When the format operation is finished, if you have set up additional partitions, format any further partitions using the following:

format x: /u

where x is the next letter in the alphabet after the last drive letter you previously used. If you set up 2 partitions, then you would use "format d: /u".

3. You may be asked to supply a volume name after the format has finished. It is an optional step that you may safely ignore if you wish, a volume name can be assigned (or changed) later if desired. If you add one now it must be a maximum of 11 alpha-numeric characters.

4. Once you have finished formatting all partitions, remove the Floppy boot disk from your drive, turn off the power for about 3000 computer years (about 30 seconds or until you hear no more sound from the computer in human terms).

5. Turn power back on and your computer should boot from the files loaded during the format and leave you staring at the DOS prompt.

6.You may need to start setup from the cd-rom drive to install windows

7. Type D:\ setup    Assuming that D: is your CD-ROM drive
