reinstall win98 [on Tablet PC]

I have a second hand HammerHead Tablet PC which is running Win98 as it's OS. I want to wipe most of the software programs off of the HDD. I am a bit leery of going to 'add/remove' programs because I can not identify what some of the programs are. A problem I am faced with is that there are NO FLOPPY OR CD DRIVES with this tablet. I need to be really careful to provide myself with a workable plan in case I delete something that critical to the operating system.
What I am able to do is connect this tablet to one of my desktop units via a PCMCIA ethernet card. I have made a full backup of tablet HDD on this second computer.
My question is: If I copy the W98 setup disk to the HDD of the tablet and if I delete a critical program will I be able to reboot the tablet to DOS in 'safe mode' ? If I have to reinstall W98 from the dos safe mode prompt will I be able to access NetWork Neighborhood to provide a path for non windows drivers? Will W98 have a driver for my Xircom PCMCIA card? When I access system properties I find there is a file called 'netcem56.inf' identified as the driver for the network adaptor should I make a backup of this file on the tablet HDD in case I have to re-install the OS? Are there any other critical files/drivers that I should have available to enable network connection?

If the first scenerio (installation via network) is not possible then do I have to buy a parallel port CD drive? In other words am I correct in assuming that my USB port drivers will not be available to read a flash drive? Can I get away with making a boot disk to CD (I don't want to buy a parallel floppy drive if it is not necessary)?

I acknowledge that I know just enough about computers to be able to really ***** things up so I would appreciate a critique of my plan and am open to suggestions of other ways to clear off the HDD.

 

I strongly advise against "deleting ", if you corrupt the registry, yes, you may still be able to get to Safe Mode (actually you would need to go to "DOS prompt only" and run setup from there), but you will only be able reinstall rather than clean install. If the registry is corrupt you will need to install Windows to a different folder. It may end up a lot more messy than when you started.

My suggestions:
Do Google searches for the listings in Add/Remove Programs. Actually, I would expect that you could remove any that do not uninstall drivers.

If you are looking to make more space, check the size of the program's folder/sub-folders in the Program Files folder, see how much space you will recoup. Look for "Save" files, you can delete those (find them through the program). Deleting a 1Mb program might not save much space, but could cripple your system. I don't bother about uninstalling small programs, if it gets to that stage the system is overloaded.

Look here:
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/techfiles/clean_hd.html

In short, ...Remove Programs is why it is there, deleting will lead to the questions you ask. Add/Remove Programs may not result in an absolute removal of a program (if it's uninstall is not very good), but will be a much safer system than deleting (I know, from when I was a beginner ).

Matt

 

Thannks for the advice

Mattman:
That is exactly what I am in the process of doing. I did a full backup of the tablet hard drives then I did an internet search on all the programs that I did not want on the tablets and used the control panel to erase those that did not have uninstall programs.

I never did get the w98 tablets to access the w2k computers but my laptops run XP and they are able to communicate with everything. I did my backups to the laptops and I am able to use their CD drives to install my navigation programs onto the tablets. All in all while the solutions may not be elegant everything has worked out fine and I am getting the end result that I wanted.

I do appreciate everyone taking time to help me address this problem. Thank you.

 

That sounds like a good approach .

Without the safety net of a floppy or CD drive I think it would be very tricky.

As to some of your original questions. The .inf file you mention are setup instructions for the drivers, not the drivers. On the current system I would expect that the driver files will be found in the Windows\System folder although I have seen many files that appear to be related to drivers in the Windows folder. If you need to reinstall Windows at some stage, at least have a backup of the Windows\System folder to which you can point the Add New Hardware wizard.

To run an ethernet card (and most likely the PCMCIA card) outside of Windows, that is, in DOS, you would need to have DOS drivers loaded for those pieces of hardware.

If you would like to try some "dummy runs ". Go to Start -> Run and enter msconfig, on the first tab, click the Advanced button, check the Enable Startup Menu box.
When you restart, select "Safe mode with networking support ". You can use the Ping command to see if the network is available (that is, ping the IP address of the laptop). If you cannot make contact with the laptop, I think you will need to find and install DOS drivers for the ethernet card and/or the PCMCIA card. DOS drivers will be found at the manufacturer's website. The people over in the networking forum may be able to help you further (I have never needed to use networking in Safe Mode).

If you knew that you could get networking support when you could only boot to Safe Mode, it would be some peace of mind for you.

This may be some sort of a guide. I don't know about Tablet PCs or networking in Safe Mode.

Have tried looking for any instructions?

Matt

 

Great idea

Hey Mattman:
That was a great idea! I have checked and there is a DOS driver for the network card that is in the tablet that I want to keep running. I have just bought a second tablet that I can use for experimenting on and I will try the idea on that one at the first opportunity.
These things are HammerHead P233 computers: the big attraction with them is that they are built like tanks and are very water resistant. I am going to use mine as a navigation computer in the cockpit of my sailboat.