Have you tried it all? Have you used scandisk, defrag, various utilities and even a bit of prayer to try and repair
that sluggish, non-responsive, crashing, locking-up OS you have on your PC?
And after all that...does it still act goofy and take longer to load than before?
Well, if this is your predicament, then there maybe nothing left for you to do but to re-build your
machine's OS from scratch.
This long texted feature will give you the assist you may need to get ready to revive your ailing PC. There are
several steps involved. For users who aren't overly possessive of the programs on their machine, most of these steps won't be
necessary.
Ailing OS?
Pretty much every OS begins to break down over time and pretty much everyone will experience this basic pain-in-the-rear. As you use your PC, you do updates, install patches, install & uninstall
software, and download trialware, shareware and freeware. Some you may keep, others end up gone.
Also, you may install or remove hardware, peripherals and assorted drivers. Upgrades to the basic OS which may consist
of patches, bug fixes, and updates will cause wear and tear on your operating system that will eventually need great attention. The many symptoms of an ailing OS include, but are not limited to, crashes & freeze-ups, error messages,
real slow performance and a directory that's a disk hog with files that may not even be in use anymore. These things surely detract from that fresh, new OS that you installed only months ago! The Registry is overflowing with bytes & pieces of .EXE's, .DLL's, .INI files, drivers, updated anti-virus files and on and on.
Furthermore, the Ailing Operating System can easily spread beyond the OS directory so that the entire hard drive becomes
cluttered with much debris and left overs from various activities and applications. Many Windows applications leave behind files and directories even when Add/Remove
Programs in Control Panel is used.
But overall, this ailment or OS failing is just simply an end result of heavy system use. Eventually it's going to happen. Sometimes it just takes longer to occur on
some computers than others. When it gets to this point, it's time for an OS Overhaul.
What Is The Procedure?
Repairing/Rebuilding your PC from scratch isn't really all that difficult, although preparation and
time are needed so that the final result is a smooth running OS. This is where all the effort becomes worth it! So sit back and bear with me as
I dig into what's involved in this procedure.
Number one...Back Up Your Files and/or Crucial Data. After which, you'll create a start-up disk that will
contain your CD-Rom drivers. Then you'll reformat your hard drive and prepare to re-install Windows and all the other applications & files that were previously backed up.
Saving Your Stuff
First of all you'll want to perform a full system backup. If anything goes wrong, you'll still be able to restore
your system to it's current configuration. Backup your data files & folders (the stuff you've created
separately). This will enable you to easily restore your stuff to the
newly rebuilt machine. Your Windows Operating System is filled with crucial information that you should backup
separately as you prepare
for your system rebuild. Below will be a listing of the suggested types of files you'll want to backup. Please keep in mind that
each system in setup/configured differently and there may be other types of files that you may want to backup as well.
Backup Files
Going through this list may make you aware of other information/data that you may consider backing up before you finally reformat
your hard drive. I highly suggest taking a few days to think about what's important to you and what you can live without or replace by re-install or download.
Internet Connectivity Info
Number one here is to note your ISP's dial-up number. Sounds silly but easy to forget and a pain to look up. Open up the Dial-Up Networking folder
in My Computer and right-click on your ISP Connection. Select Properties and copy the number down as well as take note of your
IP Numbers. If you use a small carrier/dial-up connection, this really doesn't matter as new IP Numbers are assigned each time that you log on to the Internet. If your ISP
requires that you use specific IP Numbers, you can find them by clicking on Server Types in the connection's dialog box. At this point, click the TCP/IP Settings button and once the dialog box appears, you can screen capture the info instead of writing
it all down. Simply press ALT & PrintScreen at the same time. Then open Paint, IrfanView or another image program
and select Paste. You can now print the information for future reference.
Save Your Favorites?
You may want to backup/save your Shortcuts or ULS. In IE, simply find the URLS in C:\Windows\Favorites folder. Backup the entire
Favorites folder to a tape or floppy disk. If you use another browser, then look to where and how those URLS are stored and back them up. This will make life much easier later on. Make sure that all floppies are labeled and write-protected so as
not to goof them up until you are ready to install them.
E-Mail & Address Book?
