[failghe]

My neighbor is using win95 and he would like to start with a fresh setup due to him installing many programs and uninstalling some. He says the computer runs slow, and would like to start over, it has been many years since win95 has been installed on his system. He thinks that somewhere along the line someone may have compressed his harddrive, but not sure. I will be looking at his system maybe on Monday? My question is should I just reinstall win95 over what he has now or format the hdd? Is there a difference? How do I go about doing either of these?

Thanks for your help in advance.
This is a great site and have been learning some great stuff here.

 

[SPEEDO]

Hello failghe and welcome to Tech Support Forums...

You should start new loading over the old system may not be a good idea in this case.

Besides there is nothing like a good cleaning to make it run smooth.

What kind of machine is it?

Is it a home built or a compaq (Cough) or something of that nature?

Post your reply here and we'll take it from there.

If it is a name brand like the above do you have the restore disks?

 

[failghe]

Speedo, thanks for your reply.
Unfortunately I do not know what he has but I'm pretty sure that in is not a home built, I do think that it is a compac. He did say that he has all the disks that the confuser came with. I will try to see him tomorrow and find out for sure exactly what he has. I will post the info as soon as I get it.
Thanks again

 

[Doonz]

Reinstall....he keeps what he has....might clear up corrupted files and improve things but wont help with the garbage and spyware or the messed up installtions of old....

Format ....is complete and utter destruction and rolling back to day 0 on the system....everything is gone...or cost $$ to recover...but like the statment above the machine will run smoother

Compression -My computer C drive-right click- properties and it should tell you there....not a good idea under 95...doest uncompress nicley and can coruppt data in the process

Advice -see if his system can handel at lest 98....runs at lest 10 time better the 95 and offers alot more in the way of troubleshooting for the future...

Post the problems and the specs of the machine and mabey we can help before total blow out

 

[failghe]

O.K. here are the specs.
NEC computer
233 mhz pentium
96.0 ram
6.64 gig hdd
He has the restore disks; 1 mastore restore floppy, 1 product recovery cd-rom disk.
Has all of the program files he wants back on except ms word 97.
Another problem, we just tried to save some stuff (letters) he wants to floppy and it says floppy drive not accessible retry -cancel. We tried another disk in a: drive again not accesible...
He thinks that the computer is still under warranty and will call now. He just moved the computer to another room and back, could something have come loose inside?
Thanks for all your advice and help

 

[Doonz]

Check your connections of your floppy cable....I doubt a 233 is still in warrantey but you never know...

Good luck

 

[failghe]

I know that a 233 is old and very outdated but this is an older man and does not use his computer all that much and does not want to spend alot of money on another one.
If I can talk him into a newer one do you recommend a emachine? or any other cheap machine, maybe used that will handle win98? He has been thinking of upgrading to win98. Will his system handle 98?

 

[JAMMAN]

Will his system handle 98?

Yes. It will kill 95 for performance.

Is this a lap top?

 

[failghe]

No this is not a laptop. Just an old pc.
So if I can get his floppy drive back in order should I format? How do I go about this? Do I have to partion the c: drive?

 

[TheTechIsIn]

If you plan to wipe everything anyway: I would open up a can of "clean it out" -- Fdisk, Format, re-install.

 

[failghe]

Is there an explaination on how to do all of that somewhere? Or just go to dos prompt, f-disk, follow what it says, then format drive, re-load?

 

[TheTechIsIn]

Boot to dos using a bootdisk,

at the prompt type 'Fdisk"

There will be an option to delete a primary dos partition, select that first, then select the option to create a new dos partition.

Once this is complete exit Fdisk and reboot, Once again boot to the bootdisk then run the "format c: /s" command, depending on the OS you plan to install and the bootdisk OS you are currently using you could leave out the /s

Then put in the Windows OS you plan to install and install away

 

[failghe]

What is the /s command and why would or wouldn't I use it?

 

[TheTechIsIn]

It would transfer the system files to the harddrive, that way instead of getting the "Missing OS" message when you boot to your hard drive you would get the command prompt of whatever bootdisk you were using to perform the format command.

It doesn't really matter because you will be re-installing a Windows OS anyway.

 

[SPEEDO]

Here are my standard instructions if you want to use them.

If the version of Win.98 that you have is a full version you can do a complete install from the CD.

But if it is an upgrade you will need an earlier version of Windows to show it when asked for a compliance check, Such as Win95 or 3.1 you get the idea.

OK here is what you need to do.

First go here <http://www.drd.dyndns.org/index2.html> and download the Win98 boot disk.

Win98 is FAT32 and Win95 is fat16 so you need to do the following.

Boot to this new boot disk.

Select boot with no CD Rom support.

At the A prompt type fdisk, When the prompt comes up about large disk support select yes if you have a hard drive larger than 504 or something like that.

Then select option 3 Enter

Select option 1 Enter

Select Yes

Type in the Volume Label if there is one and hit enter.

Are you sure Yes.

Esc.

Select 1

Select Yes

Esc

Reboot

Now you need to Format.

Boot to the floppy without CD-Rom support.

At the A prompt type format c:/s

Select yes

When it's finished you can enter a volume label such as hard drive or you can leave it blank.

Now boot to the floppy one more time, This time select boot with CD-Rom support

At the A prompt select E:\ enter.

This is assuming you have one hard drive and one CD-Rom. The E could be an F or some other letter depending on the amount of IDE devices you have.

With the Win98 CD in the drive type setup, Enter this should start loading the Operating System.....

Have fun.....

 

[failghe]

Thanks for clearing that up for me.
I will try to attack his computer as soon as I can. It would be nice if I had it here at home, but he wants to learn alittle as we go along. He should be very happy when it's running faster and smoother.
Now I know where to look for great advice...TSF
I will post when I get his system done.