By Bob O'Donnell
There’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when you first turn on a new computer and begin to use your unspoiled machine. Except in very rare occasions, it’s one of the few times you can be virtually guaranteed that everything will work, that the software already installed on the hard disk won’t crash and that you can get something useful done. Of course, this technological honeymoon never lasts terribly long, because you invariably install some new software, add new hardware, make some configuration changes or do something that—though it should work fine—eventually leads you down the slippery slope of seemingly inevitable PC problems.
The desire to recreate that "fresh" feeling often leads people to start over with their computers by reformatting their hard drive(s) and reinstalling their applications from scratch. In fact, I’ve heard of several people who do this on a semi-yearly or even more frequent basis as a regular form of system maintenance. In addition, many computers now come with special boot floppy disks and installation CDs that are specifically designed to bring your system back to its pristine, shipped-from-the-factory state.
Another reason for pursuing this strategy is that no matter how hard you may try, there are times when your system reaches a point where it’s simply not worth expending any additional effort trying to figure out why programs keep crashing or other strange problems keep occurring. I know that dedicated PC troubleshooters never want to give up, but one of the hardest lessons you can learn is that sometimes it really is better to start over.
Now, I wouldn’t throw in the towel too quickly because starting from scratch is a fairly time- and effort-intensive project. But if you’ve tried the techniques I describe in the "PC Hardware Troubleshooting Tips," "PC Software Troubleshooting Tips," and "PC Startup Troubleshooting Tips," articles and have still been suffering through several difficult days, weeks or, God forbid, months of problems that just don’t seem to get any better, then you’re a good candidate for a fresh start.
The problem is, nobody every really tells you how to make that fresh start. Oh sure, you hear the basics: "Just reformat and reinstall," but you don’t really ever hear exactly how the whole process is done. Well, worry no more, because this article will take you step-by-step through the process of starting over with your PC.
Step 1: Backup
Before you even think about doing anything to your hard drive, you need to back up all your critical files. This means not only all your data files (you did organize them all in a single location, didn’t you?), but also those application files and other software pieces that took some time and/or effort to acquire. Included on this list should be updated driver software, applications patches, service packs, bug fixes and any other enhancements that you’ve downloaded off the web (and don’t have available on CD or in some other handy form). I also recommend you save your browser bookmarks which, if you're using Internet Explorer, can be found in the Windows/Favorites folder.
One file that's commonly overlooked (because it isn't stored in an obvious place) is your Outlook or Outlook Express e-mail file. The easiest way to find it and back it up is to search for *.pst off the Start menu. All Outlook files use the .pst extension and you can be sure to find yours this way, even if it doesn't have the default name of Outlook.pst. Generally speaking, your Outlook file should be in the C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook folder. This is important to know because when you reinstall, you need to copy your .pst file back to this same directory.
In addition, don't forget to write down all your network settings from any network log-in you have, as well as those found in the network control panel. If you have dial-up networking connections, remember to right down the settings for each of those as well. When you go to re-establish your network settings, you'll be awfully glad you did.
You’ll probably run into a problem with applications that automatically update themselves over the web, because they don’t necessarily have an easy way to find the update files they’ve downloaded. If that’s the case with some of your applications, you’ll probably have to simply let the application "re-update" itself after you re-install it.
Windows 98 or Windows ME updates that occur via the Windows Update feature may also present this problem, although you might be able to find them in your Windows directory in a hidden folder called msdownld.tmp (at least, that’s where they were on my machine). To view hidden files, open Windows Explorer, select Folder Options from the View menu, select the View tab, and click on the Show all files radio button.
You don’t need to back up all your applications because you can more easily install them off their original CDs. In fact, part of the point of this exercise is to re-install your applications so that all the right files get put in all the right places. For this reason, I also don’t recommend that you make a complete disk copy, or disk image before you do a re-install of all your software. If you do, and then you restore that copy, you could end up with the same types of problems that led you to take on this procedure in the first place. Just back up what you need.
Step 2: Create a Boot Disk
The next step is to create a bootable floppy disk that includes all the programs you’ll need to get the next few steps. I cover how to do this in my "How to Create a ‘Real’ Windows 95 (or 98) Boot Disk" article. One additional point I’ll add here is that you need to make sure both the Fdisk.exe and Format.com DOS utilities are on your newly created Windows 95 or Windows 98 boot floppy. If they aren’t (the standard Windows 98 floppy still needs Format.com), you may need to copy them over from your hard drive onto the boot floppy—you’ll find them both inside the Command directory inside your main Windows directory. (In fact, Windows/Command is where you’ll find all the important DOS-based utilities.)
