re-booting

[s.smethurst]

i have an old pc, its on windows 98, i think i need to reboot it, i have the floopy and the cd disk, what do i do?

[LeMarchand]

"Rebooting" is just restarting your machine. You probably mean you want to reinstall your operating system. If so, why?

[Buenchico]

(Posted in 3 parts):

I'll work on the assumption that what you actually want to do is to re-install your operating system. There are two ways of doing this:

If you do a 'clean' install, you have to format your hard drive first. This wipes all of your software and data from your hard drive so you should only do this if it's really necesssary.

The alternative is to do an 'on-top' installation of Windows. (This is sometimes known as 'overlaying' Windows). This retains all of your data and software (although, occasionally, you may need to reinstall anti-virus and/or firewall software). The disadvantage of doing this is that it doesn't always fix the problem that you're trying to deal with but it usually works. So I'll deal with the 'on-top' method first:

Put the floppy in its drive and boot-up your PC. Most computers running Windows 98 are usually set to check for a boot disk in drive A before looking anywhere else so you should see a screen asking which drive you wish to boot from. (If you don't see this screen, re-start the computer while holding down 'F8'. This should work. If it doesn't, post again and I'll tell you how to change the BIOS settings).

[Buenchico]

(2nd Part):


When you get to the screen asking you which device to boot from, use the up/down keys to select 'First Floppy Drive' and hit enter.

You'll then get to a screen asking what type of boot you require. Use the up/down keys to select 'Boot with CD support' and hit enter.

After a while you'll see a message telling you which letter has been assigned to your CD drive. This will almost certainly be E (and not D which it probably is most of the time). Put the Windows CD in its drive.

When you get to the flashing cursor, type E:setup (That assumes that your CD drive is E. Change the letter if necessary). Hit enter.

Put the kettle on! The rest of the process is almost automatic (at any prompts, just select the default option unless you've got a very good reason for doing otherwise) but it takes about half an hour. Towards the end of the process your PC will re-start automatically several times. Just leave it to do this by itself. (i.e. Don't turn your PC off or on unless you're specifically told to do so).

Eventually Windows 98 should load as normal but, hopefully, with all problems fixed.

[Buenchico]

(3rd Part):

If you want to do a 'clean' install, start as above. (i.e. select 'First Floppy Drive' followed by 'Boot with CD support'. At the flashing cursor, type format C: You'll be warned that you're about to lose all your data and asked to confirm. Type y (for 'yes') and hit enter. Your PC will now format the hard drive.

When this is completed, type E:setup and continue as above. (It's possible that you might have to restart your PC before doing this. If so, you're now at a point where the above instructions, for overlaying Windows, will work for a clean installation).

A clean installation of Windows deletes all of your driver files, including your video drivers. When Windows first loads, after a clean installation, it will be in low resolution (640 x 480 display). You should then run the set-up programs which, hopefully, were provided with your PC. (If you haven't got a set-up CD you might have to download the appropriate driver file before you can change the screen resolution. (Note that this only applies to a clean installation. You won't have this problem if you only overlay Windows).

Hoping this helps,

Chris