Partions and formatting

[SammyBoy]

I have a 40GB HD seperated into a 3GB section for Win98 and a 37GB section for games and apps. My question is this: Can I format the C: drive (the Win98 drive) and reinstall Win98 without having to touch my D: drive (games and apps)? I kinda screwed up Win98, and where I used to never have crashes, I get random lockups and BSOD now. I think it started when I tampered with the registry... oops. Anywho, I'd like to know so I will be able to accomplish a reformat and clean install before I head off to school (mostly to get rid of any trace of Compuserve and other ISP crap that I don't need at school). Thanks.

-SammyBoy

 

[jc14all]

Oops is right! A screwy registry warrants a reformat and new install. Sure you can refromat C:\ drive and reinstall Win98 without touching to contents of D:\ drive.

Just use your Win98 startup disk to boot up. At A:\ prompt type: format c /s then after formatting is done leave the startup disk in the floppy in the drive, and bootup with CD ROM support. Now, reinstall Win98 fresh and be careful in registry. Just a recmmendation, document everything you do on the reinstall of Win98, even the step-by-step install of every program. Then if you have problems you can back track and uninstall/repair.

JC-------<*){{{>{~~~~~
Fisher of men

 

[hammerhead]

You may as well format the D: drive as well.

Those games and apps won't work once their registry entries have been wiped by the C: drive format.

 

[NickM]

Have you checked as a last resort registry restore?
Registry checker?
System file checker?
Windows reinstall into the same Windows directory?

Anyway, fdisk C: /mbr, format /u, reinstall from scratch
are always the better solution, especially for games.
Not always faster though.

 

[SammyBoy]

That was my concern. I know that Win98 just needs to have some kind of connection to the apps and games... so, I guess I'll finally be able to use my new burner for a "sanctioned" purpose.

-SammyBoy

 

[SammyBoy]

It's working okay now, since I used Norton to undo what I had it do. Really, the only problem that I had crop up was RealPlayer wouldn't run (big loss there), and my modem wouldn't initialize in CS (that's a problem). Now it's fine... a few minor things here and there, but nothing too big. I only wonder if maybe my BIOS update has something to do with the decrease in stability. (a7a266, went from ver1004 to ver1006)

-SammyBoy

 

[kusek]

First of all, you said you have a burner right? No problem. Save the games and reformat the whole drive. Not worth wasting time and then having to do the whole thing a second or 3rd time. Clean installs do wonders especially under the circumstances you described.
Windows 2000 (and I suppose NT & XP) is the only MS OS that is really stable. I 'think' all the problems with games and drivers are solved now but don't take my word for it. Check it out. I got tired of the 98 blue screens and would never go back.