One other option for Windows 98, Windows 98 2nd Edition and Windows ME users is that the Windows 98/ME CD is bootable, meaning it has all the necessary files to start your computer stored in the right places, much like a boot floppy disk. Your computer has to support booting from the CD-ROM and you have to enable this feature (which you do in your computer’s BIOS or CMOS Setup program) in order for this technique to work, but it can be a handy option. If you’re unsure whether or not your computer supports this, look for a reference to the El Torito BIOS standard—which this feature is sometimes called—or look around in the Boot Options section of your computer’s BIOS Setup program. Also remember that after you’re done with this procedure you’ll want to change this BIOS setting back to booting from your floppy drive and hard drive (usually in that order).
Whether you go with the floppy or the CD, be sure you try it out at least once before you begin the partitioning process. The next step in this process will erase all of your computer’s data, so you want to be sure your computer boots from the disk/disc before you continue.
Step 3: Partition and Reformat
The crux of the process occurs here in Step 3. The first part of this step is called partitioning your hard drive and it’s usually done with the DOS-based Fdisk program bundled with all versions of Windows. (Some people prefer third-party partitioning programs such as PowerQuest’s powerful PartitionMagic or QuarterDeck’s Partition It or Partition It Extra Strength for this process.) Partitioning involves organizing a single hard drive into logical chunks called partitions, as well as setting an overall file structure to be used on each partition, such as FAT16 or FAT32. The second half of this step is called reformatting and it basically wipes any existing data from each partition and prepares the partition to accept new files. (By the way, this is not the same thing as a true low-level hard drive format—these days that can typically only be done—and should only be done—at the factory.) Formatting is done with the DOS–based Format program, or simply within Windows itself, just as you do with a floppy disk.
Before getting into specific steps, you need to know a bit more about partitions, such as the fact that there are two main types: primary and extended. The most important difference between them is that primary partitions can be used to boot your computer and extended partitions cannot. In addition, unlike primary partitions—which actually hold data—extended partitions are themselves just containers for yet another kind of structure called logical DOS drives. So, for example, you might find that your hard drive is divided into one active partition and one extended partition and the extended partition contains two logical drives "inside" of it.
Each active partition and logical drive uses its own drive letter (i.e., C:\, D:\, E:\, etc.) and operates independently, so with multiple partitions, a single hard disk may "look" like multiple drives. In reality, however, it’s just one physical disk that’s organized into different containers. Of course, if you have multiple hard disks inside a computer, each of them uses a drive letter as well, so when you have multiple partitions on multiple disks, things can get kind of confusing.
If you want to run multiple operating systems on your PC—such as Windows ME and NT, or Windows 2000 and Linux—you often need to have multiple primary partitions. In some instances, such as with Windows 95 and NT, it's possible to have just one primary partition with two operating systems, but both operating systems need to be able to understand the partition scheme--such as FAT or FAT32 (see below for more)--for this to work.
The maximum number of primary and/or extended partitions you can have is four, but be aware that only one primary partition can be active (and therefore "visible" to the rest of your system) at once. On the other hand, other than the 26-letter drive limit—which does exist—there are no restrictions on the number of logical drives that you can have within an extended partition.
More importantly, multiple logical drives within an extended partition can be used and visible on your system at once. So, for example, if your system has an extended partition with two logical drives and one primary partition (you always have to have one of those), you would be able to see all three drive letters at once. On the other hand, if you have two primary partitions and one extended partition with two logical drives, you might only see three drive letters because the other primary partition and any data or programs stored on it would be invisible if the two primary partitions were completely different types (such as Ext2 for Linux and NTFS for Windows 2000). Again, if both operating systems "understand" the same partition type, then you might be able to see all four drive letters.
In many cases you’ll want to keep your entire disk as a single primary partition—and, therefore, single drive letter—although there are some cases where you can’t. Specifically, if you have a hard drive larger than 2 GB and you’re using the original version of Windows 95 or Win95A, you’ll have to use multiple partitions because of limitations in Win95 itself. (To find out what version of Windows you’re using, open the System Control Panel and look in the upper right portion of the General Tab. You should see a reference to Windows 95, 95A, 95B, 95C, 98, ME and 2000 underneath where it says System.)
