Reformatting win 98

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gloomer

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No the windows 98 does not have a floppy drive. Just a cdrom drive.

I do have the original install disk.

I thought I could reformat it easy but I did a bit of looking up and apparently when you reformat it erases the cd rom drivers so you can't reformat from there.

Do I HAVE to have a floppy drive?

I'm really not sure how this is done.

I can use a little dos.

Thanks for helping :) :)

Cheers.
 
Yes, you need to go 'format C:\' from the A drive. Not too sure about a system disk from a cd drive but you might as well try.
 
I need to know for sure what to do.

The exact steps through dos etc..

I can't try and do it and the be left with a comp that won't boot...
 
This is going back quite far...


A:/
Format C:\
yes
<it will format now>
D:\
Setup


It should now load Windows 98 and it is a case of going next and typing your COA code in.
 
So I go to the win 98, turn it on and go to dos and type these things in?

And what does COA mean?

sorry for my noob questions.

I wanna be 100% sure of what i'm doing before i screw around with things.
 
You can't format the partition that Windows is on in Windows. You need to do it in DOS or from a different operating system on a different hdd/partition - bootable Linux can be used as a last resort.

COA is that long code (20 digits of so long) that you type in when promted in the installation.
 
If I'm not mistaken it WON'T erase your Cd-Rom drive, as the BIOS will still be able to read from it, and no matter what if you reformat from Windows, Floppy drive, it will erase everything, just format how you were going to, and use the Win98 CD and reinstall it, if that's what you are wanting to do.
 
so I guess I have to boot up in Dos is that correct?

How would I do this?

Some special key command when you start up?

And after I boot up in dos and dont reformat, how can i get back to normal view.

Thanks a ton man your the best.
 
To get back to Windows you need to take out the system disk (floppy or CD if it works) and press Ctrl + Alt and delete and it will restart and continue to boot to windows.

Camouflage, it isn't drivers that may not be supported, but wether the BIOS allows booting from a CD drive. I know my old 98 machine doesn't allow it.
 
gloomer said:
No the windows 98 does not have a floppy drive. Just a cdrom drive.

I do have the original install disk.

I thought I could reformat it easy but I did a bit of looking up and apparently when you reformat it erases the cd rom drivers so you can't reformat from there.

Do I HAVE to have a floppy drive?

I'm really not sure how this is done.

I can use a little dos.

Thanks for helping :) :)

Cheers.

It's not possible to format your C drive in Win 98 without a Floopy disk, but you may try your CD drive.
There has been a website providing free software for formation of win 98, but I have forgotten the exact URL.
 
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