Partitioning, Formatting and Reinstalling in Windows 98

Author: Ashish Jain Posted: 04/24/2005 Word Count: 1073 words Read
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Formatting and reinstalling windows 98 is very easy if you have the right
know-how.This article will discuss how to format, partition and reinstall windows 98
on your PC.Before going ahead and doing this, it is important to be comfortable with
the terms format, partition and file systems.Formatting creates magnetic markers,
which define sectors where the data is stored.Basically you might want to format
your hard drive if you are experiencing constant problems with your operating
system. Another reason could be to clean out the registry, which gets clogged up
over time by installing programs (and spy ware and third party software which get
installed without your knowledge).It's also a good idea to format your hard drive if
you are upgrading to a new operating system.Partitioning is the process of dividing
the space available on the hard disk into blocks.One reason for partitioning is that it
helps in organising the data.I.e. lets say you have an 80 GB hard disk drive. You can
partition it to organize data into various categories like a drive for your Windows and
system files and for your personal work. You can then have another separate drive
for storing the rest of your programs. You can even have one more for storing all
your multimedia files, and maybe even one for storing backups of all your important
files.Before going ahead and partitioning a drive it is important to understand how
partitions actually work.There are two kinds of partitions: primary DOS and extended
DOS, and you can create logical DOS partitions within the extended partitions.The
primary partition is your active partition and this is from where your computer boots,
sort of like a system partition. The extended partition is a placeholder where you can
create all the other logical partitions. File System is basically the way that files are
stored on your computer. Windows 98 supports two kinds of file systems: File
Allocation Table 16 (FAT 16) and file Allocation Table (FAT 32).FAT 16 can support a
drive of maximum 2 GB in size. For example, if you have an 8 GB hard disk, then
you can have 4 drives of 2 GB each.FAT 32 on the other hand can support a drive of
up to 2 Terabytes in size.Before actually going ahead and doing the reinstall it is
advisable to back up any and all of your data and device drivers as a format will wipe
out all your data on the drive.There are two ways of backing up your data and device
drivers:* Save them in a storage media like floppy drivers, CD's, zip disks etc.* If
you have a partitioned hard disk and you do not plan to format a particular drive
then back up all your data there.After performing your backups it's time to get down
to formatting and partitioning (if you want to do that as well) your hard drive.First
you need to decide on a few things:* Do you wish to partition you hard drive or
change the way it is partitioned currently?* The file system you want to use.
Windows 98 support two file systems FAT 16 and FAT 32. To format your PC and
reinstall windows 98 you need to do the following:1. Make sure that you have the
start up disk that came along with your operating system CD. You can also make a
start up disk by going to the Control Panel> Add/Remove Programs> Create Start up
Disk, click on the button and insert a floppy in your floppy drive.2. Eject the floppy
disk after the start up disk has been created.3. Turn off your computer.4. Insert the
start up disk in your floppy drive.5. Restart your computer.6. Instead of booting from
the hard disk, your computer will now boot from the floppy and a menu will
appear.7. From the menu select "Start without CD-ROM support."8. After the files
are loaded and you are returned to the prompt "A:/" type FDISK9. The FDISK tool is
loaded and allows you to delete the existing DOS partition.10. Choose the file system
you want to use.11. Delete the existing DOS partition by following the prompts on
screen. (Option 3))12. After you have deleted the partition press the 'Esc' key to
return to the main menu.13. Now you need to create a new DOS partition.14. Type
in FDISK again and go through the various steps to create a new DOS primary
partition (Option 1)). Assign it all the space available (100%).15. Exit FDISK and
reboot system.16. Now you need to format your drive, so type in FORMAT
Driveletter: (where Driveletter is the letter of your hard disk, C: by default)17. After
the format switch over to your CD ROM, by typing in the drive letter for the CD ROM
drive (D: by default) and type in setup.exe to begin the installation of windows
98.Creating extended and logical DOS partitionsFollow steps 1 to 14Now in order to
create other extended and logical DOS partitions make sure that you have not
assigned all the space to the primary partition. Decide beforehand how much space
you want to allocate to the primary partition.14.1.Instead of exiting FDISK, re enter
the FDISK options menu and select the option to create Extended DOS partition
(Option 1)) and assign it the rest of the space that is still unallocated and follow the
various prompts on screen to create the extended partition.14.2 Again re enter the
FDISK menu. This time select the option to create logical DOS partitions and assign
space to it.14.3 Follow the above step in order to create more logical drives.Follow
step 15 and 1616.1 Format all your other drives by using the format command i.e.
FORMAT Driveletter:Follow step 17 in order to in install windows 98.Deleting existing
extended partitions and creating new onesIf you are not happy with the way your
hard disk is currently partitioned you can also delete the existing partitions and
create new ones.Follow steps 1 to 1111.1 Instead of exiting, re enter the menu and
delete the rest of the partitions (Option 3).Follow steps 12 to 17Abstract: Although it
might sound routine to some, most people have some degree of difficulty in trying to
format, and partition under windows 98. This article acts as a guide to and takes you
through the important steps of doing a clean install of windows 98.Keywords:
format, partition, windows 98, reinstall, FDISK, file system, FAT 16, FAT 32, logical
partition, extended partition, primary partition, operating system.By Ashish
JainM6.Nethttp://www.m6.net