How do I empty a Hdd????

[gjwilson]

I have a 1gig WD Hdd that has win95 on it and I wanted to put 98 0n it just for a back up os. I tried to load 98...it reached 68% and said I was out of disk space. Would it be a good idea to clear out the drive and start from scratch???

[commodsquad]

A clean install is always better than having a screwy registry because of dead weight left from uninstalls and the many conflicts and headaches that can arise from installing 98 over 95. Things will run alot smoother. I must stress that you "back up" anything that you want to keep before doing anything since I am assuming that you must have alot of applications, programs, and files since you ran out of disk space installing on a 1 gig HD. If you want to try again just re installing 98 over windows I suggest you clear out enough space for the OS to install by archiving stuff you want to keep on removable media or deleting things you dont need or use anymore. Win98, I believe (I know it isnt an exact figure that I quote but it is close), needs at least 180 MB of temporary disk space to complete its install task. But if you want to start from scratch with an empty HD you will just have to reformat the drive since it wipes out everything during the process. Alternatively, you can also delete the windows directory from within Dos since windows wont delete any files if they are in use and install 98 that way too.
make sure you have a boot up disk you will need it to access the drive at boot up when you begin. I know that I didnt exactly outline things step by step but I know that there are people here that can do a better job of that than I can. I mainly just wanted to point out to you that there are a few ways to get from point A to point B and that there are some benefits with some options, a few risks involved depending on what route you take and some precautions to consider. Hope that helped a little....Come on people, your turn now...

[Butchk]

Yes a clean install is the best way to go. You will need copy of your cd drivers and a win98 startup disk. If you don't have a copy of the 98 startup disk go to www.bootdisk.com. (http://www.bootdisk.com.) They even have cd rom support on the disk. Like Commodsquad I to say you need to back up your files before you start.

[gjwilson]

Thanks for the information. I have nothing on this drive that needs to be saved so I would like to just wipe it clean and start over.What`s the best way to set it up to get started? It`s not in a system right now so should I set it up as a slave ?

[Susan]

Set the drive up as the Master, go to the BIOS and detect, reboot to your WIN98 Setup disk, run FDisk, reboot and run Format /s and then run the WIN98 setup. As a safeguard against doing any harm to your other drive, leave that one disconnected.

Don't install all the options on WIN98, this way you don't fill up that drive. By leaving lots of space, you can use that HD as a backup to copy/paste files to which I find is the simplist and easiest way of having a backup.

Once you are done with the install on that drive, you can then hook up the other drive as master again and the newly installed one as slave. (Don't forget to redetect your drives in BIOS once again /forum/wink.gif)

[codybear]

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/clean1.html


check this site out

[codybear]

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/clean1.html


check this site out

[gjwilson]

Thanks Susan...that sounds easy enough and thanks Codybear..that a decent site..I`m at work again so I`ll let you know how it turns out tomorrow.Gary

[gjwilson]

Well...It almost worked. I was able to fdisk but it won`t let me format ....missing parameter....what am I missing??????

[lost1]

Assuming you have partitioned your drive properly with fdisk, put the boot disk in the floppy drive and type:

format c: /s
Thats: format(space)c(colon)(space)/s

It's easy to mess up with the spaces, and DOS is notoriously stupid when it comes to figuring out what we want to do if we don't spell it out perfectly /forum/wink.gif
Good luck

[This message has been edited by lost1 (edited 11-19-1999).]

[Susan]

Thanks lost1 - it's difficult to show those spaces when typing.

[gjwilson]

Thanks Lost1 but now it tells me that drive C is a compressed file--I don`t remember doing that--and that I need to use the DRVSPACE tol for this. where do I go for that?

[lost1]

Sounds like something may have gone wrong in using fdisk. As opposed to playing around with DRVSPACE, try partitioning again. Boot up with system disk in A: drive. Select "Y" for large disk support, and select "Display partition information"- it should show a single active partition. Even if it does, hit Escape & select "Delete partition". After the partition is deleted, select "Create partition" to make a new one. After the new partition is created and made active, restart the machine again, go back to fdisk & display partition info again to verify that you've done what you wanted to do, then hit Escape to exit fdisk. Now try formatting as I outlined earlier- hopefully this will cure whatever ails your disk... /forum/wink.gif
Good luck.

[gjwilson]

Thanks Lost1, Susan, Codybear, Butchk and Commodsquad for all your help....it finally all fell into place and worked great...couldn`t have done it without you. Gary

[U-96]

If (re-)installing Win98SE on a clean HDD, you don't even need to bother using format c: /s at the command prompt. The installation auto-detects unformatted drives and partitions and offers to do them for you.
However, for peace of mind, I prefer the old fashioned way /forum/smile.gif

U-96

[commodsquad]

No problem gjwilson, Glad I could help even if it was just a little bit. /forum/smile.gif

[lost1]

Glad to be of help. I remember my first attempt at fdisk-ing and formatting a HDD.
AAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGH!!!!!!!!!!!
/forum/wink.gif