Backup, reformat, restore

VIKTOR2020 · Post by **VIKTOR2020** » Sat Oct 20, 2001 4:48 pm

Does anybody know a site that can walk me through this process?
The only times I've reformatted, it was with the intention of starting over with everything. Now I want to keep my investment of time in installing all my programs; and I certainly want to keep my data.

phenix0000 · Post by **phenix0000** » Sat Oct 20, 2001 8:44 pm

What do you mean by that?

Norm has a pretty good guide on how to (re)format and install.
Ask one of them regulars for the link to it.

blebs · Post by **blebs** » Sat Oct 20, 2001 9:23 pm

Originally posted by phenix0000
What do you mean by that?

Norm has a pretty good guide on how to (re)format and install.
Ask one of them regulars for the link to it.

Check here for Norms help page I don't know what OS your using though. From the way your post reads, I can only say to install over what you have installed. If you go the format route, your going to lose your data.

Storm90 · Post by **Storm90** » Sun Oct 21, 2001 6:32 pm

If you have a cd burner or zip drive just back up want you want to keep. Then reformat and reinstall your os. If not just run a resetup on your os. Or look for a back up program that will allow you to back up your os to zip or cd. Then reformat the drive. Or as was suggested ask Norm

VIKTOR2020 · Post by **VIKTOR2020** » Sun Oct 21, 2001 6:50 pm

Thanks for the link to Norm's page.
I'm using Win 98 SE.
I need to do two things:
1. remove a partition I apparently set up when I formatted the disk the first time (Norton detects it and asks if I want to try to reinstate it--I don't) and my theory is this is the reason any time I install any program on my computer it has to restart windows three or four times to boot properly. Using Sandra to read the errors in the bootlog I find the recurring problem is misreading the free space. I'm guessing that installation of a new program sends Windows searching for the free space and that's why it can't boot successfully.
2. enlarge my C: partition to 4 Gb instead of my current 2 Gb to make room for Win XP.
Once I've done this I want to restore all my programs and data without having to reinstall each one.

I've got MTI BackupNow! to put my partition images on CDs. I've just never done this and am paranoid about loosing everything.

Question: what switches do I need to use with Fdisk to delete any partitions currently on my HD so I can start from scratch?

phenix0000 · Post by **phenix0000** » Sun Oct 21, 2001 9:37 pm

just go to DOS and start up Fdisk.
Answer Yes to Large Disk support and it'll have 4 options
read the options and play around.
Make sure you already backed up though
Fdisk might delete your partitions