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Here's some shit I had saved on my computer from when I first learned how to do a reinstall:
Boot from that boot floppy you just made. Now restart your machine. After a bunch of grinding and whirring (this is what
computing was like in the days before hard drives) you'll see the prompt:
A:
Insert your Windows installation disk in the CD drive and type
the commands:
D:
DIR
If you can see the contents of the CD ROM drive, you're in
business. (If you have more than one hard disk on your
computer, your CD might not be D:-- use whatever drive letter
works.) If not, go back to the article on making a boot disk [TX
link] and try again.
We've reached the point of no return. You're going to partition
your hard drive. Once you do, you will no longer be able to
recover your data. Reassure yourself that you do indeed have
good backups and that you've copied everything you need off
the drive, because you're about to kiss it goodbye.
Type
FDISK
Now we're going to delete your DOS partitions and create three
new partitions. (This is my personal favorite partitioning
scheme, but feel free to replace it with one that works for you.)
Type 3 to Delete partition and then select your Windows
partition-- that's almost always the Primary DOS Partition. Once
you've done so, you're committed. Now create three new DOS
partitions. The first is for your swap file. Make it about 150MB.
Next create your main Windows partition. Make it as big as you
want, but leave 500MB or so free for your final data partition.
Once you've created your partitions, exit FDISK and reboot from your floppy.
Now you can format each partition, starting with the Windows
directory:
FORMAT C: /S /V
The /S parameter makes the C: drive bootable. /V verifies the
format. Format D: (your data directory) and E: (your swap
partition) as well using the /V (but not the /S) parameter. Take
a break, this might take a while.
Once you've got your C: drive formatted, copy the Windows
installation files to the hard drive. This will speed up the
installation and ensure that you have copies of the Windows
install files available in future. No more fumbling for the Windows
CD when you install new hardware. All you need is the files in
the WIN98 directory, although if you have a large enough hard
drive you can copy the entire CD to it. I suggest creating a
folder called WIN98 on your hard drive and sticking the files
there. Once the files are copied, pop out the floppy and restart
your machine. It should start up and you should see the C:
prompt grinning at you. Time to begin the installation of
Windows. Change to the install directory you just created (CD
WIN98 for example) and type SETUP. The setup should begin
and you're in business. Check back with us when it's done.
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