bester
asked on
Reformatting hard drive, including copying sys files ect.
i want to reformat my hard drive, and i read some of teh answers that you gave and i think that they are half-assed answers. you say just to type reformat c: at a dos prompt then reinstall windows. Dont you have to copy your sys files to a floppy? what about all your drivers? and when you do install it, how does your computer know if you have a dvd-rom? last time i did it, computer didnt know i had cd-rom and couldn't run windows cd. i want to know everything there is to know.
good comment Vikiing,lol ;p.
ok to address your problem, you have to let us know what WINDOWS version is 95 or 98 or NT???
ok assuming either 95 or 98. you can get a boot diskkette from WIN98. IN Control panel, ADD/REMOVE software and then in start up diskette.( since it is not installed need to be done in a friend PC, or tell him to give you a Boot diskette)win98 has a boot diskette that supports CD-ROMs.
for WIn95 you do the same.than above with the difference that the boot diskette of win95 does not have support of CD-ROM. you can get a copy in the WEB of generic drivers for CD-rom, usually the manufacture of the CD-ROM bundled it with a floppy diskette that comes with the driver for DOS, and WIn3.11. this is a easy task to do. you reboot with win95 diskette, then take the floppy disk. insert the disk with the generic drivers, browse and click Install and it will put the drivers in your C: drive.
for the system to Boot, you put back either the Floppy for WIN98 or WIN95, and do this in the drive A:\SYS C:\
that will transfer the system files needed to reboot the system without a floppy drive.
in summary:
1. get a floppy diskette of win95 or win98.( and with a Floppy of the generic drivers)
2. reboot the system with boot diskette.
3.in C: prompt type C:\format C:
4. let it format your hardrive. if you create multiboot you will format every partition too.
5. after it is format.go to prompt A: and type just SYS C:\
then insert your floppy drive with the generic CD-rom Driver provided by the manufacture or any other. and Install it , it will put the right files in C: for access of your cd-rom.
6. try. Reboot the system without a boot diskette and see if it went all right.
7. before installing the Operating system, you can create a folder in C: prompt or in D: with this command in the prompt
MD WIN98, that will create a new folder type DIR and see if it was created.
8. put win98 cd-rom , go to the win98 folder, inside of the folder type this COPY *.* C:\win98 (where win98 folder was created can be D: depend where you did it)
9. let it copy the files.
10: when finished, go to the folder where it was copy the files. and type SETUP.
10. let it scan the HD.then after that press enter. and you will be in your way to installing win98 or win95 whichever.
Good luck
PS: make sure to have all the drivers for your video card, sound card, DVD CD-ROM and Controller handy. the hardware setup will ask you for them. make sure to know what model you have and version so you do not screw it.
ciao
If this help I will repost it as an ANSWER.
ok to address your problem, you have to let us know what WINDOWS version is 95 or 98 or NT???
ok assuming either 95 or 98. you can get a boot diskkette from WIN98. IN Control panel, ADD/REMOVE software and then in start up diskette.( since it is not installed need to be done in a friend PC, or tell him to give you a Boot diskette)win98 has a boot diskette that supports CD-ROMs.
for WIn95 you do the same.than above with the difference that the boot diskette of win95 does not have support of CD-ROM. you can get a copy in the WEB of generic drivers for CD-rom, usually the manufacture of the CD-ROM bundled it with a floppy diskette that comes with the driver for DOS, and WIn3.11. this is a easy task to do. you reboot with win95 diskette, then take the floppy disk. insert the disk with the generic drivers, browse and click Install and it will put the drivers in your C: drive.
for the system to Boot, you put back either the Floppy for WIN98 or WIN95, and do this in the drive A:\SYS C:\
that will transfer the system files needed to reboot the system without a floppy drive.
in summary:
1. get a floppy diskette of win95 or win98.( and with a Floppy of the generic drivers)
2. reboot the system with boot diskette.
3.in C: prompt type C:\format C:
4. let it format your hardrive. if you create multiboot you will format every partition too.
5. after it is format.go to prompt A: and type just SYS C:\
then insert your floppy drive with the generic CD-rom Driver provided by the manufacture or any other. and Install it , it will put the right files in C: for access of your cd-rom.
6. try. Reboot the system without a boot diskette and see if it went all right.
7. before installing the Operating system, you can create a folder in C: prompt or in D: with this command in the prompt
MD WIN98, that will create a new folder type DIR and see if it was created.
8. put win98 cd-rom , go to the win98 folder, inside of the folder type this COPY *.* C:\win98 (where win98 folder was created can be D: depend where you did it)
9. let it copy the files.
10: when finished, go to the folder where it was copy the files. and type SETUP.
10. let it scan the HD.then after that press enter. and you will be in your way to installing win98 or win95 whichever.
Good luck
PS: make sure to have all the drivers for your video card, sound card, DVD CD-ROM and Controller handy. the hardware setup will ask you for them. make sure to know what model you have and version so you do not screw it.
ciao
If this help I will repost it as an ANSWER.
You must backup your present system if you don't want to lose important data.
Info on how to do it, as well as transfering contents of one drive to another blank drive can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q166/1/72.asp
I hope it helps.
Regards,
Ralph
Info on how to do it, as well as transfering contents of one drive to another blank drive can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q166/1/72.asp
I hope it helps.
Regards,
Ralph
To answer Bester's question, instruction for format and reinstall...
Win95:
1) Boot with a boot disk and do a Fdisk if you have to. When prompt if you want large disk support, choose 'Yes' for FAT32 and 'No' for FAT16. Delete and create partitions if you want.
2) Reboot with a boot disk and at dos prompt, type 'Format c:/s' this would format and transfer the system.
3) Make sure you have your CD-Rom driver ready, and a copy of Mscdex.exe found in Win95. Copy Mscdex.exe to your root directory and install the dos driver.
4) Upon reboot, you should now be able to use your CD/DVD-Rom to setup Win95.
For Win98:
Boot with the Win98 start disk and it comes with universal CD-Rom driver and do step 1 & 2 of the above.
Win95:
1) Boot with a boot disk and do a Fdisk if you have to. When prompt if you want large disk support, choose 'Yes' for FAT32 and 'No' for FAT16. Delete and create partitions if you want.
2) Reboot with a boot disk and at dos prompt, type 'Format c:/s' this would format and transfer the system.
3) Make sure you have your CD-Rom driver ready, and a copy of Mscdex.exe found in Win95. Copy Mscdex.exe to your root directory and install the dos driver.
4) Upon reboot, you should now be able to use your CD/DVD-Rom to setup Win95.
For Win98:
Boot with the Win98 start disk and it comes with universal CD-Rom driver and do step 1 & 2 of the above.
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Istal,
I thought you said you were going to wait until you found out if it helped before posting such an ......."answer"
I thought you said you were going to wait until you found out if it helped before posting such an ......."answer"
in addition to the answer the product just cost 30 bucks I thougth it was more expensive. here it is what it say it can do
The safest, easiest, and most affordable way
to copy everything from your old hard
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byte of data.
The safest, easiest, and most affordable way
to copy everything from your old hard
drive to your new hard drive.
DriveCopy™ 2.0 by PowerQuest, is an easy to use utility
for copying your old drive to your new drive. With a few
simple steps your old hard drive is automatically copied to
your new one without losing a single preference, setting or
byte of data.
Unfortunately, most people does NOT take this in count when buys a new disk, and everybody buys tons of Gb's, and when you need to backup that monster, you find you have no place where to store 400 new fonts, hundreds of pirate programs and all the trash one often downloads from the Web. Yes, it's a disaster... :(