I give up...

Twistin'Ghost · 09 April 2002, 22:42

(sigh) I just cannot take this poor system performance any longer. I surrender and will finally re-install W98SE after more than two years of daily degrading of performance. Presently, my system crashes about ten times a day - usually the BSOD VXD variety. M$ is, of course, no help in troubleshooting since they haven't a clue what causes system crashes (their site is, however, smack full of guesses!)

In CA, I would just have one of my roommates do the dirty for me but now I am solo and have to fend for myself. What this means is I haven't a clue how to go about this. Do I have to re-format the drive? Have a backup disk? I just don't know. I have gone through and made a list of all of my installed apps and now must take this list and dig up all of my setups and burn them to a CD so that I can spend days trying to return my system to the way I have it now. That list is pretty big, but oh well...I'll deal with it. I really need a step-by-step here. I'll probably also go ahead and buy a new gfx card, since the one that I got with the computer is unidentifiable by any software (I just installed Diamond Stealth drivers that work, albeit poorly). What card should I get? I don't need all of that fancy shit for games playing, although I think I'll have a difficult time finding a card that is not brimming with features for games (sigh again).

For the record, I still have my WB3.x installation on my A2000 from 1995 and have never had anything close to the need for re-installation. Mind you, I haven't used this box much for the last two years, but up to that time, that system was in heavy use day and night.

Any other suggestions from you PC geeks?

RetroMan · 09 April 2002, 22:58

You don´t need to format your HD

It´s less painfull to just boot into DOS from Disk and delete your WINDOWS Directory ! After that be sure to also delete all the start files from C: itself (like AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS) .... Then just boot from Win98 Startdisk with CDRom Driver and start the setup.exe from your CD ....

Hmmm, gfxcard .... hmmm .... If you want to get one cheap, try to get a GeForce1 with 32MB from EBay, they are really cheap and can handle allmost everything, from the past as well as todays "modern" software ! I have an Elsa Erazor X here and never had any problems, not with any emulator and not with any other software/game I have on my PeCe

Twistin'Ghost · 09 April 2002, 23:01

So, how do I make a W98 startdisk w/CD drivers?

As for the gfx card, I need something that I can go buy in the next day or two. Are these GeForce1 cards common in shops?

RetroMan · 09 April 2002, 23:06

Hmmm, I guess GeForce 1 cards are too old to be common, but if you´re lucky, you´ll get one ..... If you´re out of luck and you don´t really care for 3D (I know you don´t

) get a cheap GeForce 2 MX 400, you´ll be fine with that ....

For the start disk, go to your SYSTEMCONTROL ---> SOFTWARE and choose STARTDISK and CREATE (hope that´s so, cause I only got the german Win98

) .... be sure to test it, if it works with your CDRom or not

Twistin'Ghost · 09 April 2002, 23:14

Hmmm...I don't seem to have any of that. Anyone know how to make this disk from a US copy of W98?

Belgarath · 09 April 2002, 23:14

you may not even have to create a bootdisk, check in your bios, see if you can boot from cd, then insert the win98se cd, and if thats a bootable cd (it should be) then there you go

however it may be better to boot from floppy, as i dont think all the needed files are available to hand on the cd, in fact you may need to copy certain files onto the bootdisk as i cant remember everything it gives you, make sure you have deltree.exe and attrib.exe, also deleting your windows directory from dos takes a while, the biggest culprit is IE history so clear this out from windows first! it will make the deletion from dos a lot quicker, dont forget to save your favourites if needed, and if you use outlook express, emails are stored in
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{some sort of serial number}\Microsoft\Outlook Express
and the address book is stored in
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book

these can be copied to another directory and safely copied back into the new windows directory when youve installed it

Belgarath · 09 April 2002, 23:20

Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs
then just click on the startup disk tab

jmmijo · 09 April 2002, 23:21

Unfortunately I've not seen a Win98SE bootable CD, unless it's one of the proprietary OEM restore CD's

Not until WinME did the CD become bootable for the retail release. As for creating a Startup Floppy Disk, open the Control Panel, then open Add/Remove Programs, then click on the Startup tab and you should see a button to create this disk. It will format you disk for you if it's unformmated! This disk should then have a custom menu option with one being for CD-ROM support!

