PARTITION THAT PUPPY
If you are a Windows user, you probably already know how to clean install, reinstall and upgrade your operating system, however a brief review is in order. I don't know about you, but I don't install Windows everyday. There really isn't much to it, but there's no harm in a brief refresher.

If you already have Windows installed you can skip this section. However, if you would like to start over fresh, with a clean installation of your Windows 9x or 3.x OS before installing Win2K or Linux in a dual boot configuration, read on. For Windows 98 users the drill for a clean installation is to use the boot floppy disk provided with your Windows 98 CD to FDISK and then format your C: partitions, reboot, switch to your CD ROM and run the Windows set up. Before you start though, make certain your Win98 boot floppy will boot up your machine properly, and that you can access your CD ROM.

Windows 95 users have it a little tougher because your boot floppy doesn't carry drivers for your CD ROM. Your best bet would be to borrow a Windows 98 boot floppy disk for this installation. It works perfectly for installing Windows 95 and it saves you the grief of acquiring and loading CD ROM drivers in DOS. However, if you just don't have one available to you, stop by Startdisk.com and download a kit there. Windows 3.x users follow a similar routine, but you must first install DOS to the C: partition and then install Windows 3.x.

If you need to partition your hard drive to make room for the additional operating system(s), now is the time to do it. Type FDISK at the A:\ prompt and press Enter. Read over what it says, and answer yes if appropriate. This is what it looks like:



Next you'll see this menu.



Basically, you want to use this menu to set up a Primary DOS partition, which is Active in which you will install Windows 3.x, 95 or 98. Beyond that, your partition choice is dependent on what you plan to dual boot. At this point, I'll assume you have one hard drive with one partition. If you're going to boot Win2K, but not Linux, then you want to create an Extended DOS Partition. Of course, in order to do that, you must first resize your Primary DOS Partition to allow room. To do this you must first delete the Primary DOS Partition and then create it again, sized as you wish. The remainder space, which will simply be "empty", unpartitioned space, can then be used to create the Extended DOS Partition if you plan to install Win2K. If you plan to install Linux, leave the space on your hard drive "empty", unpartitioned.

As an example, if you have a six gigabyte hard drive, simply divide it in half. The first half would be the Primary DOS Partition in which you would install Windows 3.x, 95 or 98, and the second half would be your Extended DOS Partition in which you would install Win2K. Alternately, if you plan to install Linux, leave that second half unpartitioned. Simply do nothing with it once your Primary DOS partition is set up and made Active. Yet another alternative would be to divide that six gigabyte hard drive into three equal sections, two gigabytes each, the first would be your Primary DOS partition of course, the second should be an Extended DOS partition, and finally, the third partition would be for Linux and left empty, unpartitioned.

When FDISK is complete and you are satified with the results, go ahead and format your DOS partitions. Windows won't even see the empty space that you set aside for Linux so don't worry about it. Linux will "see" it when the time comes to use it, so you can ignore it for now. That's one of the nice things about Linux, certain things are just easier to do than Windows.

To format your drive, assuming you want Windows 3.x, 95 or 98 on the C: drive, just boot with your boot floppy in place, type format C: /s and press Enter. Confirm your choice and give it some time to format the partition. To format the Extended DOS partition, simply type format D: and press Enter. The /s switch copies system files to the Active DOS partition. You don't really need to do this if you don't want to, but if you want to boot to your hard drive before you install Windows you need to have the system files installed and the partition made bootable. Otherwise, just type format X:, where X: is your partition, confirm your choice, and sit back and relax while it does all the work.

When the formats are complete, place your Windows 98 CD in the CD ROM and type E: and press Enter to switch to the CD drive. Of course, type whatever the CD ROM drive letter is on your machine, mine is the H: drive. Keep in mind that the drive letter will have changed after you repartitioned. As a rule, the CD will be the first letter after all all your hard drive partitions. It can be a little confusing in DOS to determine if you're in the CD ROM drive. If in doubt about which drive you're in, type DIR and press Enter. You should see the following file listing for Win98, and similar for Win95:



Look over the listing of file and directories. The important one for you is Setup.exe. All you need to do to launch your Windows installation, is type SETUP and press Enter. The installation will do a quick check of your computer and you're on your way.

To upgrade, all you need to do is drop the CD ROM in the tray while in Windows and follow the prompts. You have the option to select whether a number of items will be installed along with Windows. Take a few minutes to look over the list and decide what you do or don't need, but that's about the most complicated part of the installation. Just follow the prompts and you'll be fine.

Before you proceed to the next step, make sure that your installation of Windows 9x or 3.x is stable and healthy. Windows 9x folks should run Scandisk in thorough mode followed by Defrag. Spend a little time looking around and running programs. Install any major updates whether security or reliability related. It's a good idea to use the OS for a few days to make sure everything has settled down after the initial installation. As a final preparation, read the documentation that comes with Windows 2000.

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