Susan Hays wrote:
>
> Could someone please give me directions as to how to uninstall Windows '98
> Second Edition and install Windows '95 back on a computer?

Dear Susan

   First I would question why you want to go back to 95? If your RAM is
small (16 MB) or processor is slow (486 machine) then maybe you would
want to go back to 95. But otherwise, 98 is a much superior OS for PCs
that can handle it.

   If you are determined to go back then there are a couple of methods
depending on whether you want to try to wipe clean the hard drive with a
format or just try to delete all of the Windows 98 files and leave the
rest of your files. Leaving your data files on the drive will be much
harder and is not recommended. Anyway, all Windows applications will
have to be reinstalled to operate correctly back in Windows 95.

   To do it the easy (and best way):

1. Back up your data files to tape, Zip/Jaz, CDRW, or floppies.
2. Make a Windows 98 system boot floppy (Control Panel/Add Remove
Programs/Startup Disk
3. Boot with the floppy, pick enable CD support and be sure you can see
the CD-ROM drive at the DOS prompt (put in your Win95 CD and type the
DIR command at that drive letter).
4. If you can see your CD then format the hard drive: Format C: /u /s
   Comments on switches: the /U is for unconditional and it will kill
virtually any virus present that I have ever seen. The /S is for system
files and it is technically not needed (especially since you're
formatting using the format.com from Windows 98...a reinstall of Win95
will immediately replace those system files with its own).
             Another format command that is much quicker (takes like 15
seconds) is this one:

           Format C: /Q /U

   The /Q stands for quick and combined with /U it is really fast. I use
it when I don't have time to wait 20 minutes for a huge hard drive to do
the slow format.

5. Run the setup file from the \Win95 directory on the CD

                       ********************************************

   To do it the hard way (in case you have 800 MB of data files and no
way to backup easily)

1. Create the boot 98 floppy and also copy deltree.exe to it from the
\Windows\command directory
2. Boot to DOS and from the floppy type: Deltree C:\windows
3. Delete all files in the C: root directory (some have hidden and read
only attributes and you have to remove the attribute before deleting:
attrib -h -r *.sys   etc...
   This step could probably be ignored as Windows versions will replace
the most important root files with their own versions...I just always
did it to be sure I didn't get some orphan files left behind.
4. Run Win95 setup.exe from the CD drive.


   To see some other tips on reinstalling look here:

      http://www.fairuse.com/Troubleshooting/quickinstall.html
      http://camalott.com/~rssmith/custom/recover.html

HTH,


Russell Smith
Edtech Consultant, Journalist
Region 14 ESC Abilene
http://camalott.com/~rssmith
mailto:[log in to unmask]

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