As for the video card, I too like the GeForce 2 MX cards, they are pretty cheap now and a new one is less then $100, check out www.pricewatch.com for more info on these.

RetroMan · 09 April 2002, 23:32

Quote:

Originally posted by Belgarath
Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs
then just click on the startup disk tab

Thats the one

It´s a bit renamed on a german version

Djay · 09 April 2002, 23:36

i tend re-format my primary hard-drive every six months or so.

i once installed C&C tiberian sun, for a 2d game it ran very poorly, even when i defraged etc... i then re-installed win98SE the game about 8 times faster!!!

i push all my data files over to my secondary hard-drive.

not sure about deleting windows and leaving everything else there...

what the other programs and registry?

RetroMan · 09 April 2002, 23:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Djay
what the other programs and registry?

The registry will be killed with the WINDOWS Dir

All other data will remain at it´s place, but most of the software must be re-installed cause of the deleted registry, but you can keep your data stored on C: that way

Belgarath · 09 April 2002, 23:39

the registry goes, thats the root of all evil anyway

as for the other programs, a lot will need reinstalling, always back up the install zip or exe! some wont, but for the ones that do need reinstalling you can normally install directly over the old copy and it will be fine.

DPainter · 09 April 2002, 23:57

First of all, is your 98SE CD a full CD, an upgrade CD, a MS OEM CD, or a system CD from a PC manufacturer like HP? Or is it a copy and you're not sure?

Do you have a second hard drive? If not, is your primary drive partitioned into more than one drive letter (C)? If yes, you have a great backup solution if there's room on the partition. If no...

...then I recommend installing from scratch (assuming your 98SE cd is a full/OEM or System CD version). Although you might get away with re-installing and keeping most of your existing files, all registry entries for those apps will be missing from the re-install. My experience tells me that if you upgrade crap, you end up with more crap.

To simplify all of this, let's assume you've backed up every important data file to a CDR or second hard drive. You are then free to reformat your hard drive and re-install Windows. This can be done with the startup disk, which contains CD-ROM drivers and basic tools like fdisk and format.

Let us know more details about your 98SE and storage space.

I'd use this as an excuse to buy a nice new HDD (not IBM, of course) and make it the new MASTER drive, then delegate your old drive to SLAVE status. That way you don't have to hassle with backups, and you now have a fast new drive to install Windows 98SE on.

Fissuras · 10 April 2002, 01:39

Just go to Bootdisk and download one! That is the easiest way.

http://www.bootdisk.com/

or here:

http://www.mirrors.org/archived_soft...m/original.htm

All disks include universal cdrom drivers and utilities

You may do a google search also.

http://www.google.com.br/search?q=bo...isa+Google&lr=

Fissuras · 10 April 2002, 02:00

Well, the bootdisks are all there, ready to be downloaded. it couldn't be easier, could it be?

When I am having this kind of trouble, I like do delete as much files as possible. Then, I do a speeddisk/desfragmentation session to clean up and better organize the files. Then I kill Windoze directory, boot to dos and reinstall everything.

If you are in a mood to format c:, please do so! a quick format and you have a spanking new computer.

I like to have two drives also, one for the data, downloads, games that came an go, roms, emulators, pictures *cough*, and all kind of garbage. The other with the more stable(?) software, like Office, Nero, Windoze (of course)... you know, programs that are not changing frequently.

But if you have only one HD you may consider partitioning it.. a small one (3 Gb) for windows and other programs, and the rest... for the rest.

An always remember to install the motherboard drives. without them, my PC access the HD as a 16 Mb/s maximum. When I install the Via drives, the Ata 100 feature is turned on... so 100Mb/s (maximum in theory. in practice, much less).

Oh, while you are at Bootdisk, check the TOP TEN TUNEUP TIPS

http://www.bootdisk.com/topten.htm

Fissuras · 10 April 2002, 02:19

There is a guide in bootdisk, teaching you to do a bootable disk.

"HOW TO MAKE A BOOTDISK FOR YOUR PC"

(modified by me)

The easiest way to make a simple bootdisk for your Win 95/98 computer is to type (at the dos prompt) sys a: (you may need to be at the root directory)

... blahblahblah ...

