Formating c:

Hi,
My machine is 4.5 years old, last formatted two years ago.
Specs are: AMD K6-II 450Mhz 3DNow! on a Via Motherboard with 192MB
of RAM, 3DFX Voodoo 3 2000 8MB, WesternDigital HD 13GB 5400RPM, Maxtor HD 40GB 5400 RPM, LG-CRD 40x CDROM, Sony 52x/24x CDRW, 1GB VirtualRAM.

got 4 partitions:
WD HD: c: (4.87GB) and e: (7.65)
Maxtor HD: d: (19) and f: (19)

my system.dat is growing everyday and is already 13MB, and the computer is working very slowly because of all the junk it has in its registry

system is on c:\windows, and c: is all i want to format.
my question is: how can i format c: with the ability for dos to identify CDROM?

is going to BIOS and set the boot sequence to boot from CD first is enough?
last time i did it two years ago, i did something wrong and formatted without removing the Windows 98 operating system, altough the drive was completely full formatted, it still had Windows 98 [Version 4.10.2222] when i entered VER command in dos, so i couldn't install windows from the OEM CD, becuase it says windows is already installed (C: WAS EMPTY!!!)

How can i format S A F E L Y and then have a clean re-install with the CD?

 

Gave up on the other thing, and want to start fresh?
Go to Bootdisk's, and download the file for 98SE OEM. Double click this file with a floppy in the drive, and a boot floppy will be made for you. Or go to Control Panel\Add Remove Programs, click on Startup disk tab, insert a floppy, then click on Create Disk.
The method I am describing first here will make it easier on you when setting up your windows, as you will not get prompted for the Windows CD later on.
Boot the computer with the floppy, choosing with CD rom support. Watch the screen for a message giving you the letter for the CD, it will not be the usual letter, it may be H in your case, use this letter in place of the X below. This message appears before the A:\> appears.
Use these commands, press Enter at the end of each line.
format c: /u /s
c:
md\win98
copy X\win98\*.* c:\win98
Remove floppy, and reboot, this command starts setup.
c:\win98\setup

If you do not want to copy the setup files onto the hard drive, do these commands.
format c: /u
X:\win98\setup

In either case, I would select the Custom Install, and choose what you want to install.

You may notice the format commands are slightly different here. I'll explain this. The /u forces format to do an unconditional format, meaning everything is erased.
The /s tells format to transfer system files onto the hard drive after the format so it is bootable. This is enough to boot the computer and start windows setup if the setup files are copied onto the hard drive.
Note the placement of / and \, this is important.

When windows setup is done, install the motherboard drivers first thing, then install the video drivers, sound [if not onboard] and then modem if any.

 

You might want to try a couple of less drastic things first.

Boot to DOS and then
scanreg /fix followed by
scanreg /opt (and yes, they can be run at the same time but I like the results better this way.

While you are there
scandisk /fix /nosave /surface would be a reasonable thing to do.

The above will take care of your registry bloat - at least as well as is possible with the software you have loaded. If you have lots of junk installed that you no longer need or want, remove it (via add/remove) before doing the scanreg pieces.

I supported quite a few 9X systems over the years and found that if they were kept clean, they ran pretty much forever. A monthly cleaning did seem to help with very active systems though to include
- delete from the browser all TIF and history files
- delete all files in all temp folders
- deltet all c:\filennnn.chk files (where nnnn is any number)
- empty recycle bin
- boot to DOS and do both the scanreg and scandisk commands shown above
- boot to safe mode and do a GUI based scandisk (to take care of any long-file-name issues the DOS version can't see)
- defrag

 

Download motherboard drivers?

Thanks for all the suggestions, i'm definitely going to use them...

i have a VIA VT82C598 Apollo MVP3 motherboard.
i don't think i got the cd drivers for it.
can i get those online?

i've got all the other drivers...

 

http://www.storagedrivers.com/drivers/29/29253.htm
This may be it, use "drivers" as the user, "all" as the password to gain access.

 

If you want to back your drivers, there is a utility formerly from JerMar that used to be called WinDriversBackup. The company that bought it will allow you to use the program for two days. You only need it for fifteen minutes. It'll back your drivers to a single folder. Burn that folder to disk and use it for installation. Do a search for JerMar.

With that, I don't know that you need a complete reinstall if everything is otherwise doing OK. When I ran Windows 98, I would use:

Easy Cleaner by Toni Arts to clean the registry and Unnecessary files (temps, etc)
Spider to Clean the cookies, index.dat, etc.
Uneraser to clean the space between the files.
Diskkeeper Lite to defrag.

 

Newt

This isn't my thread and I don't mean to butt in but a question for Newt.

In attempting to run your procedure I completed the first two (altho I saw nothing with scanreg /opt) then tried scandisk /fix /nosave /surface and DOS tells me Invalid switch /FIX (in caps). Just wondered if I'm doing something wrong because I'm illiterate in DOS.

 

bobmc32, I can answer that question.
scandisk /autofix /nosave /surface
If you want scandisk to show all valid switches or options it can do, use this command, it will do nothing but show you them.
scandisk /?
You can use the /? with most of the dos commands, and get a brief and short help with them.
The scanreg /opt does not appear to do anything, but it does.

 

Thanks Mark. I thought that of scanreg /opt but was not sure. I will do as you suggest and go from here. I learn every day..........hopefully.

 

Formatted....

hey guys,

i formatted c:\,
clean install of win98se
motherboard, display card, usb modem, printer installed
but i can't seem to install my SB128PCI sound drivers,
i tried to download it from CREATIVE site
and i got tons of errors from my system, hangouts and crashes.

it went the same with my FlyVideo98 drivers, although i got the original cd.

what the hell can i do now?