Help erasing my hard drive and installing Windows 98

[mahalo]

Hey all,

I want to totally erase my hard drive and start over. The best instructions that I could find looked pretty good, but I just wanted to make sure that it is ok before I ruin everything :) A question I have is where to get a boot disk. Also, my computer have DOS installed, right?


1. Place the boot disk inside the computer and reboot to get to the DOS prompt.

2. At the DOS prompt type format c: /s

3. The computer will ask you "Are you sure you want to erase everything on drive c:" if you are ok with doing this press Y for yes.

4. If you have pressed Y for yes the computer will begin the formatting process if you receive errors during this process please see document CH000180.

5. Once the format process is completed successfully at the DOS prompt type fdisk /mbr and press enter. This should return you back to the MS-DOS prompt with no message. This step is not required but recommended.

6. Once back at the MS-DOS prompt reboot the computer with the boot disk still in the computer.

7. Once back at the MS-DOS prompt insert either the diskettes for MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95 or the CD for Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT.

8. Place the CD into the computer.

9. Type X: (where x is the CD-ROM drive, generally this is D).

10. Once at the appropriate drive type CD WIN98 and press enter to get into the Windows 98 directory.

11. Once at X:\WIN98> type setup to begin the installation

12. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Thanks again for all the help!

[hapoo]

If you have the win98 disk and a fairly new computer (1997+)
you can boot right off of the cd (instead of the boot disk), just select the second option when it asks where you want to boot into. "Command Prompt with CD-Rom support" I believe. Unfortunately the dumbasses at microsoft didn't put format on the bootup disk so once it starts up you have to type into dos (yes you have it): " C: " then type "cd windows/command" Then "format c:"
Hope i didn't make it too confusing

[hapoo]

If you want to make a startup disk, open your control panel in windows and double click on Add/Remove Software, Then click on the Startup disk tab and from there you can make a Startup disk

[helius]

Whatever you do, make sure you have the drivers for your CD-ROM drive on your boot disk (if you're going to install it off a CD, and can't boot your computer using a CDROM).

[mahalo]

Thanks Guys,

Everything worked out ok. Thanks for the help!