Ok, suppose you tried doing it manually, and already did a sys a:, or made a bootdisk with windows and it still doesn't see your cdrom and you're at the end of your rope. You can download shebang2 to an empty folder on your hard drive, click on it, and just copy the extracted files to your bootfloppy.

http://www.bootdisk.com/dosfiles/shebang2.exe

Supplemental Note #1: To make a better Windows 98 bootdisk then the one that came with your Windows CD, put in your CD and seek out \tools\mtsutil\fat32ebd\fat32ebd.exe and double click on the file

"I WANT MY CDROM TO WORK IN DOS"

Use cdindos.exe to install universal CDrom drivers to config.sys and autoexec.bat. Download and click on the file to make a cdrom setup disk. Once the disk is made you can use it on any computer to setup the CDrom to work in DOS.

http://www.bootdisk.com/dosfiles/cdindos.exe

Anyway, enough of that! try whatever you like and see if it works

Paul · 10 April 2002, 10:18

Also this web site has step-by-step guides on reinstalling Windows.

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/

And some more info

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/

Hope it helps

Twistin'Ghost · 10 April 2002, 11:10

Thanks for the links, Paul (windowsreinstall.com - LOL!). And thanks also to fissuras for all those links which I'll have a look at. And to everyone else for the overwhelming amount of input.

It may take me a couple of days to be ready to do this while I gather up my setups, try to get a new gfx card, find some floppy disks, etc.

Plus I need to find where I put my Win98 CD at!

Although I'll lose all of the accompanying settings and keys, I welcome the registry being wiped. I once downloaded a shareware tool that bragged about how it will wipe away all of the dead links in the registry, so I tried it out. It located a massive load of non-existant paths and links and placed them on a huge page. It then asked if I wanted to kill all of them or select certain ones. I spent hours selecting which ones for it to blow away and when I clicked for it to do so, it gave me a shareware message saying it could only delete five of them in the trial version. Nowhere in the docs or installer or anywhere else did it indicate this restriction. I hope the programmer of that software dies broke!

@Djay
Every six months?! Sheesh! Could PC's possibly suck any more?

@DPainter
I believe my W98 CD is a full CD (copy). And yes, I have a second hard drive (or at least I am supposed to...it's possible that he just partioned the drives). I was certain I bought a 40gig drive (that my roomie installed for me), but Windows tells me the total size is 25.4GB?!? Anyhow, I probably will be better off reformatting the drive and reinstalling clean. I will assume those links give instructions on how to do the fdisk thing and all that (I haven't mucked with that crap in eons!)

I will probably wait until payday and just pick up a new HD anyhow, since I don't trust this drive anyhow (and it's small). Since I already have two (alleged) drives in operation, would it be best to make the boot disk, turn the machine off and replace my C: drive with the new one and start from there?

BTW: is there any way I can check (via Windows) to see which hard drive(s) are installed in my machine? It's clear I don't know a damn thing about PC's...

Paul · 10 April 2002, 11:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Twistin'Ghost
I believe my W98 CD is a full CD (copy). And yes, I have a second hard drive (or at least I am supposed to...it's possible that he just partioned the drives). I was certain I bought a 40gig drive (that my roomie installed for me), but Windows tells me the total size is 25.4GB?!? Anyhow, I probably will be better off reformatting the drive and reinstalling clean. I will assume those links give instructions on how to do the fdisk thing and all that (I haven't mucked with that crap in eons!)

Well when I had my 80gig HD installed it only detected 11gig when formatted so I was told by the person who built my PC that he had to update my BIOS and partition it into two 40gigs.

Quote:

I once downloaded a shareware tool that bragged about how it will wipe away all of the dead links in the registry, so I tried it out. It located a massive load of non-existant paths and links and placed them on a huge page. It then asked if I wanted to kill all of them or select certain ones. I spent hours selecting which ones for it to blow away and when I clicked for it to do so, it gave me a shareware message saying it could only delete five of them in the trial version. Nowhere in the docs or installer or anywhere else did it indicate this restriction. I hope the programmer of that software dies broke!

I use EasyCleaner for this, and best of all it's freeware.
http://www.listsoft.com/program.php?id=2968

Quote:

BTW: is there any way I can check (via Windows) to see which hard drive(s) are installed in my machine? It's clear I don't know a damn thing about PC's...

