A formatting we shall go...!

[Toefur]

Yes, it's time for my annual formatting...

This'll be the first time i've done it to this computer, i'm worried i'll screw something up. lol.

Anyway, does anyone know how to do the following

- Save all my gator passwords?
- Partition my hdd

I've formatted my other computer a million times, buuut... i'm still a bit worried, anyone know of anything I should make sure of before I format?

I think i've got all my driver disks lying around here... somehwere...

[LeX]

Gayowulf, what an uneccessary comment! He said he's already reformatted his disks a million times, so he should know that by now. Right now he's asking how to save all his Gator passwords and some other stuff...

Do you think copying your whole Gator directory would do anything?

[Coolin]

To partition your hard drive, boot off of a floppy and type this in: fdisk

Then look at the menus, it's pretty self explanitory. Remember to format your partitions after you've partitioned them!

[Gayowulf]

sorry LeX :) I deleted my post. What is gator?

[Bruce]

Its a program that stores all your passwords for you.

[Gayowulf]

What if you wrote them all down, reinstalled gator and reenterd them into gator. Will this not work?

[Jerry]

that would take forever.. i remember i used gator and it was too annoying.. this annoying gator would popup and give me some advertisement about exactly what the site i was at was about.. like: if i was at amazon.. it would give me a buy.com ad.. if i was at a free webhost it would give me a homestead (or homepage).com ad..

they keep track of the sites you go to and target the ads..

so thats when i switched to netscape 6..

[Jerry]

i reformatted twice in the last week.. umm.. the first time was because i downloaded this program that was suppose to be a joke and while it was running it suddenly said.. Your harddrive is being deleted and it just started scrolling a bunch of filenames.. i thought it was one of those fake javascript things.. but it rebooted my computer and the next thing i know i my entire system folder was gone and i had to reinstall windows.. so i just reformatted.. hehe

second time.. when i was reinstalling ie 5.5 sp1.. it didn't finish and that messed up my computer..

i have backups of my file on another computer on my network.. so i just reinstalled everything and i was fine.. formatting wasn't that hard.. my computer came with a cd that installs windows ME and everything for you..

[Coolin]

Originally posted by Jerry
so thats when i switched to netscape 6..That browser sucks so much. Netscape 6 is just a version of Mozilla, and apparently, they screwed it up in the process. Use Mozilla, it's the same thing, but not as buggy. Download it at http://www.mozilla.org

[Toefur]

So what'd Gayowulf say, eh?! eh!? :D

I've saved a copy of my gator directory, hope that works, otherwise i'm gonna have a lot of trouble tracking them all down... lol. And I can't write them all down, 'cuz I have no idea what msot of them are!

I rarely notice the gator ads... if there are any... i dont see any now... hmm, lol.

Coolin - Do I want to format the harddrive before I partition the drive? Boot off a floppy... mm... i'll have to find one of my boot disks... man, I havn't used a disk in years!

Eck, I just read this thing that says partitioning physically divides the hdd into different sections. Is that true? Can it be unpartitioned?

Hm. Whats good sizes? I've got 17 gig... its meant to be, but it says here 16.1

Hm.

- 8 gig
- 3 gig
- 4.1 gig?

HMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Sorry... just thinking out loud... :)

Netscape sucks. :)

[Bruce]

Originally posted by Toefur


- 8 gig
- 3 gig
- 4.1 gig?

Probably not considering that would only be 15.1 gigs.

[Coolin]

Formatting your hard drive probably isn't necessary. But if you have the time, it wouldn't hurt to try. And yes, you can unpartition your hard drive, don't worry. :)

Partition sizes are up to you, it depends on your needs. On my 19 gig HD, I have a:
5 gig partition for Windows 98
12 gig partition for Windows 2000
2 gig that isn't used yet, I'm thinking of installing Linux on it.

[Gayowulf]

I said this:

before formatting you should always backup all your important files ;)

[Giancarlo]

That is why it is good having an Secondary Hard Drive... =)

[Coolin]

Originally posted by Gayowulf
before formatting you should always backup all your important files ;) That's why I have a 2 gig partition just sitting there doing nothing.

[Toefur]

Weeeeeell... I'm all backed up and ready to goo... BUT!

I boot her up with mah trusty old boot disk... and thats all sweet. Aannd... I try running fdisk.. but it doesnt work. Bad command or file name.

So ah... what do I do here? lol.

I ran fdisk from windows and it worked (altho I couldn't partition it from here).

So i'm stumped.

I'm running Windows ME right now.

I could just format it now and leave everything together, but it'd be handy to have seperate partitions... heeeeeeeeeelp me please!

[stu]

I don't think you have fdisk.exe on your boot disk.

Are you running Windows 95/98? If so, create a Windows Startup disk, it'll copy over the important files and utilities and allow you to boot up your comp with cd-rom support.

Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > Startup Disk

[Coolin]

Originally posted by Toefur
I'm running Windows ME right now.I guess that answers your question stu. Anyway, dont use a Windows 95 boot disk, or you'll be screwed for life.

If you can't partition, you could purchase Partition Magic or System Commander. They're much easier to use.

If you don't want to pay, then look in your boot disk for fdisk.exe. If you can't find it, copy it to your disk from Windows. Make sure you also have format.(something). Or you won't be able to format your disk.

[Toefur]

Oiii... whats so bad about a Win 95 Boot disk? Thats all I've got... lol.

And I can't make a 98 or ME one, cuz uh...while i've got them installed on my computers... I don't have the CD's with me right now, and they demand the CD's to make a boot disk, and i'm too impatient to wait to get them back :O

Alrighty, well I found fdisk and format and all that cool stuff, i'll copy them over... soon as I get a boot disk...

[Coolin]

An average Windows 95 boot disk doesn't have a CD-Driver, therefore disallowing you to install Windows!!! But if yours does have a CD Driver, you don't have to worry. But if you don't, just tell me and i'll zip up my boot disk upload it for you.

[Toefur]

Ahh, no that's cool. A few years back I formatted and tried using the same bootdisk, but there was no CD drivers on it, i just got the guys at the shop to put them on for me.

Why the hell is it, though, that they dont come with the CD drivers.. seems rather stupid...

OOOH YEAH!
I'm sitting on my freshly partitioned/formatted hardrive here... heehee.

Tho at the start it gave me some option about large disks, and with some versions of win 95 not being able to have drives over 2 gig...so now im sitting here with 8 drives each 2 gig big... lol.

When I get my Win 98/ME CDs... will I need to delete my new partition and format it all again if I wanna change all that?

[Coolin]

Originally posted by Toefur
When I get my Win 98/ME CDs... will I need to delete my new partition and format it all again if I wanna change all that?Unless you got Partition Magic or System Commander, ya.