IS MAKING BOOTDISKS REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT BEFORE FORMATTING HDD?

i have a problema. is it really really important to make the bootdisks before reformatting the HDD? what do the bootdisks have in them? i've heard that the Windows XP bootdisks just boot of by themselves off the disk. and what is all that about "partition"? wouldn't the partition also get erased when you format the disk? and let me ask you another question. my computer is messed up because some damn command prompt window keeps on coming out saying "virtual memory driver ..........." when i turn on my comp, if i reformat the drive would it stop showing that damn thing?
i've already tried installing windows without formatting but it hasn't stopped coming out. and what does that virtual memory mean anyway? i've transferred a .dll file from another computer to this computer and it didnt fix the problem. i went to the registry and compared both computers and i dont see any difference. what is wrong with it? so a need answers to these questions. oh yeah, another one, in "my computer" i right click on the hard drive and there's an option that says "format drive", can i format the drive that way instead of using the command prompt? well that's all folks. please helpe moi.

 

Nope. I format every couple of months. Just make sure you have everything you need saved on CD before doing it. Make sure to have your windows CD as well ;-)

 

Thank you Oriphus for your information, but i still need more questions answered.

 

If you are installing Win98 SE a boot disk you will need. The CD is crap for direct reconition. But you will only need one disk. If format and instaling Red hat, Win 2000, Win XP or OSX, then boot disk is optional and I would not recommend it. The CD is beter.
If you have one Hard disk, and perform a full format, yes you will lose any partitions you have. Partitions are isolated divisions in your hard drive. So if you have a 120Gb hard drive with C, D, E ete at each various levels which totals 120Gb, then you have partions. If you only have C and it is 120, then you most likly don't have any partions. The vitual memory error will be different when you format and reinstall. But the error is probally coming up because WinXP doesn't think it has enough Virtual memory. this you can set in WinXP in the folling manner.
Start, Control pannel, System, Then in the Advanced tab select Performance settings, Then the Advanced tab, Then at the bottom you will finally see Virtual memory and a Change button. Here you can set it up, down what ever.
What virtual memory is, is an isolated section of your hard disk that WinXp uses to flash out your Ram and refill it with new info. For best performance your virtual memmory should be twice your ram. So 512Mb would have 1024 virtual memory. I have mine set to 768Mb with 512 ram and I don't have any problems. The Virtal memory file can be viewed in the C:/ folder as the pagefile.sys and should be huge. Don't ever delete that file, as it will cause errors. The bigest problem I have with Winxp is it needs a minimum of 256 ram and goes though ram like water. Such a hog.
Hope that helps a bit. My fingers are sore now.

 

My Win 98SE will not install correctly any more. It now sets the Hard disk to automatically shutdown after 30min and will not let me change it. If anyone is thinking about going to Win98 I would not recomend it. RedHat 8.0, I have finally switched to on that computer. So I now don't need a boot disk for any of my systems. I do need to fix OS 8.6 on my mac I got for free. The joy of old systems.

 

Weird, i can install any operating system off the CD. Maybe you guys should check your bios settings.

Virtual Memory, eh?? Huh. Windows crap. Check your cache size.

How the hell did you compare your registry?!! There are millions of entries!!

No, the minumum requirement for XP is 128. Even ran it on a 64 MB, but took like 10 minutes to start up and 3 minutes to log in.

 

Yes if you set Cd rom as first in boot order, then floppy then harddrive, the system will reconize and start to instal Win98. But depending on which batch the Win98SE was stamped it does have some difference. Mine was one of the earliest bought. The newer ones (my brother got in 2000) seem to not work correctly unless you uses a boot disk. The way it access the files is odd and doesn`t create the proper temp drive if you use the cd. But if you make a boot floppy off the same cd, it creates a correct ram temp section and the installation works. Just oddities with batches I think, so tell people to use boot flopy and not ask if there CD has problems.
Also I said WinXP NEEDS 256mb, not that the minimum spec is 256. if you are sadistic you could install it with 8mb and then wait two days to boot. One of my friends upgraded from 128 to 256 and it made a huge huge difference. Microsoft probally just doesn`t want to put 256Mb on the box as no one will buy it.

Sorry for the rant, my coffee supply just now got replenshed.