Before you Reformat (WIN98)
September 26th, 1999 by steve
Before you REFORMAT — try this…
This information is provided as is and carries with it no warranties express or implied. By using this information, you agree to hold ShieldsGroup and/or its participants free of liability. ShieldsGroup and/or its participants shall not be held responsible for how you use this information. Any loss of any kind is the responsibility of the end-user.
Too often computer users reformat their drive and thereby lose important data. In backing up computer data, it is very easy to skip important files such as fonts, the Outlook Express address book, and old e-mails. Instead of reformatting, try this:
Be sure you have your Windows 98 CD and the CD Key as well as all your software installation CDs and/or diskettes.
If you don’t have one, create a Windows 98 Startup diskette by clicking “Start / Settings / Control Panel / Add Remove Programs / Startup Disk / Create Disk” and follow the instructions.
Restart in the MS-DOS mode. (If you cannot start, boot from a clean Windows 98 Startup diskette).
When you install Windows, it tries to determine if Windows is already on the computer. You want to leave important files in place, but prevent the computer finding the corrupted Windows files. Therefore a number of potentially corrupt files must be renamed.
Go to the root directory by typing “cd \windows” (without the quotes)
Rename the Windows program file by typing “ren win.com win.old”
Go to the root directory by typing “cd \”
Rename the windows directory to WINOLD by typing “ren c:\windows c:\winold”
Rename the program files directory to PROOLD by typing “ren c:\progra~1 c:\proold
Go to the old Windows directory by typing “cd \winold”
Make the user registry editable by typing “attrib -r -s -h user.dat”
Rename the user registry by typing “ren user.dat user.old”
Make the system registry editable by typing “attrib -r -s -h system.dat”
Rename the system registry by typing “ren system.dat system.old”
Go to the root directory by typing “cd \”
Make all files editable by typing “attrib -r -s -h *.*”
Create a folder to store the old files by typing “md old_root”
Copy all files from the root to the newly created folder by typing “copy *.* \old_root”
Delete all files in the root directory by typing “del *.*”
Now you are ready to install Windows safely.
Reboot your computer from the Windows 98 Floppy with CD ROM support. OR Run Boot from the Win98 CD Rom.
Run Setup.
Install Windows by following the instructions.
Reinstall your old applications.
You’re done!
Where is your old data?
Your old fonts are in c:\winold\fonts. Follow the procedure in your control panel for installing these fonts.
Your old Outlook Express e-mails are in c:\winold\Application Data\Identies\{nnnnnnnnnnnn}\Microsoft\Outlook Express. Follow the instructions in Outlook Express for importing messages.
Your old Windows Addresses are in c:\winold\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book
Your old programs and any customized files associated with them may be in the c:\proold directory.
If this is helpful to you or if you find problems with this procedure, post a message letting us know in the forums. Thanks.
This information is provided as is and carries with it no warranties. By using this information, you agree to hold ShieldsGroup and its participants free of liability. Neither ShieldsGroup nor its participants shall be held responsible for how you use this information. Any loss of any kind is the responsibility of the end-user.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, September 26th, 1999 at 6:53 pm and is filed under General Tech.
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