Replacing HD/ Op System

[Paul D.]

JC

Got an old puter here that is running W95 on a PentiumII chip. I need a new HD and want to install W98 (used copy at my disposal). This computer is all I need, but we need more memory etc. What should I be careful of? Is there a procedure to follow?

Thanks,

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[Cami A]

Paul, I got the dreaded "hard drive does not exist" message last night after attempting to hook up my printer. After several attempts to find it, I gave up and called my BIL. He assured me that replacing a hard drive was a painless (except for $ and loss of everything) procedure. Heck, he said even a girl could do it...I forgave him, but only after I took everything apart and jiggled the wires around to make it work again.

Yeah, so I'm not JC...I'm sure he'll be along with a more technical description. :D`

[jlbos83]

When I put in a new hard drive, I like to leave the original in. Make sure you understand the Mater/Slave jumpers on the IDE devices. That way you don't lose data. Shortcuts might be all messed up, since the drive letters could change. If your original drive is big enough for the OS, you might leave it primary, but install all your programs and data on the new drive. Then all you are doing is upgrading Windows and adding a drive. Whatever you do always back up the real important stuff first.
Teh biggest piece of advice I would have is don't rush it. Take small steps, and make sure everything is right.

Jeff

[Paul D.]

Cami,

Yes, I've done that method too. But this time I want to save some info, like my wife's emails. Just don't know where they are. I'd like to reformat the existing 2Gig drive to clean off all the junk and put in an additional HD and new operating system.

[jlbos83]

Paul-
If you are using Outlook Express for e-mail, I beleive you can do File Export (not at the right computer to see this now) and save all of your folders and address book. Then when you are runnning again import them. If you want to reformat, not a bad idea, I would put the old disk secondary (slave), and reformat after I was sure I had all the data I wanted off of it.
I would repeat that going slowly enough that you can almost always go back is the safeest thing.

Jeff

[John Bridge]

"Is there a procedure to follow? "

No advice. Just a simple observation.

They sell E-Machines with 20 gig hard drives for three or four hundred bucks.

[JC]

John don't go out and buy a new machine yours should be plenty pwoerful enough for what your going to use it for.Much cheaper to rebuild it.

The procedure(i don't have much time right now have to goto work). is breifly to back-up,make sure you have all your drivers, swap the hard drives and make sure jumpers are correct(master/slave, load boot disc, set partition infomation, format new drive if it needs it, check to make sure the puter can see your cd-rom drive. run windows set-up and after that is done finish loading drivers then programs.

Since it is a WIndows operating system it is not a cut and dried process unfortuanatly due to what I feel is poor coding and the need for the operating system to remain backwards compatable with ancient computers but there is a procedure. I will try to post the whole process later on.
I would reccomend you at least attempting to do it yourself for the experience, I know you have a geek friend to bail you out so go for it! besides not backing up you have nothing really to lose. It is fun and somewhat challenging.

LEt me try to find you a instructional web page if I can that will help explain it better.

[flatfloor]

E-machine?

[JC]

oops sorry Paul I thought you were John for some unknown reason..anyways.

Sorry I took so long.

Heres is an article on the topic with some instructions. Keep in mind that everyone seems to have a slighty differant technique to do this. Mine is a little differant from this.
I would reccomend that you read a few of these articles to get the idea before you start.


microsofts site.looks pretty good.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q221829

http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/projects/jump/0,24331,2217117,00.html

http://freepctech.com/pc/001/004.shtml

http://blinan.8m.com/w98inst.html

I know after reading these you will be rather bewildered and threatened..don't be it is not as bad as it sounds. If you want since this is a spare computer and you will still ba able to access this site, just back any data up first and we will go thru it set by step.

Let me know.

[JC]

Why did that link above only show part of it..strange .looks like a bug in the form software.

[Paul D.]

Thanks JC. I am not a complete rookie with the puters, and have gone through the HD/Opsys replacement back in the Win3.1 to W95 days.

I'll check out these sites. This computer has a virus and need to be wiped out. All the newest virus software is not really compatible with W95, so it all needs to go. Plus my registry is a mess, I am sure.

[JC]

Good choice, clean format and install is they way to go.

Keep us informed on your progress as a few of us here need to do the same thing but are kinda too scrared to do it.. I think.

