OT- Ram prices for PC dropping like a stone!

[Gremlin]

I'm not sure about partitioning, but as for reinstalling Winblows 98, it goes something like this:

Put the CD in the drive, hit start, and then wait about fifteen or twenty minutes as it installs itself. Then select Windows Update in the Start menu on the Taskbar to get any critical updates. The Microsoft site will determine which ones you need. Then just hit download, and they'll install automatically.

You'll then likely need to install some drivers for those components which can't be run with drivers present on the Windows CD. These can include things like your sound card, video card, printer, scanner, etc. If you bought any of those separately, you should have a driver CD or floppy. For some components, you may have a system restoration CD with drivers on it, too, if you bought your system from an OEM (Gateway, Dell, etc.)

Just follow the directions in the manual and on screen for installing the drivers--it's usually easy and self-explanatory. Reinstall your other software and copy files from your backup discs (make sure to have important data burned to CD, on Zip disks, and/or on floppies--not the hard drive you'll be reformatting. Safety first )

Then go through and tweak Windows and display settings to your liking, and set up your email client with the proper info (passwords, servers, etc).

That's pretty much it, as I recall. It's more time-consuming than difficult. Give yourself a couple hours to be on the safe side.

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I pity the fool, thug, or soul who tries to take over the world, then goes cryin' home to his momma. --Mr. T

[Doug Williams]

Joe,

I hope this helps: http://www.windowsreinstall.com/index2.htm .

I used to have a step-by-step guide, but I seem to have misplaced it.

Basically, you have to make a boot disk, on a 3.5" floppy, that gives you access to your CD-Rom drive. From there you can reformat the HD and reinstall Windows.

[Gremlin]

You shouldn't need a startup disk if Windows is already installed properly and your BIOS recognizes your CD-ROM properly, but it's a good idea to have one on hand in case of emergencies.

You make one by selecting Settings in the Start menu on the Taskbar, opening Add/Remove Programs, and then selecting the Startup Disk tab.

Btw, if you don't have them already, you should make backups of all your drivers.

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I pity the fool, thug, or soul who tries to take over the world, then goes cryin' home to his momma. --Mr. T

[Gremlin]

One more thing regarding backups, be sure to back up the perhaps less obvious stuff, like browser favorites (folder is in the Windows directory) and email client address book. I believe that Outlook Express normally exports them to

\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book

using the Export command under the File menu.

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I pity the fool, thug, or soul who tries to take over the world, then goes cryin' home to his momma. --Mr. T

[Doug Williams]

Gremlin,

He will need a boot disk if he reformats his HD. Reinstalling Windows back on top of Windows without reformatting the HD is not the same as reformatting the HD then reinstalling Windows. The latter is what I recommend.

[Fan]

I'll add one little tidbit here. Having a contiguous (all in one piece) swap file is a good thing. Here's how I do it. Defrag. Reboot. Disable swap file and defrag again. Reboot. Re-enable swap file. This way, the swap file will grab the first piece of contiguous HD space that will fit the entire swap file. Helps a lot on disk thrashing, etc. I typically do it after my annual reformat, after all drivers have been installed and Windows has been tweaked.

Actually, two tidbits: You should also not let Windows manage the swap-file (that is, let Windows resize it at will). I have always gotten better performance by setting the minimum and maximum size to be the same, i.e. 192mb or 255mb, etc.

[This message has been edited by Fan (edited 03-05-2001).]

[Compassion]

Originally posted by Wolfe:

Compatibility. Reliability. Life-time warranty. I have had RAM go bad. And even though PC100 and PC133 are standards, compatibility does vary from board to board. You'd be amazed at how many intermittent "problems with Windoze" can be solved by replacing the cheapo RAM in a system. This isn't always the case, of course, but sometimes it really does make a difference.

Never had that problem... But then I have been buying ram from the same 2 sources for years. So whatever their sources are are pretty good, I guess. Also don't hve problems with windows weirdness as I am pretty careful with configurations and take the time to uninstall all the piggybacked programs that come with apps these days.

Besides, it's cheap. Get the good stuff (Crucial, Corsair, Mushkin).

That's a good point. Since it's gotten so cheap even for name brands, I just made a order for a a 256 stick from Crucial.

[Gremlin]

Doug, you're right. I misread the earlier post.

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I pity the fool, thug, or soul who tries to take over the world, then goes cryin' home to his momma. --Mr. T

[Joe Shaw]

Thanks guys, that does help ... now to work up the nerve to actually do it

Joe

[rlh1138]

Jumping in here, this may have been covered, but.. Re: the note from 'Fan' and a contiguious swap file - I think its even better to partion your hard drive, create a 'D' drive, and put the swap file, and only the swap file, on that. Not hard to do and keeps it always contiguious, etc. Make sure its big enought, don't forget your CD ROM will now have a new drive letter, etc. etc.

FWIW

[brooktrout]

If your going to make a boot disk to reinstall windows, make sure you have the proper files on the floppy before hand. Some DOS commands are external commands like format.com and fdisk.com while other commands are internal to DOS like DIR, Copy, rename, etc. The internal commands are in the OS when you boot off of a system disk but the external commands need to be copied to the disk when you make a boot disk. I've never used the Windows startup disk option so I do not know if it puts fdisk and format commands on the disk. You will need both of these files. Also I would put scandisk on the disk too. You should be able to find these on a Win9x machine in the \windows\command folder or such.

If you can find Oak Technology DOS CD drivers on the web somewhere, they work with every CD in dos mode that I have ever tried them with. Put a autoexec.bat and config.sys on the floppy with these drivers and the external DOS commands in a \util folder with a autoexec path and you have a good generic bootdisk that is good for pretty much any PC.

If your CD is SCSI then you will also need the ASPI drivers from Adaptec's site.

If anyone is interested, I could zip a image of this bootfloppy and email it too them. I've booted off of it on many different PC's at work and home without having to use specific DOS drivers for a particular CD drive.

I use to reformat and reinstall with win95/Win98 every year like others said. Kind of a new lease on life for an older PC. The best option, if you have a CD Recorder, is to identify and download all of the latest drivers for video, sound, mouse, kb, etc. from the web and burn a copy of the Win98 CD with these files (already extracted or unzipped to a \drivers folder) along with your \windows\favorites folder and other personal data such as mail address books. This is the best option and makes for a fast deep clean. IMO a good reason for a CD recorder.

[GriffinCheng+]

Ooops, this has become a Win9x/ME tweak thread.

One tip. If you have some games which is big and require constant tweaking -- Falcon 4 and Flanker 2 come immediately to mind, make sure install them in different partitions and the partition is solely for that game only. Also make sure you keep from the partition different from the swap file.

Griffin.

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"When you find your PBEM opportents too hard to beat, there is always the AI."

"Can't get enough Tank?"

[Teutonicc]

Another tweak for the Swap file. Goto Start/program/Accessories/System Tools/System Monitor. Goto Edit then select Add Item Memory Manager scroll down to Swap file size and select. Now let this run for a day or two and run most of the programs that you normally run. Look at the graph and see what the highest amount of ram used was and set your minimum swap file to slightly larger than that. I have found that leaving the maximum allowed does not slow anything down.

Teutonicc

[Skott Karlsson]

Just to let y'all know I took and transferred my earlier reply over to the General Discussion section and started a thread there. That way in case they close down this thread for being in the wrong place and for being off topic we can still talk about it over there.

~Skott~