Other limitations you may run into on disk size limits may be as a result of your computer’s BIOS. Some older BIOS’s had a hardware limitation of around 2.1 GB (some newer ones are limited to 8.4 GB), that prevents them from working with larger drives, but that can usually be fixed with a BIOS update. Check your computer manufacturer’s or motherboard manufacturer’s web site, or you can also try the Micro Firmware or Mr. BIOS sites.
If you have both an updated BIOS and Windows 95B (sometimes called OSR2) or later—including Windows 98 or Windows ME—then you can take advantage of the FAT32 (File Allocation Table 32-bit) file system and have a partition (or even multiple partitions) larger than 2 GB. Without going into too much detail, the basic reason for this is that FAT32 is able to keep track of a much larger number of individual file elements than the older FAT16 file system (which is more commonly referred to just as FAT). This translates into the ability to work with larger partitions.
Before you actually begin the partitioning process, you need to decide how you want to partition your drive—if you want to keep it all as one big drive, or if you want several different partitions/logical drives with one for data, one for programs, etc. In addition, if you plan to try out or regularly work with multiple operating systems (OS's), you’ll have to plan for that at this stage. You’ll also need something called a boot loader if you install multiple OS's—one comes bundled with PartitionMagic and another comes with Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. A boot loader is a program that lets you decide which primary partition to make active at boot-up. The OS that is loaded from the active partition is the one that gets "control" over the machine for that particular session.
Once you have a basic strategy figured out, you can move onto the specific steps. The following describes how the process works with Fdisk. (If you’re using PartitionMagic, or some other utility, you’ll have to follow different steps, but the concepts will be similar.)
First you need to boot your computer with your boot floppy and then launch the Fdisk program as soon as you get to the A:\ prompt. To do that, just type in Fdisk and then hit Enter or Return. If you’re running the version of Fdisk that comes with Windows 95 OSR2 or later (including 98, 98 SE, or ME), you’ll first see a kind of obscure text message and question about having support for large disks to which you answer yes or no. Though there’s no specific mention of it, this question is asking whether or not you want to use FAT32. If you answer yes, you’ll get FAT32 and if you answer no you’ll get a FAT16-formatted drive. (Of course, if you have Windows 98, you can convert from FAT16 to FAT32 with the bundled FAT32 Driver Converter after the fact. If you have Windows 95, however, you’ll either have to start all over again to switch to FAT32, or purchase a third-party tool such as PartitionMagic.)
Once you’ve answered the question, you’ll be presented with four numeric choices from which you can create a new partition, delete an existing partition, make one of the partitions active or get more information on the current partitions you have. In general, I’d recommend selecting option 4 first to get more information about your current partitions.
If you’re going to switch from multiple partitions to a single partition or if you want to adjust the size of your current partitions, you’ll first need to delete all but the primary active partition. Before you can delete an extended partition, however, you first need to delete any logical drives that are inside the extended partition. To make any of these deletions, select option 3 off the main Fdisk menu and follow the directions. You’re always given a warning before you do anything destructive, so if you take your time, you shouldn’t run into any serious problems.
To create new partitions or logical drives or to resize the remaining primary partition, select option 1. If you want to use logical drives, you first need to create an extended partition to hold them and then you can create the logical drives. In all cases, you’ll need to know how large you want the partitions and/or logical drives to be in megabytes, so do your math ahead of time. If you’re resizing a single partition, simply make the partition the same size as the available disk size. Also remember that all hard drives use a certain amount of space for disk overhead so don’t get upset when your new 8 GB hard drive (or whatever size you have) doesn’t have eight full gigabytes (or whatever its advertised capacity is) for creating partitions.
Once you’ve finished your partitioning, you can exit from Fdisk by simply hitting the Esc button at the main Fdisk screen. As the ensuing screen says, you’ll have to restart before the changes take effect and before you can re-format the newly created or resized partitions.
By the way, if you opt for something like PartitionMagic, you’ll find the partitioning process more intuitive and more flexible than what Fdisk provides. For example, you can resize partitions graphically without having to first delete them, and you can easily switch a particular partition back and forth between FAT16 and FAT32, among other capabilities.
