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Subject:
From:
joseph marty <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 26 Apr 2003 23:30:11 -0400
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text/plain
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I do not recommend using deltree.exe and reinstalling the Win 95 folder. I did that back in 1997, and Windows 95 never ran right again until I formatted and did a clean install of Win 98.  In this type of installation you have to reinstall everything again since your new system files have no idea what's onboard, and the files your software and hardware puts in the system folder will not be there.  Something weird popped up almost daily for months after that.  It is simpler and less traumatic just to do a clean install.



something that I should have covered when I replied to Frank
>about reinstalling Windows 95 and 98.  For those who aren't too sure what
>such a reinstallation involves, it DOESN'T necessarily mean wiping the hard
>drive and starting again from scratch.  There are four options - as follows:
>
>1. Reformat the hard drive and start completely from the beginning.
>
>2. Delete the Windows folder ONLY and reinstall Windows.
>
>3. Reinstall Windows OVER THE TOP of the existing installation by doing it
>in either DOS or..
>
>4. Windows (I know it sounds somehow contradictory, but it works)
>
>1. Is probably familiar to most people, so I won't go any further here.
>2. Needs to done from DOS.  In my opinion it's best done with the DELTREE
>tool.  To set up for this, get yourself a boot floppy disk. There are
>several ways to do this, but the easiest way is to start Windows and put a
>writeable (close the right-hand shutter) floppy into it's drive, then go
>into My Computer and right click the '3 1\2 Floppy A' icon.  From the
>context menu left click on 'Format'.  Put a dot in 'Quick' (or 'Full' if you
>want to be more thorough) and check all three of the bottom options.  Then
>hit 'Start'.
>
>Once the floppy is formatted, rebooting the computer will cause it to start
>up in DOS mode, (provided that the BIOS is set to use the floppy as it's
>first choice of boot.  In most computers, it's already set this way)
>
>However, this boot disk is pretty 'toothless', and it can't do a lot until
>you throw in a few more DOS command tools. You can find these in the
>C:\Windows\Command folder, together with the DELTREE.EXE
>I mentioned earlier.
>
>You can add as many of these as you like, but remember that the floppy will
>only hold 1.4 megabytes, so choose carefully.  If you use the 'View' item on
>the menu and select 'Details', the size of each file can be seen. The
>easiest way to copy these to the floppy is to right click each file (once)
>and select 'Send To' - Floppy'.  Watch for the floppy disk light to turn off
>before copying another file.
>
>Now, if you use this boot disk to start the computer, you've got many more
>options.  To use DELTREE to completely delete the Windows folder, the
>command (from the A prompt) is: "deltree c:\windows" (no quote marks, of
>course) followed by hitting the Enter key. So you'll see this on screen
>before you hit Enter:
>A:\>deltree c:\windows (Don't be scared - it will ask if you're sure you
>want to do it :--))
>
>This will completely eliminate the Windows folder, and you can then start a
>fresh installation of Windows, without distubing any files that were OUTSIDE
>the Windows folder to begin with.  HOWEVER, the new Windows will NOT know
>about any of your previously installed programs, like Photoshop or Word, so
>you will need to reinstall these.  Also, other stuff like your Dial-Up
>connection will need to be set up again.
>
>But it's all good clean fun! <grin>
>
>Back to options 3 and 4 - These are both fairly straightforward, and will
>result in very little being changed - which is why neither of them is worth
>doing.  Oh, I've done it once or twice and it's 'sort-of' cured my problem,
>but a proper reinstall is the only way to go.
>
>NOTE: Power users really need to be able to see their files properly. So, go
>to My Computer, open C drive and from the View item on the menu bar select
>'Folder Options' then View.  Put a dot in 'Show All Files' and uncheck 'Hide
>File Extensions for Known File Types'.  Ok out again.
>
>NOTE 2:  For extra control of this unruly OS, go to My Computer, open C
>drive and from the View item on the menu bar select 'Folder Options',
>Custom, Settings button, then dot the bottom item of all four choices.
>
>NOTE 3: By far the best way to install Windows (any option) is to copy the
>Windows CD to a folder on the hard drive and install from there. You can do
>this from Windows or from DOS. To do it from DOS is a little trickier than
>in Windows, as your CDRom drive will need to be recognised in DOS, so it
>needs to include some generic (ones that will work with most CD drives) CD
>drivers.  This list's own website at http://freepctech.com has such boot
>disks.  However, you may need to add DELTREE.EXE to their disk.
>Also, if you intend the create this storage directory on C drive from DOS,
>after you've booted to DOS you'll need to to type, at the A prompt: "md
>c:\winstart".   This just says: Make a directory on C called Winstart.
>Then, after putting the Windows CD into the drive, you type from the A
>prompt:
>"xcopy32 e:\win98\*.* c:\winstart /s/e" and hit Enter.
>
>This says: Use xcopy32.exe from the floppy to copy only the folder on the CD
>called Win98 (which is all that's neccessary), together with every file in
>it, to the Winstart folder on the C drive while keeping the directory
>structure intact.
>
>This assumes that e is your CD drive - it might be d or f or g, depending on
>how many CD drives you have.  Also, once the copy is done, and after Windows
>has started, you can delete the sub-folders OLS and TOUR (I'm working from
>memory here) from the Winstart folder, as they're not needed and just take
>up 50Mb of hard drive space.  But don't worry about this until Windows is up
>and running.  Some Windows CD's have a folder called 'Cabs' which contains
>all the necessary files, in which case your DOS command will be a little
>different.
>
>
>Ian Porter
>Computer Guys Inc.
>Arrowtown
>New Zealand
>[log in to unmask]
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Ian" Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Attn. Frank: Message from PCSOFT
>moderator
>
>
>> Frank, you CAN reinstall while retaining your present configuration -
>either
>> from DOS, or while in Windows.  Only problem is, it won't help much.  If
>you
>> have errors now, you'll probably still have them after the reinstall.
>
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>

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