How can format windows 98

When the format is complete, you will be returned to the prompt. Follow instructions and insert your key when ready. Windows will probably find most of your drivers. Check your Device Manager for any yellow exclamation points or question marks on any of the devices. It is possible that you will have to download a driver for any of the ones that aren't working properly.

Install printers, scanners, and so on. At this point, before you go on the internet, you need to have an antivirus and firewall installed. If you have programs you've been using install them. If you have a burner on your newer computer, you can download the install file for an antivirus like AVG and a firewall like Zone Alarm.

Then get all the Windows Critical Updates. Install all your other programs. The less you load the machine with, the faster it will run. Have fun and good luck. Posted 09 June - AM Thanks everybody. I don't quite understand it all but will try it as this is just a computer I am practicing on. I found an old Norton CD that has an erase function on it althought this computer has McAffe on it I was thinking of trying that as it would have prompts etc.

Posted 09 June - PM If you want to do this properly you first need to do an inventory of the hardware on your computer to gather the drivers you will need after you reinstall Windows. Do you have any CD's that came with the computer? If so those may contain your drivers. Posted 09 June - PM I have everything that came with the computer in and actually did have to install some drivers once. So I will try to follow the steps some of the people have described. I guess I thought this might work because I seem to have talked to people who were just able to wipe with an easy program or something.

Posted 09 June - PM Its very easy to wipe. Just make a boot disk with the 98 machine. Then boot the computer with it You may need to go into the Bios to set the first boot device to A:. Reply to quoted posts Clear. Site Changelog. Sign In Use Twitter. All Comments. Collapse -. Format Hard Drive Win The question was auto-closed by TechRepublic 0 Votes.

Back to Desktop Forum. Start or search. Start New Discussion. Create a new discussion If you're asking for technical help, please be sure to include all your system info, including operating system, model number, and any other specifics related to the problem.

This is for the purpose of installing FAT At the C: prompt, enter:. Warning: Deleting a partition on a hard drive will destroy whatever information has been stored on that partition. For instance, if there is one virtual drive on the Extended DOS partition on the first disk, that virtual drive will be the E: drive, and the first virtual drive on the second disk will become the F: drive.

In any case, before formatting any drive, make sure that it is not one of the virtual drives on the first disk. If you are interested in simply using the drive as extra storage, then you are finished. If you intend to replace the old drive with the new drive or to make the new drive your primary disk, continue following the instructions below. If the new hard disk is intended to replace the old one, you may want to copy some of your more important files to the new hard drive before removing the old one.

If you are able to boot into Windows, it is easiest to copy the files using Windows Explorer. If not, you can boot from your Windows startup disk and use the xcopy or copy command. The xcopy command will copy a folder and all of its contents, while the copy command will generally copy only individual files.

Note: If you plan to install Windows NT 4. Note: For security reasons, you should install Windows or rebuild your Windows computer offline i. For instructions, see Safely rebuild your Windows computer. Once you have backed up your important files, you can remove the old hard drive and proceed with installing Windows on the new one. After removing the old drive, you will first have to make the first partition on the new hard disk the active partition, as follows:.

You will also need to make the new drive a master drive or stand-alone drive. See your new hard drive's documentation for more information. This is document aema in the Knowledge Base.