Regardless of how you partition the drive, however, the re-formatting process is very simple. Once again, you’ll need to restart the computer with the boot floppy installed and when you get to the A:\ prompt, type in:
Format C: /s
What this command does is reformats the active primary partition on your main drive—in other words, it reformats your hard drive. The /s switch at the end of the command tells the computer to also copy over the basic DOS system files to the hard disk so that you can then restart from the hard disk and boot to a C:\ DOS prompt if you want. To continue onward with Step 4, however, you’ll probably want to boot from your boot floppy.
Step 4: Reinstall
Now that the hard part is over, it’s on to the drudgery of re-installing everything. Of course the first thing you’ll need to do is re-install the operating system from scratch.
To do that, after you start your computer with your boot floppy inserted into the floppy drive, you'll need to make sure you have the Windows 95, 98 or ME CD in your CD/DVD-ROM drive. Once it's there, just type the following at the A:\ DOS prompt you should see when the boot process finishes. Hit the Enter key at the end of it. (Note that you may have to type a letter other than "D" if your CD/DVD-ROM is assigned to a different drive letter.)
D:\Setup.exe
On a freshly formatted drive this process should go smoothly, but be prepared with any drivers or driver upgrades you have available on floppies or CDs. As Windows goes through the Plug-and-Play process of detecting your computer’s hardware and then attempting to install drivers for it, the OS should give you very clear signs whenever it needs input (or disks/discs) from you.
If you want to, you can create a directory on your hard drive called Win95CAB or Win98CAB and then copy all the compressed .CAB (or cabinet) files you’ll find on the Windows 95/98 CDs (in the Windows 95 or Windows 98 folders respectively) into those directories. It takes a fair chunk of hard disk space—around 100 Mbytes or so—but it saves you from having to look for your Win 95 or Win98 CD down the road if you ever install anything and the installation process asks for the CD. Instead, you can just direct it to the CAB files on your disk and you’ll be all set. Thankfully, Windows ME does this for you automatically.
If your PC comes with a program that automatically returns it to its factory fresh state, you’ll use that to install your OS instead. Doing so should automatically take care of installing the OS and applications that came with your computer. If you have any updated drivers or applications as part of your backup, however, you’ll have to re-install those manually, as explained a bit further down.
If you have trouble during the installation, it could be that one of you drivers is out-of-date. If so, you’ll want to check the manufacturer’s web site for an update (see the "PC Hardware Troubleshooting Tips" article for more). Once the OS installed, you should run any other driver installation programs you have. Occasionally these types of programs will tell that you need to reboot for the changes to take place. When you’re going through this re-install process I highly recommend you take their advice for each program that requires it. Even though constantly rebooting adds even more time to the process, it can be worth it in the long run. The reason is if you install multiple pieces at once that make changes to your system, those changes could conflict or counteract each other. Because the purpose of this exercise is to get everything working properly, you’re better off taking the conservative route here and letting each piece "take hold" one at a time.
Once all your drivers are done, it’s time to reinstall the apps. Again, if at the end of the install the program says it needs to restart Windows for the changes to take effect, I would restart. The order that you install the applications in typically doesn’t matter, although I would probably install any that had been causing you problems first. Once the main apps are in place, you need to reinstall all those lovely Service Packs, bug fixes and other updates that you painstakingly backed up in Step One. Remember also that some updates and Service Packs can only be done after a previous update to the same program has been made so make sure you do them in the proper order.
Before copying over your own data, I suggest you try running a few of your favorite applications to make sure everything is working properly. In addition, make sure you double-check any previously problematic programs once everything has been installed. If a problem crops up now, it’s probably due to a software conflict with another application on your system. If that’s the case, you’ll need to check web sites for updates and see if that helps (see the "PC Software Troubleshooting Tips" article for more).
Finally, after all the applications have been installed, it’s time to copy back over all your own data. If you haven’t already, I suggest you take advantage of this re-installation process and use the opportunity to organize all your data files in a single location, such as the My Documents directory. You don’t want to put everything at the main level of the My Documents directory, however, or you’ll be overwhelmed. Instead, to make that directory useful, you should first create sub-directories inside it and then use those directories to store your various types of files.
Step 5: Enjoy
When everything has been restored, it’s time to enjoy your new machine. Well, almost. Though it shouldn’t make any difference, it’s probably worthwhile to double or triple-check any problem applications (you know—the ones that led you to take on this procedure in the first place) after you restore your own files.
Once you’re confident that things are working well, you can take yourself and your PC back on a second (or third or fourth) technological honeymoon and get to know each other all over again.
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