Errr.....check my computer

Twistin'Ghost · 10 April 2002, 11:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Paul
Well when I had my 80gig HD installed it only detected 11gig when formatted so I was told by the person who built my PC that he had to update my BIOS and partition it into two 40gigs.

Could PC's possibly suck any more? (I am gonna put this on a t-shirt!) No wonder I can't get anywhere learning this stupid box! I could learn to program 68000 assembler faster...

Quote:

Originally posted by Paul
I use EasyCleaner for this, and best of all it's freeware.

Downloaded. Will check it out. Thanks for the tip!

09 April 2002, 23:57	#13
DPainter Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Montana, USA Posts: 342	Ack! First of all, is your 98SE CD a full CD, an upgrade CD, a MS OEM CD, or a system CD from a PC manufacturer like HP? Or is it a copy and you're not sure? Do you have a second hard drive? If not, is your primary drive partitioned into more than one drive letter (C)? If yes, you have a great backup solution if there's room on the partition. If no... ...then I recommend installing from scratch (assuming your 98SE cd is a full/OEM or System CD version). Although you might get away with re-installing and keeping most of your existing files, all registry entries for those apps will be missing from the re-install. My experience tells me that if you upgrade crap, you end up with more crap. To simplify all of this, let's assume you've backed up every important data file to a CDR or second hard drive. You are then free to reformat your hard drive and re-install Windows. This can be done with the startup disk, which contains CD-ROM drivers and basic tools like fdisk and format. Let us know more details about your 98SE and storage space. I'd use this as an excuse to buy a nice new HDD (not IBM, of course) and make it the new MASTER drive, then delegate your old drive to SLAVE status. That way you don't have to hassle with backups, and you now have a fast new drive to install Windows 98SE on.

10 April 2002, 01:39	#14
Fissuras Old Luny Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Brazil Age: 54 Posts: 574	Bootdisk Just go to Bootdisk and download one! That is the easiest way. http://www.bootdisk.com/ or here: http://www.mirrors.org/archived_soft...m/original.htm All disks include universal cdrom drivers and utilities You may do a google search also. http://www.google.com.br/search?q=bo...isa+Google&lr=

10 April 2002, 02:00	#15
Fissuras Old Luny Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Brazil Age: 54 Posts: 574	Well, the bootdisks are all there, ready to be downloaded. it couldn't be easier, could it be? When I am having this kind of trouble, I like do delete as much files as possible. Then, I do a speeddisk/desfragmentation session to clean up and better organize the files. Then I kill Windoze directory, boot to dos and reinstall everything. If you are in a mood to format c:, please do so! a quick format and you have a spanking new computer. I like to have two drives also, one for the data, downloads, games that came an go, roms, emulators, pictures cough, and all kind of garbage. The other with the more stable(?) software, like Office, Nero, Windoze (of course)... you know, programs that are not changing frequently. But if you have only one HD you may consider partitioning it.. a small one (3 Gb) for windows and other programs, and the rest... for the rest. An always remember to install the motherboard drives. without them, my PC access the HD as a 16 Mb/s maximum. When I install the Via drives, the Ata 100 feature is turned on... so 100Mb/s (maximum in theory. in practice, much less). Oh, while you are at Bootdisk, check the TOP TEN TUNEUP TIPS http://www.bootdisk.com/topten.htm Last edited by Fissuras; 10 April 2002 at 02:20.

10 April 2002, 02:19	#16
Fissuras Old Luny Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Brazil Age: 54 Posts: 574	or you can do it by yourself There is a guide in bootdisk, teaching you to do a bootable disk. "HOW TO MAKE A BOOTDISK FOR YOUR PC" (modified by me) The easiest way to make a simple bootdisk for your Win 95/98 computer is to type (at the dos prompt) sys a: (you may need to be at the root directory) ... blahblahblah ... Ok, suppose you tried doing it manually, and already did a sys a:, or made a bootdisk with windows and it still doesn't see your cdrom and you're at the end of your rope. You can download shebang2 to an empty folder on your hard drive, click on it, and just copy the extracted files to your bootfloppy. http://www.bootdisk.com/dosfiles/shebang2.exe Supplemental Note #1: To make a better Windows 98 bootdisk then the one that came with your Windows CD, put in your CD and seek out \tools\mtsutil\fat32ebd\fat32ebd.exe and double click on the file "I WANT MY CDROM TO WORK IN DOS" Use cdindos.exe to install universal CDrom drivers to config.sys and autoexec.bat. Download and click on the file to make a cdrom setup disk. Once the disk is made you can use it on any computer to setup the CDrom to work in DOS. http://www.bootdisk.com/dosfiles/cdindos.exe Anyway, enough of that! try whatever you like and see if it works

