I know, you must be looking at the title of this How To guide (the first in a series of guides that I will be writing for Tweak3D) and wondering why am I bothering to even go into this? I mean, you just pop in the CD and go, right? Wrong. In this guide I am going to try to cover the whole tangent of Windows installs - from preparing to start to tweaking the process so it's faster. I even have some interesting ways of making an even CLEANER install by using 98Lite. So read on ;)
Getting Started
You may want to begin by backing up your data files. If you plan on reformatting your hard drive, you will want to put them on some kind of removable media (Floppy, Zip, Tape, etc.). If not, just make a folder on your hard disk and copy all of your important data files that might get deleted there. If you are not planning on reformatting your hard drive, the only files you will need to back up would be the ones that are stored in your Windows directory, because we will be deleting that later on in the process. If you aren't comfortable trying to figure out which files you really need to keep, you can simply keep a copy of the entire directory until you are more comfortable.
You will also want to take note of any custom settings/info that are particular to your computer and might be difficult to reproduce. This includes modem initialization strings, usernames/passwords, and server information of which you don't have a hard copy. These are the most frustrating things to lose - while you can always do without your old emails (for the most part), a lost password can take forever to recover.
Next, Uninstall any programs that you will need to reinstall (most games, Microsoft Word, etc.). Most games will let you leave the savegame data files behind anyway, and Word doesn't delete documents during an uninstall, so you shouldn't lose any real data there. If you happen to have some cool macros or something, make sure you back those up before uninstalling. If you aren't reformatting your HD, you can leave them where they are. Otherwise, back them up as well.
Also, make sure you have drivers available for all of your hardware. You are already going to need to run Windows Update after the install anyway - but if you think of it, having copies of any modem, video, and sound card drivers (even if they aren't the "most recent" although that is preferable) lying around can save you a lot of trouble.
If you are not reformatting your hard drive, you may want to consider copying the Win98 directory off the CD directly on to your hard drive. This will make it MUCH easier to reinstall Windows 98. If you aren't going to copy the directory to your hard drive, or you are reformatting it, make sure you have a startup disk made (with the CD-ROM driver on it) BEFORE continuing. And test it before you go about doing anything else - sometimes they don't work the way they are supposed to and that can cause some serious problems. You can create a startup disk in the Control Panel by choosing Add/Remove Programs, then accessing the Startup Disk tab.
Reformatting your Hard Disk
You can skip this part if you are not reformatting obviously. If you have one large partition, you may want to consider splitting the drive into two or more drive letters. You might also want to do this if you want to put your swap file on a separate HD. If this is the case, you will need to Fdisk the drive. Fdisk is DOS's native partition manager. You can also use something like partition magic if you'd like - but this is cheap and relatively easy. Follow the following steps:
- Type FDISK /FPRMT (This enables FAT32 for partitions lower than 512 MB)
- Delete all of your current partitions
- Split the drive into as many partitions as you please
If you are going to dedicate one of your new partitions to your swap file, you should probably make it between 180 and 256 MB.
Now that your partitions are set up, you will need to actually format the drives. Any drives that are normally larger than 512 MB won't need any special attention except for a format x: command. But if you have a partition smaller than that, you will need to follow these steps to get the drive properly formatted. Note: The only good reason to have a partition smaller than 512 MB is for a swap file! You have been warned.
To format a partition for a swap file, use the command format x: /Z:n, where n is the cluster size for the partition. This number can be any multiple of 512, which translates directly into bytes per sector. Hard disks are generally faster with larger clusters, but they run more efficiently (you can fit more data on the disk) with smaller clusters. Since we are going for speed here, we would want to go with a large cluster size. I personally recommend 8192 (8 KB) or 16384 (16 KB) for your bytes per sector setting - but that is something that can be tweaked for optimum performance.
Removing Windows 98 from your System
If you aren't going to reformat your hard drive during this operation, deleting Windows is a must; otherwise you gain almost nothing. Here is the fastest way to do it - but make sure you back up any data you might need from the Windows directory before you start. As I said, the safest way to do that is to make a copy of it and leave it on your HD for a couple of days until you are sure you have everything you need off of it.
- Run Smartdrv to speed up DOS
- Type deltree x:\[windir]
This operation can take anywhere from a minute to half an hour depending on how fast your system is and how much junk you have in your Windows directory. It will also take longer if you don't run smartdrv first, so don't forget!
Finally, the Installation!
Ok, either way you did it, you are now ready to install Windows! Go to whichever directory contains the Windows 98 setup file (if it is on the CD, you may have to reboot using the system disk first) and then type setup /iw. The /iw parameter skips the copyright notices to save you a little bit of time. Follow the instructions and install Windows 98. If you feel particularly skilled and want to mess around with what Windows automatically installs, choose the custom install and remove whatever you know you aren't going to use.
After the Installation
The actual installation was the easiest part, wasn't it? After the installation, you are going to want to make sure you install the proper drivers for all of your hardware and reinstalling all of your programs. This shouldn't take terribly long. Next, you are going to want to connect to Windows Update and download all of the applicable updates (this will depend on whether you are using plain old Win98 or Win98 SE). After that is done, go through and install all of your custom settings, tweaks, etc. This includes putting your swap file on the new partition, if you chose to make one. Don't forget to use the other tweaks from Tweak3D! ;)
After you have installed and configured everything, and your system is in a somewhat stable state (you've removed all of your extra backups and the copy of the Win98 directory, and you aren't planning on installing anything for a while) run Scandisk and fix any errors. Then run the Disk Defragmenter and defragment all of your hard drives. Make sure that the "Arrange Program Files so my Programs Start Faster" setting is enabled for best performance.
Other Installation Options
Believe it or not, there is another way to do a clean install of Windows 98. It takes the place of the actual installation program and does some really cool things with Windows. It's called 98Lite - you may have read about it in my Shell Tweak Guide. With 98Lite, you can perform an ultra-clean install of Windows 98. This is particularly helpful if you happen to prefer Netscape and other products to those made by Microsoft.
You can do this operation with the free version of the software, but I highly recommend that you buy the PRO version because of its extra features. To do this install you are going to want to leave your Windows files on your CD-ROM drive. Boot the computer up with CD-ROM drive access and run the program (make sure you have extracted it to your backup media [be it your hard drive, or whatever] before you start deleting stuff). It will run you through installing Windows 98 as efficiently as possible - and if you want to use the old Windows 95 shell, make sure you have a copy of that CD nearby as well. The program will take you through all the motions and allow you to configure Windows 98 for the way YOU use it. Very cool, huh? After you've done that, follow the "After the Installation" instructions from above.
Note: If you aren't planning on installing IE when you install Win98, make sure that you have a copy of Netscape lying around for web browsing - otherwise it'll be tough to download bug fixes for Windows 98.
Conclusion
I hope this helps you out the next time you need to reinstall Windows 98. Before you resort to that, though, you may want to check out my System Cleanup Guide, which many times can return the life to an aging Windows installation. Good luck!
