Clear up! Clean up!

ChrisDVD

ChrisDVD

New Member
Hello!
I have an old PC downstair, and i was wondering, how do you get all the data off? its a windows 98.....
I want to keep windows in it, but claen out (clear i should say) eveything in it.....it should be ok....
i have 2 hard drives in it,
one 2 GB, and the other one is 3 BG (small!)
so, from step to step, how, do you do that?
 
If you have the installation cd for 98 you would simply boot off of a 98 startup floppy and use the fdisk utility at the dos prompt to actually wipe the existing partitions off of each drive. A clean install of 98 would be far better in the long run then trying to manually clean every little bit of leftovers even with some programs for cleaning available like CCleaner. 98 especially 98SE will go right on a clean drive without problems. Any case that has been lying around for extended periods also see drive fragmentation often set in especially after a few years. To install Windows on both drives you would unplug one to install 98 to the other and the same in reverse to put 98 on the second drive to avoid problems there. But due to the size of the drives you may want to use one strictly as a storage drive.
 
Well let's now do it the hard way by using different methods. First you have to remove all installed applications even video and sound softwares to get to the basic Windows only. If there is no uninstall option link on a program seen when going to Programs off of the Start menu the next stop is the "add/remove programs" found in the Control Panel. Be careful not to remove Windows components since you don't have an installation disk to replace them.

With all softwares removed you now have to look for leftover folders as well as leftover entries in the system registry. One thing to help clean up a drive is found at http://www.ccleaner.com/ The freeware there will give you options where you delete everything on the list or uncheck the ones you still want to look over later. For something that will cleanup a system registry of leftover values there another freeware that cleans automatically called RegCleaner is an easy and far safer way to remove now invalid entires without accidently removing the wrong things. That is found at http://www.majorgeeks.com/RegCleaner_d460.html

Now that these are done are you still with us? Browsing the drives with Windows Explorer you can look for folders that are not default to Windows like Common in the Program Files directory or My Documents. For the ones you find you know are now useless simply right click on them and send them to the recycle bin(don't forget to empty).
 
well, i did the hard way :rolleyes:
removed folders and programs with right click, delete.... the PC seems to be a bit faster....
(i'm actually using another PC right now....i don't have internet in my room. i only want that PC for music... although the sound is not so great...
(more like little things to do)
I actually not too long ago took it all apart, and put it together, It was kinda of a chalenge, to see ig i could buiolt a PC.
now the performance is up, and i'm happy about that (still very slow!)
Thx PC eye!
 
Hopefully you used any uninstallers before simply deleting folders. The CCleaner nicknamed "crap cleaner" by some along with using a freebie for getting excess out of the registry will further reduce unnecessary startups. You can go one step further using the msconfig utilty to uncheck anything unimportant in both the startup group and services listings there. Just make sure you check the "hide all Microsoft services" option to avoid stopping what Windows needs to keep going in order to run. 98 won't have the number of those that 2000 and XP have running however. But that will free up memory along with a few other things. Now for good sound and speakers.
 
well, i will take my old speakers form this PC (well, they are 1 year old!) so it will be quite better.....was wondering though if it would be able to run itunes...? perhpas an old version.....it has 16 MB of RAM, and 16 MB of video Card....you know any website for an old itunes?
 
or 32...can'T remember.....i know its small! perhaps i simply shopuld add another 32...that would be good.
 
Ever hear of the term "mission impossible"? You won't get to where you want with the limitations seen there sorry! It just doesn't have what is needed to run 98 smoothly let alone XP with something like multimedia the way you would want to see it. For running an old Linux distro, Dos, 3.1, or 95 you might get to a point. But to have a good media player with anything even remotely newer it's not equipped for it.
 
A suggestion for wiping drives: Just load them as slaves and format through My Computer. I think thats what you were looking for, its kind of hard to follow...
 
Starwarsman said:
A suggestion for wiping drives: Just load them as slaves and format through My Computer. I think thats what you were looking for, its kind of hard to follow...
Click to expand...

ChrisDVD is looking for a way to save the current installation without wiping the drives due to not having a 98 installation disk. :rolleyes: The problem there however is the limitations for multimedia and other things. The problem that will be seen anyways with 98 is the need for the yearly reinstallation with the older Fat OSs where things get too fragged fast. Besides hardware limitations there is the lack of a 98 disk where often a Windows disk is needed when installing a new hardware. With 98 you had to search around far more for drivers as well.
 
There's always a choice. Simply look for a newer set of hardwares at a private sale where or go to a place that custom builds to look over older hardwares there. Often they will have an older case lying around for a low price. This would be the method there if you are on a tight budget. An old case with 128mb -256mb ram and a faster cpu(Pentium I - AMD K5) would give you more to work with.
 
yes...perhaps i should look for an old PC.....well, not so old....
this morning i tried plugging my HP Speaker set that came with my recent PC.....i could not even plug it! lol !!!! the sound of the speakers when i play music is awful, but i tried a game, and the sound was ok.... Strange :rolleyes:
 
The older games use the lower bit rates seen in dos, 3.1, 95 type 8 and 16bit type audio formats. Those run on far less then the high definition audio needs of HI FI and even upto Surround Sound with EAX added. If you burn audio cds you would be far better off with a good cd player for music with a good set of speakers rather then the limits you see there on too old of a system. Some portable cd/cassette players even have some good sound.
 
yeah,,,lol my songs are all 256 kb/s.....no wonder why it dosn't work great. But anyway, i put my earphones, and it works good. i play card with it too :rolleyes:
Thx for you help PC Eye!
 
Having them in the correct format can be a big help for sure. That's certainly true with audio files from pc games where those are either 11khz, 22khz, 44khz, or in another format. When you get some cash ahead then you can shop around for a better setup. For now you will have to stay with the basics.
 
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