Format your hard drive for Windows95/98!
I get questions regarding the formatting steps for Windows 95/98
many times a week. Thought I would post it on one of my news
letters for all members to keep!
This is a general guide / overview on the procedure to format
your hard drive. If you have special problems not covered in
this document, please ask your questions on our Website Request
Form. http://www.internetfixes.com/question.htm
Now to begin, you will need a MS Dos6.xx or Windows9x boot disk.
STEP ONE
You first need to decide what operating system you intend to
load after formatting the hard drive. It is best and easiest to
use a boot disk for that Operating System, such as MS Dos6.2 or
Windows95b or Windows98SE. You will need the proper Windows95/98
boot disk in order to load the these operating systems on the
computer, else it will reject loading due to the wrong Operating
System on the computer.
STEP TWO
Insert your boot disk in the floppy drive and start the
computer. Once the system has completed booting and an A: prompt
appears you are ready to start.
Type: format C: /s
[press Enter]
This statement tells the system to format your "C" drive and
when it is finished to copy the system files to the drive, (the
/s switch for 'System'). You can format a different drive this
way by using a different drive letter.
Format should display: WARNING, ALL DATA ON
NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST!
Proceed with Format (Y/N)? Type [Y] [Press ENTER]
Your screen should display the size of your drive and a
countdown in percentage of formatting completed. Depending on
your computer's speed and the size of the drive it can take from
a few minutes to over 15 minutes.
STEP THREE
When it reaches 100% complete, you will see a new message:
FORMAT COMPLETE. SYSTEM TRANSFERRED.
This indicates that the files required to boot your computer
from the hard drive have been copied from the floppy to the hard
drive. The computer can now boot from the hard drive without a
boot disk in the floppy drive.
You will see one last message:
Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?
Type anything you like or leave it blank - [Press ENTER]
You can now begin to load your Operating System.
Special Note:
You may receive the error message:
"insufficient memory to load system files"
This is caused by the lack of a memory manager loaded at boot
and your PC can only access the first 1mg of ram memory. Here is
a possible solution:
Omit the /s switch when formatting. This is done by typing this:
FORMAT C: [press enter]
Then when the format is complete, manually add the system files
to your hard drive by using this command:
SYS C: [press enter]
Look for Windows ME, 2000, and XP next week!
Copying all of the files on C: to a folder called BACKUP on D!
Make sure you read and follow all the directions below before
starting this one.
If you have any Questions on it just send an email to help@internetfixes.com
with the words Batch File in the subject Line.
I willl assume that you are copying all of the files on C: to a
folder called BACKUP on D:. (Remember: Because I'm copying all
the files on C: to D:, D: will need to be larger than C:.) To do
so, your batch file would include the following commands:
D:
CD
MD BACKUP
A:
XCOPY C:*.* D:BACKUP /E /V /C /I /H /Y
This batch file switches to the D: drive and makes a directory
called BACKUP. The batch file then switches to the A: drive so
that it can run the XCOPY command (which you should have on your
boot disk). The XCOPY command then copies all of the files on
the C: drive to the D: drive.
Quickly reboot your Windows XP machine with a Shortcut!
Here is a helpful little tip that you can use to quickly reboot
your Windows XP machine. Normally you would click start, click
Shut Down and then select Restart. Alternatively, you can create
a shortcut on your desktop. When you want to restart your
computer, all you have to do is double click the icon you
created.
To create the shortcut, right click your desktop, point to New,
and click Shortcut. Type in the following: shutdown -r -t 00.
Click Next. Type in a name for the shortcut and click Finish.
Next time you need to reboot, just double click the desktop
shortcut.
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