Hi Pat,
First I must point out that any assistance given, via this list, by
me, is not professional, I am a dairyfarmer.
Secondly this assistance is peer to peer, and in no way should the
moderator or listserve provider be considered responsible for my comment's
posted on this list.
That said I should next advise that any formatting is a serious act,
you should have all important information saved elsewhere, ie on 3.5"
disk's. You should also have a boot disk available, in case of emergency
this will get your computer running again even with no hard disk. Trial your
boot disk before formatting to be sure it works, make sure it loads the CD
driver, as Windows 98 will require this to setup.
Next I have some questions, what is your current operating system (DOS
or Win 95)? Do you know what compression utility was used (DOS or Non DOS)?
Do you have multiple Partitions? (say drive C and D not counting your cd
drive) What copy of Win 98 (Full or Upgrade)? Is your motherboard plug and
play capable? The last question is not that important but it would reduce
the cd setup problems if it were p&p.
I suspect you may have already tried to format and recieved a non dos
partition message or a message regarding the disk compression, if so you
will probably need to remove the compression with whatever software you used
to apply it before proceeding. The partitions if they are DOS will have been
created with the FDISK command in DOS and can be altered again with this
command. NO DATA WILL SURVIVE. Boot disk required. If FDISK can not erase
the information on your disk and you do not know what software was used to
apply it you may have to do a low level format which may require downloaded
software from your Hard Disk manufacturer. Very hard to get once your
computer is inoperable.:-)
You need to enjoy mastering your system a lot before doing your own
deep system repairs, there is lots of frustration and worry attached but
also great satisfaction if all goes well. Check your DOS help file, it's a
great resource, type "help" at the command prompt in Dos 6.22 and below.
Sorry to everyone with Win 95 and 98 the functions are still there, but not
the help files.
I would also add that you can expect to pay more to your computer
service centre if you disable it completely, they too have to start from
scratch and rebuild your system, often they can just look up your old
settings and replace them if you don't fiddle after it crashes.
regards, Peter.
Peter Gault.
Dairyfarmer.
Macalister Irrigation Area.
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