Keeping your e-mail and address book intact is fairly important to most people. Therefore, if you're using OutLook Express you can locate your address book by using Start>Find to search for these files. You will be looking/searching for a file with the extension WAB. Look for a folder named Mail.
This is the folder
that contains all your e-mail folders and the links to any newsgroups that you subscribe to. Again, if your using another client for mail, you will need to look to where those e-mail files & folders are stored.
For example, in AOL you only need to save the sub folder Organize, to save your addresses, bookmarks and mail.
Back them up with floppy disks as this will usually be sufficient.
Updates, Patches & Fixes
Any Patches or Updates that you've downloaded or installed for your OS or other applications will need to be backed up
individually. If you choose not to save these files, they can just be downloaded/installed after the new system is up. Just bear in mind that these things take time.
Images, Graphics & WAV/MP3 Files, etc.?
This is a matter of preference. If you can't live without these things...Back Them Up. Again, remember that all these things took
your valuable time to accumulate!
Start Menu Stuff
You won't want to redo this from square one if you've spent a lot of time organizing your systems Start Menu Structure. Take a couple minutes to write this stuff down and save it with your new pile of disks and/or floppies.
Applications & Other Info
Are you using MS Office or another application suite? You definitely should back-up any templates, macros, or other special/custom items that you don't want to have to do over! You will find most of your
macros in Word's templates and, by default, these macros are stored in the Normal.dot template. This is usually an extensive
set of files for a user familiar with this program. Save your stuff and be happy later! If you use any other office suite, please check your documentation
on which files need to be backed up.
Create A Startup Disk With CD-Rom Drivers
After you reformat your hard drive, you will need your CD-Rom drive to install Windows. For this to happen, you will need a Windows Start-Up Disk
that includes the drivers for your specific CD-Rom Device.
In Win98, you have to create a startup disk as normal as Win98 automatically includes CD-Rom drivers on the start-up disk.
In Win95, you have to create a startup disk as normal and add the CD-Rom drivers and the commands to load them to the start-up disk. You may also want to look for updated drivers before you create the disk and then proceed from there.
Launch Windows Explorer or My Computer, then access the C:\Windows\Command folder. Copy the file Format.com to the floppy disk. Reboot your computer from the floppy to make sure that you can access the CD-Rom drive. Please don't skip this step.
Format The Hard Drive
Okay...Now that you have your hard drive's important & valuable files backed up, saved all valuable configuration info and created your Windows Start-Up Disk with CD-Rom drivers...you are ready to format the hard drive.
Boot the PC with the start-up disk that you made. Do you have access to the CD-Rom drive? Load a CD just to triple-check. This is not a waste of time.
Now that the computer has booted from the start-up disk, you can begin the format of the hard drive.
To do this...
- At the A:\> prompt, Type in fdisk and delete the primary partition, then create a new partition using maximum space.
- Once that is created, reboot the computer with CTRL/ALT/DEL with the disk still in.
- At the A:\> prompt, this time format with A:\>format C: /S You need the space between the : and the /
- You will get a warning displayed that will prompt you to proceed. Type Y and press [Enter]
At this point, Format will check your existing disk format, verify the size of the hard drive and begin the format operation.
You will be able to watch the progress straight through the procedure.
After the format is complete, Format will tell you, then transfer the OS to the hard drive, and prompt you for a volume label. You may type a label or simply press [Enter] for
none (my usual choice), Format will provide you with all the details about the hard drive's new format.
Rebuild/Reinstall Your OS
Now that the hard drive is formatted, you can reinstall Windows. Simply insert your Win98 (or Win95) CD into
the CD-Rom drive and follow the on screen directions. This is pretty straight forward. Then, when your OS is installed, you can restore all the files and data that you backed up and saved.
At this point, you will have Repaired Your Ailing OS.
Happy Computing. And please...don't forget the Anti-Virus Software before you hit the Internet once again!
Official Disclaimer:spider-boy.com is not responsible for user-induced damage to your PC.These Tips & Tricks are provided
in good faith and are meant to ease your use of Win98.Some links on this site connect to third-party web-sites and although
we at spider-boy.com try our best to verify the integrity of each link,we are also not responsible for the content found there.
Thank you and come again...Spider!
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