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Almost Everything You Need to Know About Your
Packard Bell Computer
Formatting OSR2 with Fat 32
This page tells you how I formatted my hard drive with Fat 32 on Windows
OSR 2. This was the procedure I used after I installed my
new hard drive and again after I upgraded my BIOS to Mr. BIOS.
Remember the procedure will be different for Fat 16 and other versions
of Windows, but at least the article will give you some idea as to what
is involved. The following has been
modified from it's source, this is a standard procedure so it is hard
to modify the text too much, but I did my best of using my own words.
When to use Fat 32
If you have Fat 32 I would recommend using it, since Fat 32 has many
benefits. These benefits include the ability to use the space on
your hard drive more efficiently and allowing you to make large partition.
However, FAT 32 partition can ONLY be created under these conditions:
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Your hard drive MUST be greater than 512 MB in total capacity,
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The partition size you will create must be greater than 512 MB, and
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You MUST answer "Yes" when FDISK prompts:
Do you wish to enable large
disk support? Y or N
NOTE: If you answer NO to
this question a FAT 16 partition(s) will be created.
How to partition a
hard drive via Windows 95B FDISK Utility
Before you begin you will need your Windows 95 start up disk and your
Windows 95 installation disk. These should be included on your master
CD. Or maybe you are like me and you are using a version of Windows
95 that is not supplied by Packard Bell, then you will have your own copy
of Windows 95.
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Start with your computer off and place your Windows 95B Setup Diskette
in the A drive. Now Boot the PC.
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You will now see a "Welcome to Setup" screen, welcoming you to the setup
program. However, you will now need to exit this program and get
to an A:, this can be done by pressing the [F3] function key twice.
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Now you need to Type "FDISK" and then press the [Enter] key.
This will prompt you with:
Do you wish to enable large
disk support? Y or N
NOTE: A FAT 16 partition(s)
will be created if users answer "NO" to this question.
-
If you want Fat 32 Type "Y" for yes and press the [Enter]
key. This will then give you the FDISK Options Menu on the screen.
NOTE: If there is one hard
drive installed, a 4 (four) option menu will appear and if there is MORE
than one hard drive in the system, a 5 (five) option menu will appear.
If the hard drive is DEVICE 0 (zero), continue on to step 5. Do
the following if the hard drive being installed is OTHER than Device 0):
-
Type 5 for "Change current fixed drive" and press the [Enter]
key. At this point the Change current fixed drive menu will appear on the
screen.
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From the Change current fixed drive menu, type the appropriate number
that corresponds with the hard drive (e.g., if the drive is device 1, type
the number "2") and press the [Enter] key.
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At this point another 5 option menu will appear on the screen. Proceed
to step 5.
-
Highlight option 4 for "Display Partition Information" and press
the [Enter] key. The user should be prompted with:
No Partitions Defined
NOTE: ALL existing
partitions must be deleted before continuing.
! WARNING ! This will delete
ALL existing data on the hard drive.
-
Now press the [ESC] key to return to the FDISK options menu.
-
You should highlight option 1 to "Create DOS partition or Logical
DOS drive" and press the [Enter] key.
-
Then highlight option 1 to "Create Primary DOS Partition" and press
the [Enter] key.
-
After FDISK verifies the drive integrity, it will prompt the user with:
Do you wish to use the maximum
available size for a Primary DOS Partition and make the Partition active
(Y/N)?
-
Type "Y" for yes and press the [Enter] key. This step will
give you one large partition for your entire drive.
-
Press the [ESC] key when prompted with:
You must restart the system
for changes to take effect. Press the ESC key to exit FDISK and remove
the floppy diskette in drive A:.
Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot
the computer.
-
Press the [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[Del] keys to reboot the PC.
You have now partitioned the hard drive and you next need to format the
hard drive. Follow the instructions in the next section to continue
on with the formatting.
Formatting your hard drive
with the Windows 95B FORMAT Utility
-
Your PC is now rebooting after partitioning the hard drive, make sure the
the Windows 95B Setup Diskette is still in the A drive.
-
Again you will boot into the set up utility, so again you need to Press
the [F3] function key twice to exit at the "Welcome to Setup" screen.
-
Type "FORMAT {drive letter}:" and press the [Enter] key to
format your hard drive. You will then be prompted with:
"WARNING all data on non
removable
disk drive {drive letter}:
will be lost
proceed with format? Y/N"
-
If it is the correct drive Type "Y" for yes and press the
[Enter] key. Once you hit enter the format utility will then prepare the
specified hard drive for use with the Windows 95B operating system.
Now your drive will need the operating system installed on it.
Installing Windows 95B
This is the method I used to install Windows 95B from my zip disk.
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Once the drive has been partitioned and formatted run the GUEST
utility that comes with your zip drive.
-
Now copy your Windows 95 files to a directory on the new drive. Call
the directory something like cab files or winsetup.
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Run SETUP from the directory you just created. SETUP can also
be done right from a zip disk, eliminating the need to create a directory.
This idea of creating an entire directory with your full copy of Windows
95 on it is a great idea. This will prevent you from having to find
the proper disk or CD every time you need to load a driver or make changes
to Windows 95.
Packard Bell has done exactly this on some of its systems; check out
your C drive and see if you can find it. If you ever need to reinstall
Windows 95 you can run the setup right from your hard drive.
After the Installation
After your Windows 95 is setup you will need to reinstall all the drivers
and software. This is actually the more difficult part of the whole
ordeal.
Most of the components were detected. However, the modem was detected
only when I tried to use it. The video (Stealth II S220), monitor
and sound drivers I had to get and install. It is a good idea to
download these files before you begin this process.
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I got the sound card drivers from www.windrivers.com
as they explain the sound cards better than Packard Bell. I also
used this site since I can never find the sound card drivers on my Master
CD.
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The video card drivers I got directly from Diamond
MM as there were new drivers out that I wanted to install.
-
The monitor drivers I got from Packard
Bell, it is a file in its download section titled PBMON.exe.
This file allows Windows 95 to detect all Packard Bell Monitors.
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