[Paul D.]

I will report in. What I really need to find are all the locations of the data files :( . My HD is a mess. About a zillion Tonka games, Reading Rabbit, Arthur, I Spy....man. Hey Rob, take notice. Get about a 100 GB drive when your daughter is old enough to play "educational" games!

Talk about nerd engineers. Ran into a guy that formats his drive once a year. Probably on the rotation with greasing the gears on his blinds and oiling his oven doors. He apparently owns all the software on his machine too! What a concept.

[JC]

What kind of machine is it? What kinda browser are you using? What kind of parts are in it?

[Paul D.]

The machine was a locally assembled 486-66 machine about 10 years ago. It is nothing more than just adequate for basic programs, kids games and the internet. Over the years it has been upgraded with the following parts, that I can recall:

Intel MB with PII-233 chip
2Gig Sanyo HD
Toshiba ?x CD-ROM
Used Compac SVGA monitor
2Mb Video card (?)
Sound card
Internal Modem

I use the IE5 browswer/ Outlook Express, my wife used Netscape Communicator for browser/email. Nothing too high zoot is justified for internet use...our phone service really doesn't support over 28.8K connection rates.

I don't want to spend more than about $100 or so on an upgrade, cuz the newer machines are just too cheap. Just need to pick up a decent HD and go.

[JC]

New hardrive and some more possibly ram also. You should be alright.

What do you have in the way of drivers? Any disc laying around..can you download some off the net and save them to disc?

[Paul D.]

Hey JC, long time on this thread, but this little project just upped on the priority list. My wife is getting evil messages from the virus now...so time to reformat the old HD.

I just got a used 4.3 GB HD and picked up a "new" copy of Win98 ESE (2nd edition) for a total of $130. Still has the DELL sticker on the W98 package. I am planning on unpluggin the existing HD, plugging in the new-used one and loading up the Op system on it. I would then add the old HD back in, boot up and reformat it.

Does this sound reasonable? The new HD is only 4.3 GB Western Digital unit, but that is all we need for now. Just staving off a new computer for another year or so.

Here is what I imagine the procedure to be. Let me know if I am off base:

1. Check by setup and see that the floppy drive is the first boot device.

2. The J8 and standard jumper settings are shown on the sticker on the HD. Set them. Plug the HD in to the pigtail where my old hard drive was plugged in.

2. Insert the boot disk that came with the W98 package.

3. Follow instructions to load W98 from the CD-ROM.

4. After loading W98, shutdown the computer. Change the jumper settings on the old HD to make it a slave. (I have no idea what those would be right now. I'll have to see when I take it out.)

5. Plug in the slave HD and reboot the computer.

6. Format the old drive, which will probably show up as the E: drive.

Does this seem the right sequence? Thanks for any help. :)

[JC]

Is this your only computer? If not I can walk you though it.

Yea unplug the old drive and plug in the new..and give it a go..tell me how far you get.

[Rob Z]

Hey Paul

Sounds impressive, almost like you know what you're doing.:D
I just saw your post in here from last month. All the games of Jana's are problem, I'm sure. And they will stay there until she figures out how to remove them! :)

Hey, I'm interested in that Tonka game! (Cami, please insert big dump truck pic here :) )

[Cami A]

http://www.cookiejars.net/tonkadump.jpg

[Bud Cline]

You might know a restaurant operator would come up with a dump truck full of mashed potatoes.

[Cami A]

Actually...that's supposed to look like sugar. The truck is a cookie jar. :D

[Paul D.]

Looked like Play-Doh to me. But then, I'm a Dad, not a baker. :rolleyes:

JC, Yes it is my only computer, but not the only one at my disposal. Got a laptop and high-zoot desktop here at work. I'll just take the laptop home to use if the other one gives me trouble. I've got to read your diatribe on virus software too. Web-based mail is still the best idea, I'm convinced. Although we have never had a hiccup with ATTGlobal.

Just sorry I let my webmail account on beer.com go inactive :( .

Hey! Just checked. It is still there! Not the most intellectual site, but what-the-heck... :D .

[Edited by Paul D. on 04-10-2002 at 04:21 PM]

[Rob Z]

Thanks, Cami :D

Assuming that is mashed taters in the dump truck, we now need a tanker truck full of gravy. Yum!