crash and reformat system

[dennis]

i am running windows 98 with an upgrade to windows xp
home.Please let me know how to erase all data on hard
drive and reformat operating system.

 

[John Barnett - MVP]

If you are runing Windows 98 you should have made a startup disk either when
you first installed win 98 or after installation. If you haven't you can
download a copy from www.bootdisk.com
Once you have downloaded the start up disk file copy it to a fromatted
floppy disk. With the floppy disk still in your floppy drive restart your
pc. A menu should appear as the floppy boots your machine. Select with cd
support (this way all files are installed to memory). When your pc has
booted to the 'A' prompt type 'format c:' (without the quotes) A message
will tell you that all data will be erased from your drive. You must accept
this in order for your drive to reformat. After reformatting you can install
your operating system as usual.

Please note that you should back up any important documents ot anything you
need to keep. Once the drive has been reformatted you will loose everything
that was on the drive. Only a specialist can recover files that have been
lost - and this is very expensive. So play safe and backup anything you
think you may need.

Hope this helps

John Barnett - MVP
Associate Expert

 

[Alex Nichol]

i am running windows 98 with an upgrade to windows xp
home.Please let me know how to erase all data on hard
drive and reformat operating system.

Provided it is a retail 98 CD you have, with a Win98 folder of cab
files, boot the XP CD direct. Enter Setup, and after the license
agreement take New Install. When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC;
select and delete the current partition and make a new RAW one to be
formatted at the next stage. When it gets to ask where Windows is, show
it the 98 CD in the drive: on a blue screen asking for a CD, put the XP
one back.

If the 98 was a 'OEM Restore' one, you will have to restore it first.
Then run the XP CD from it, take Install, change Upgrade to New install,
then proceed as above - this will already be satisfied on eligibility
and not ask for the CD