So you have decided to install a larger hard drive in your machine and just
want to put a brand new operating system on it! (IF you are NOT worried about
transferring any information.) This procedure can get complicated for the
average user IF there is information that you want to transfer over and should
be left to a more knowledgeable technician.
Here are some tips to get the hard drive into a state to accept that O/S.
Your BIOS should be set to boot from floppy, then hard drive and then CD
Insert and boot from your floppy disk. (It should boot to an A: prompt)
Type fdisk and enter. Say Yes to large disk support. Note: Some older systems
may have a problem using partitions over 8GB. If that is the case contact our
tech support department.
If this is a brand new hard drive... use option 1 to create a new partition
and set it active. (Follow the prompts)
Reboot with the boot disk again.
Then type "format c: /s" (without the quotes) It will ask you to
confirm your decision as all info on the disk will be lost)
When that completes, you should be able to remove the floppy and boot again.
This time you should boot to a C: prompt
The next step is to install the operating system that will be discussed in
our next topic.
Note: There are a few variables that can possibly hang you up in this
process, but if that happens, let us know and we can send or discuss detailed
instructions for your situation.
We have found that the easiest way to install Win95 and Win98 is to copy
the Install files to a directory on the C: drive and install it from there.
(this will eliminate the need to put in the CD every time you want to add new
PNP hardware or add components / programs.
We have put 2 files in our download section to make this easier.
Instructions are.....
See Tech Note Link
BIOS stands for Basic Input Output system.
This program resides on your computer hardware itself and not on the hard
drive!
It's function is to give the computer some BASIC information such as your
hard drive information, floppy and CD info, etc. It can also change the boot
order of these devices and change information as to its basic configurations.
The Bios information resides on CMOS chip plugged into the motherboard.
Most of the time it can be reached upon bootup by pressing the DEL key after
the memory check finishes. However this is NOT always the case and the
manufacturer of the motherboard will have specific instructions on the BIOS
setup.
The BIOS may have to be adjusted when you add a new hard drive or memory,
etc.
As you add new programs, updates and patches to your system, the registry,
windows.ini, system.ini, user and system information change on your hard drive.
Over time (because of files overwriting files) the system will start to
degrade in its performance, become sluggish, unresponsive and even crash more
often.
When it reaches this point, you can either live with it, try to repair it
(which may help for awhile as there are some good utilities on the market) or
format the drive and start fresh!
If you decide to format and start fresh.... You should know exactly where
your critical information is stored and make a backup of these files.
(Documents, mail and downloads just to name a few!) It is IMPORTANT to back this
information up to another source (floppy, ZIP disk, tape or CD, etc.) so that
you can put this info back when the time comes.
If the degradation becomes so bad that a format and re install are warranted,
you will need to have ALL of your installation media available. This might
include the operating system CD, Office CD (or word processing program) Anti
virus disk, and ALL other programs that you use. (This may be a good time to
think about the programs that you do not use and just not re install them!)
Important!!!! Don't forget to backup your files because once you decide to
format and reinstall there is no turning back and any forgotten information will
be lost!
Formatting and re installing is not for the meek, but the rewards can be an
outstanding performance system!
Our technicians are trained in this field and can be of assistance.
If you do not feel comfortable with this process the machine can be sent to
our facility for this process. All information will be backed up to CD and
returned to you for your convenience. Please call or write for a consultation.
