re: Question about ''How to Uncompress a clean formatted HD
Wednesday, February 4, 2004 at 1:59 pm
Posted by Gerry Kroll
(1986 messages posted)
If there's nothing on the drive that you want to save, and you're willing to go through
the repartitioning and reformatting process again, do this:
Download the program to create a W98SE "Custom" boot disk from www.bootdisk.com.
You run this program on the computer used for downloading (its OS doesn't
matter). The program will ask for a floppy disk and will then create the desired
boot disk for you. Use this boot disk for everything, including installing your
copy of Windows (no matter what version).
Boot your computer with this boot disk, and type the command fdisk /mbr
and hit Enter.
Re-boot the computer with that same boot disk and again launch Fdisk. When Fdisk
asks about large drive support, answer y if you want to use hard drive partitions
larger than 2 Gb (FAT32 partitions), otherwise answer n. Every OS except
"original" W95, the "A" version of W95 (OSR1), and Windows NT4 will support FAT32
with partitions larger than 2 Gb.
Use Fdisk to delete all existing partitions, including any non-DOS ones. Caution:
If you have an older Compaq, where Setup uses a graphical interface (you can use
the mouse), don't delete the Compaq diagnostic partition. With Fdisk still in control,
create new partitions as desired. You must let the Primary DOS partition be the
one marked "Active". This will be the C: drive, and will be the one your computer
will boot from.
After the new partitions have been created, exit Fdisk and then re-boot your computer
with that same boot disk a final time. When the computer restarts, launch Format
to format all of the partitions. Don't bother with usign the /s option when
formatting the C: drive -- when you install Windows, the correct system files will
be installed.
There's no need to install DOS before installing Windows.
On Wednesday, February 4, 2004 at 1:45 pm, Valerie wrote:
>How do I uncompress a previously compressed drive that I've already re-partitioned
>and formatted with DOS.
>Is there shareware/freeware that I can use ??
>Thanks bunches
>Valerie
>
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