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09 April 2002, 22:42	#1
Twistin'Ghost Give up the ghost Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: U$A Age: 33 Posts: 4,662	I give up... (sigh) I just cannot take this poor system performance any longer. I surrender and will finally re-install W98SE after more than two years of daily degrading of performance. Presently, my system crashes about ten times a day - usually the BSOD VXD variety. M$ is, of course, no help in troubleshooting since they haven't a clue what causes system crashes (their site is, however, smack full of guesses!) In CA, I would just have one of my roommates do the dirty for me but now I am solo and have to fend for myself. What this means is I haven't a clue how to go about this. Do I have to re-format the drive? Have a backup disk? I just don't know. I have gone through and made a list of all of my installed apps and now must take this list and dig up all of my setups and burn them to a CD so that I can spend days trying to return my system to the way I have it now. That list is pretty big, but oh well...I'll deal with it. I really need a step-by-step here. I'll probably also go ahead and buy a new gfx card, since the one that I got with the computer is unidentifiable by any software (I just installed Diamond Stealth drivers that work, albeit poorly). What card should I get? I don't need all of that fancy shit for games playing, although I think I'll have a difficult time finding a card that is not brimming with features for games (sigh again). For the record, I still have my WB3.x installation on my A2000 from 1995 and have never had anything close to the need for re-installation. Mind you, I haven't used this box much for the last two years, but up to that time, that system was in heavy use day and night. Any other suggestions from you PC geeks?

09 April 2002, 22:58	#2
RetroMan Registered User Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Germany Age: 51 Posts: 3,704	You don´t need to format your HD It´s less painfull to just boot into DOS from Disk and delete your WINDOWS Directory ! After that be sure to also delete all the start files from C: itself (like AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS) .... Then just boot from Win98 Startdisk with CDRom Driver and start the setup.exe from your CD .... Hmmm, gfxcard .... hmmm .... If you want to get one cheap, try to get a GeForce1 with 32MB from EBay, they are really cheap and can handle allmost everything, from the past as well as todays "modern" software ! I have an Elsa Erazor X here and never had any problems, not with any emulator and not with any other software/game I have on my PeCe

09 April 2002, 23:01	#3
Twistin'Ghost Give up the ghost Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: U$A Age: 33 Posts: 4,662	So, how do I make a W98 startdisk w/CD drivers? As for the gfx card, I need something that I can go buy in the next day or two. Are these GeForce1 cards common in shops?

09 April 2002, 23:06	#4
RetroMan Registered User Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Germany Age: 51 Posts: 3,704	Hmmm, I guess GeForce 1 cards are too old to be common, but if you´re lucky, you´ll get one ..... If you´re out of luck and you don´t really care for 3D (I know you don´t ) get a cheap GeForce 2 MX 400, you´ll be fine with that .... For the start disk, go to your SYSTEMCONTROL ---> SOFTWARE and choose STARTDISK and CREATE (hope that´s so, cause I only got the german Win98 ) .... be sure to test it, if it works with your CDRom or not

09 April 2002, 23:14	#5
Twistin'Ghost Give up the ghost Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: U$A Age: 33 Posts: 4,662	Hmmm...I don't seem to have any of that. Anyone know how to make this disk from a US copy of W98?

