by adidas on Sat Jun 30, 2001 10:23 pm
I used to re-format my drive constantly. I would avoid the restore disk and just use your Windows cd, if you have one available.
It's soooo simple.
Make a boot disk. Do this in Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs-Startup Disk. You will need this. It contains drivers that will enable your cd-rom after you format.
===== My boot disk method will only work if you have WIN98 or higher ======
Windows 95 doesn't include cd-rom drivers on the boot disk.
restart the computer in DOS mode. type format c: and say yes when it gives you the scary 'it's going to erase everything' message. This part might be slightly different since you have partitions, I'm not sure.
Your cd rom driver might be loaded into memory still, so try inserting the Windows cd and typing D:/setup or whatever letter your drive is. If it doesn't work, boot with the boot disk. When it boots up, your cd rom should be enabled, but it might be a letter higher than it would normally be (e: instead of d:, etc.) because the boot disk makes a temporary partition of its own.
Install Windows, perferably using the custom option so you can de-select all the garbage you don't need. If you just install Windows without the stupid accessories it's around 150MB depending on your version.
After several restarts and about 15 minutes, you install your drivers and you're set.
You're welcome to do what raptor said, but when I read it, it confused me so I had to throw in my two cents.
[ 30 June 2001: Message edited by: adidas ]