Is this possible? Formatting a hard drive without getting rid of the operating system. I have a hard drive that has Windows ME on it right now, but has errors and stuff with the files in it. It has gone through upgrade after upgrade, so I can't just format the hd and then reinstall ME. Please help.
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format a hd w/out getting rid of operating system?
- Thread starter djs488
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- Aug 27, 2001
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- Dark side of hell
Why can't you format then reinstall? Even if you have the upgrade ver. you can do it, it will just prompt you to put in a win 98 or 95 disk to prove you have it but will make a fresh install
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2002
are u using the same harddrive from win 3.1? if so how big is it? lol
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- Mar 1, 2002
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- Texas
Just go buy a full version of an OS, like 2kPro, or download Redhat... 'cuz daaamn, Windows 3.1? That's justification for an upgrade, big-time.
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- Jun 9, 2001
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- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
You can do an "over install". Which will replace the OS to the original, but you won't lose any data, settings, or hav eto re-install programs. It's really hard to explain this without showing you how to do it. There's a couple of spots in the install, where you can't make the wrong choices or you end up losing everything.
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- Apr 17, 2001
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- Springfield, IL
The simple answer is no, it is not possible.
There might be things you can do to clean it up that *might* fix the problems, but they are usually more hassle than they are worth. You can try to run the upgrade to ME again and see if it helps.
You might be better off to (I can not believe I am going to say this) go buy a full version of an OS, possibly XP. It might be cheaper in time and hassle then trying to clean ME.
There might be things you can do to clean it up that *might* fix the problems, but they are usually more hassle than they are worth. You can try to run the upgrade to ME again and see if it helps.
You might be better off to (I can not believe I am going to say this) go buy a full version of an OS, possibly XP. It might be cheaper in time and hassle then trying to clean ME.
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- Apr 3, 2002
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- Bloomington, IN
Have another spare drive? Copy a direct image of your current windows hdd to that drive, call it #2. Make it a slave drive. Clean your current drive, call it drive #1, set it to master. Reformate drive #1. Install windows clean on #1, and when it prompts for your OS, point it to #2.
I think that should work. -- Paul
I think that should work. -- Paul
- Thread Starter
- #11
guys thanks for your help, and especially 'ridenow' for his straightfoward answer. i already have XP but i thought it would be interesting to have two OSs. the hard drive that ME is on is the one i did the hard drive window mod on and is from like 1992. so, no sweat. maybe ill just formatt the thing and do something else with it. can i save files on it without it having an os?
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2002
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- Bloomington, IN
Sure, as long as you have an OS on your primary drive. (Which you do.)
Set your 1992 drive as a slave drive and hook it up on the same channel as your primary drive (set to master), or put it as master or slave on your secondary IDE channel. Windows XP should detect the drive (if not, go to the admin stuff and then disk management), and you'll have tools there to format the drive and mount it (assign a drive letter) wherever your want.
-- Paul
Set your 1992 drive as a slave drive and hook it up on the same channel as your primary drive (set to master), or put it as master or slave on your secondary IDE channel. Windows XP should detect the drive (if not, go to the admin stuff and then disk management), and you'll have tools there to format the drive and mount it (assign a drive letter) wherever your want.
-- Paul
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2002
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- Nashville, TN
You can also do this by booting to the ME CD and installing from there. When it asks for your original CD, just put the previous Win9x upgrade CD in. It will take the upgrade as sufficient proof. It doesn't have to be a full version (besides which, the ME upgrade won't work upgrading from Windows 3.1 anyways, only from Win9x).
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2002
- Location
- Bloomington, IN
That's an interesting point. I guess it makes sense from a license standpoint -- one could not have legally used the 98 upgrade unless there had been a license for a prior version of windows.
Thanks again -- Paul
Thanks again -- Paul
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