Due to some perceived problems am planning to format C and totally reinstall Win 98. I have all the original hardware CDs/Disks (Sound Card, Printer, Scanner, Video Card etc)

Any tricks I should know before I start this task?

I keep all my prgrams on C (no data at all) and all data on other partitions. I have a 2nd hard disk which I have partitioned the same as the original HD (except for C) and to which I intend to copy all my data files in case there is any problem when formatting C

Thus if I leave all existing partitions I should have 2 chances of retaining my data - firstly on the original HD (in D, E etc which will not be formatted) and then in corresponding partitions (with different letters of course) on the 2nd HD

Is this correct?

Thankd and regards to all

Beware of your drive letters. MS has a wierd way of determing drive letters.

ALL primary partitions are first.
If you have 2 partations on the primary drive and two on the secondary drive, the driver letters would go like this:

C: Primary partation on drive 1
D: Primary partition on drive 2
E: Secondary partition on drive 1
F: Secondary partition on drive 2

Please advise what partations are set up on each hard disk.

p.s. You might not need to re-format, you might be able to do an install in place.

What kind of problems are you having?

It is not neccessary to format the drive you can reinstall on existing 98 only run setup of windows this will remove some of your problem.I run setup two times on existing windows and ther is no data loss in my case.you have data is on another drive so try to run setup without format,because formate is dangerious to health of harddisk!

First, what problem(s) exist would determine whether a reinstall is necessary. In many cases we can figure out a resolution and avoid a reinstall, which is usually considered a last resort only.

Overinstalling is very rarely a solution, if any problems exist that would require a reinstall they will usually still exist after an overinstall. So, if you have to reinstall at all it is best in most cases to format and start fresh.

Let us know what the problem is before deciding on a full reinstall, it might not be necessary.

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Thanks guys for all the replies - the various questions you asked are replied to here

Classicsoftware - I used Partition Magic a long time ago to partition both my hard disks. The first is C to H and the second is I to P. At the time all these partitions were very useful but when I get my machine running properly again I will reinstall PM and reduce the number of partitions. The main problem I was having was that my mouse was behaving irrationally and the HD seemed to be following it as well as being very sluggish. However, so far both these problems seem to have been fixed by reparing IE and so it maybe that my problems have gone away!

Upendra - thanks for the advice. I have tried installling Win 98 on top several times but it did not fix the problems

Paleo Pete - thanks. See above - for the present no more action required but if problems reaappear I will revert

John

Regarding the screw up of drive letters I had encounted it too. But there is something I did that solved my problem. Check in ur BIOS at the boot option if U had place CDRom as the 1st priority before floppy or Cdrive. If yes set it to floppy or Hdd. Its just from my experience it work for me but i hope it works for u