1. First and most important is to make sure you have a boot floppy disk that will
allow you access to all drives on your computer. Start by using Add/Remove programs
in the Control Panel and going to the startup disk tab. Use that to make a startup
disk. If you are running Windows 98, that may be all you need to do since the 98
startup disk that gets created includes generic drivers that will work with most
CD-ROM drives.
If you have a 98 CD, but it isn't installed, look for the fat32ebd.exe utility on
the CD in the \tools\mtsutil\fat32ebd directory. Run it to create a bootable floppy
with CD support.
If you are using Windows 95 then you will need to add the CD-ROM drivers to your
startup disk in order for you to be able to access your CD after booting with the
disk. To do this, copy the DOS mode driver for your CD to the startup disk as well
as mscdex.exe from the \windows\command directory on your hard drive. Use notepad
to create a config.sys file for the startup disk and load your CD drivers there.
The line will look something like what follows:
DEVICE=A:\CDDRIVER.SYS /D:MSCD0001
Where CDDRIVER.SYS is the name of the DOS mode driver for your CD. You will then
need to make a call to mscdex.exe in your autoexec.bat file, so again use notepad
to create an autoexec.bat file for the startup disk. The line in your autoexec.bat
file will look something like what follows:
MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD0001 /L:D
The /L:D sets your CD drive letter to D. If you normally set your CD to a different
drive letter, put that letter after the /L:. Some DOS CD drivers require extra switches
both in the config.sys file and the call to mscdex.exe in the autoexec.bat file.
Consult the documentation included with the drivers for the correct switches. Once
that is done, you should have a startup disk that will boot your PC and allow you
to access your CD drive. Test the disk to make sure that you can access your CD
drive after booting with it. If you have a SCSI hard drive, then make sure the necessary
drivers, if needed, are also on the startup disk for your SCSI devices.
2. Before you begin, make sure you have backed up everything important. I also like
to make sure that I have all my device drivers for my hardware close at hand. Windows
doesn't always install the best driver for all hardware devices so it's a good idea
to have the latest driver from the manufacturer close by in case you need or want
it.
3. If you ever thought about repartitioning your drive, now is the time to do it
since you are going to wipe everything anyway. Fdisk.exe will already be on the
startup disk that you created, use it to modify the partition(s) on the drive. Fdisk
is a pretty straightforward utility to use, but if you want more info on it, see
here: fdisk.txt. One thing to keep in mind is that you need
at least one primary DOS partition on the drive to install Windows. Once you have
created your primary DOS partition, remember to set it as the active partition -
this is what tells the operating system that this will be the boot partition. The
other thing to keep in mind is that if your version of fdisk supports FAT 32, then
you will be asked when fdisk first starts if you would like to enable large disk
support. If you answer Y, then all partitions that you create over 512 M will be
set up as FAT 32 partitions. If you answer N, then the partitions will not be FAT
32 and your maximum partition size will be 2 G.
4. Format.com will also already be on the boot floppy disk if created using the
steps above. The syntax to format your C drive is as simple as:
FORMAT C:
If you want the drive to be immediately bootable then you can use the /S switch
with format:
FORMAT /S C:
If you are going to be installing Windows on the disk, then the /S switch is not
a requirement since Windows will place the necessary system files on the disk during
setup to make it bootable.
5. Once the drive is formatted, place the Windows CD in the CD drive and run setup
from the CD. If you created the Windows 98 startup disk, then remember that it loads
many of its utilities into a ramdrive. The effect of this is that the drive letter
for your CD will be two letters past your last hard drive letter(s) as the ramdrive
will take the first letter past your hard drive letter(s). If you only have one
partition on a single hard drive then it will be C, the ramdrive will be D and your
CD will be E.
One option to consider is to copy the Win9x directory from the CD to your hard drive
and run setup from the directory on your hard drive. This has the advantage that
if you ever need files from the Windows setup files because you are either adding
a component or a new hardware device, Windows can get the file that it needs directly
from your hard drive instead of requiring that you place the Windows CD in the drive.
Windows setup is also pretty straightforward. Once you are done you will have a
brand new installation of Windows on your PC. Install any hardware drivers that
you feel Windows did not install the best driver for. Restore your data files that
you backed up at the beginning of the process and then begin reinstalling all of
your apps.
For the power users out there, here are some sites that might be of some interest.
Undocumented FDISK switches:
http://www.jacobsen.sdn.dk/fdisk/
Windows 95 setup switches:
support.microsoft.com/?kbid=128400
Windows 95/98 setup switches:
support.microsoft.com/?kbid=186111