09 April 2002, 23:14	#6
Belgarath HOL Team Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Manchester Posts: 2,529	you may not even have to create a bootdisk, check in your bios, see if you can boot from cd, then insert the win98se cd, and if thats a bootable cd (it should be) then there you go however it may be better to boot from floppy, as i dont think all the needed files are available to hand on the cd, in fact you may need to copy certain files onto the bootdisk as i cant remember everything it gives you, make sure you have deltree.exe and attrib.exe, also deleting your windows directory from dos takes a while, the biggest culprit is IE history so clear this out from windows first! it will make the deletion from dos a lot quicker, dont forget to save your favourites if needed, and if you use outlook express, emails are stored in C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{some sort of serial number}\Microsoft\Outlook Express and the address book is stored in C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book these can be copied to another directory and safely copied back into the new windows directory when youve installed it

09 April 2002, 23:20	#7
Belgarath HOL Team Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Manchester Posts: 2,529	Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs then just click on the startup disk tab

09 April 2002, 23:21	#8
jmmijo Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: PDX Age: 62 Posts: 2,396	Unfortunately I've not seen a Win98SE bootable CD, unless it's one of the proprietary OEM restore CD's Not until WinME did the CD become bootable for the retail release. As for creating a Startup Floppy Disk, open the Control Panel, then open Add/Remove Programs, then click on the Startup tab and you should see a button to create this disk. It will format you disk for you if it's unformmated! This disk should then have a custom menu option with one being for CD-ROM support! As for the video card, I too like the GeForce 2 MX cards, they are pretty cheap now and a new one is less then $100, check out www.pricewatch.com for more info on these.

09 April 2002, 23:36	#10
Djay 95th User Join Date: May 2001 Location: Brighton/UK Age: 48 Posts: 3,120	i tend re-format my primary hard-drive every six months or so. i once installed C&C tiberian sun, for a 2d game it ran very poorly, even when i defraged etc... i then re-installed win98SE the game about 8 times faster!!! i push all my data files over to my secondary hard-drive. not sure about deleting windows and leaving everything else there... what the other programs and registry?

09 April 2002, 23:39	#12
Belgarath HOL Team Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Manchester Posts: 2,529	the registry goes, thats the root of all evil anyway as for the other programs, a lot will need reinstalling, always back up the install zip or exe! some wont, but for the ones that do need reinstalling you can normally install directly over the old copy and it will be fine.

10 April 2002, 10:18	#17
Paul RIP Friends Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: UK Posts: 2,157	Also this web site has step-by-step guides on reinstalling Windows. http://www.windowsreinstall.com/ And some more info http://www.onecomputerguy.com/ Hope it helps

10 April 2002, 11:10	#18
Twistin'Ghost Give up the ghost Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: U$A Age: 33 Posts: 4,662	Thanks for the links, Paul (windowsreinstall.com - LOL!). And thanks also to fissuras for all those links which I'll have a look at. And to everyone else for the overwhelming amount of input. It may take me a couple of days to be ready to do this while I gather up my setups, try to get a new gfx card, find some floppy disks, etc. Plus I need to find where I put my Win98 CD at! Although I'll lose all of the accompanying settings and keys, I welcome the registry being wiped. I once downloaded a shareware tool that bragged about how it will wipe away all of the dead links in the registry, so I tried it out. It located a massive load of non-existant paths and links and placed them on a huge page. It then asked if I wanted to kill all of them or select certain ones. I spent hours selecting which ones for it to blow away and when I clicked for it to do so, it gave me a shareware message saying it could only delete five of them in the trial version. Nowhere in the docs or installer or anywhere else did it indicate this restriction. I hope the programmer of that software dies broke! @Djay Every six months?! Sheesh! Could PC's possibly suck any more? @DPainter I believe my W98 CD is a full CD (copy). And yes, I have a second hard drive (or at least I am supposed to...it's possible that he just partioned the drives). I was certain I bought a 40gig drive (that my roomie installed for me), but Windows tells me the total size is 25.4GB?!? Anyhow, I probably will be better off reformatting the drive and reinstalling clean. I will assume those links give instructions on how to do the fdisk thing and all that (I haven't mucked with that crap in eons!) I will probably wait until payday and just pick up a new HD anyhow, since I don't trust this drive anyhow (and it's small). Since I already have two (alleged) drives in operation, would it be best to make the boot disk, turn the machine off and replace my C: drive with the new one and start from there? BTW: is there any way I can check (via Windows) to see which hard drive(s) are installed in my machine? It's clear I don't know a damn thing about PC's...

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