[Bass-ackwards upside-down posting fixed]
On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 19:57:20 -0400, Jay T. Blocksom
[snip]
Did you re-partition/re-format that drive before attempting to load
Windows? Or did you simply plop it in "as is"?
Ya know jay i really dont rememeber,i think windows formated the drive
before installing. but like you said i just poped it in,let the cmos
auto detect it showed a 4.3gig drive so i just lrt it boot from the
windows cd and go.
[snip]
Or IOW, you started in the middle.
In which case, it is near-certain that you have multiple partitions defined on
that drive; and by default, Windows Setup would only concern itself with the
"Primary DOS Partition". So while it *may* have reformatted that partition,
it would not (and should not) have re-partitioned the physical drive.
so ya think i have to wipe the drive out and start
over again?
[snip]
Maybe. It can't hurt, of course; but it *may* not be necessary. Depending on
the details of existing partitioning scheme, it may well be eminently suitable
for your (single-boot, single-user, I presume) installation of Windows. For
example, my S.O.P. for setting up WinBoxes (especially DOS-based versions of
same, which Win9x is) is to use three logical drives in two partitions: The
Primary DOS Partition is, of course, bootable; and it is dedicated to Drive
C:, which in turn is dedicated to the OS and application program
installations. The "Extended DOS Partition" contains Drive D:, where *ALL*
user data lives (thus making for neat, simple backups); and a smallish Drive
E: which is dedicated to the Windows swap file and various TMP/TEMP folders --
i.e., purely scratch space, which is never used to store anything "important".
If the system contains two physical drives, and the relative sizes of those
physical drives works out conveniently, I generally try to put Drive E: on the
same physical drive as Drive C:, and leave Drive D: by itself on the second
physical drive; this provides the greatest degree of isolation between the
data files and the fallout from a messier-than-usual Windows crash.
I was thinking of useing fdisk and see if the partition is
set to use 100% of the drive. What do you think?
[snip]
I think that the setup process for ANY new Win9x installation *always* begins
with FDISK -- if for no other reason than to confirm that the existing
partitioning scheme is suitable for your intended purpose.
I also think that as long as you're installing Win98 from scratch, you really
ought to do it right: <
http://www.litepc.com/98lite.html>.
--
Jay T. Blocksom
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