Windows 98SE Restore question...

[CanuckAmok]

Okay, I've had to resurrect this old PC because Acer' Service Department is still monkeying around with my new laptop.

This is an older (4 or 5 yrs?) Celeron 400 with a 4 gig HD and 192megs of ram. Not a powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination.

It's so buggy after years of installing/uninstalling things, that in order to get it to work properly (even the browsers are buggy and slow), I think using the dreaded restore disc is in order.

I've never done this before; I know I'll lose everything, but that's fine. I don't mind spending the rest of the day reinstalling the barebones software I'm going to need on this PC, if it'll work right.

But...I'd like to save my browsers' bookmarks (Netscape and IE), and my Netscape Communicator address book and inbox archive. Where can I find the files/folders which contain these things?

I have a huge external USB2 drive, so I can load gigs and gigs onto it, so what should I save? I've already backed up my documents and important files...

[Occulus]

1. do have have more space

on the USB drive than you do on the desktop hdd? If so, just mirror your hdd to the USB drive, format the desktop, reinstall Windows on it, reconnect your USB drive, and sort at leisure.

[aquart]

7. Oh, that is luxury.

Mirroring. What I wouldn't give for that space. I just reformatted an old Dell with Win 98SE and I had a problem you might want to be aware of if you choose to reformat.

I used fdisk. Reformatted using Fat 32. Did everything right, but Win 98SE still refused to install because it kept insisting I had an unformatted drive. I finally realized that it was mistaking the Zip drive for part of the hard drive. I opened up the case, unplugged the Zip drive, and Win 98SE installed like a dream. I replugged and it found the drive and made nice with it.

I don't know if it will treat a USB drive the same way, but I thought it might help to know.

[Enraged_Ape]

9. Good to know. Thanx for that.

I have an old Dell AND a ZIP drive, so it's nice to have the heads-up about this issue. I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to do a fresh install of Windows 98SE by also swapping out the old 14-gig hard drive for an 80-gig with an 8MB cache. I'm nervous as heck about doing this, but I figure I can always put the old drive back in and restore from the Dell disk if worse comes to worst.

Wish me luck.

[frylock]

12. you magnificant bastard!!

I'm having a little prob with one of my machines at home. I've set it up to dual-boot win9x and 2K with a removable HDD (carriage). I installed 9x on the D drive, and config'd the HDD carriage as primary master (C), so that I can put 2K Server on another removable. Been getting some crazy ass messages that have been driving me nuts. I bet it has to do with my internal ZIP100. Can't wait to get home and try! Thanks for posting!!

[CanuckAmok]

8. how do I "Mirror"--do I need software for that?

I have a 4 Gig HD on the PC, and 120 Gig external drive, so space isn't an issue.

[Enraged_Ape]

10. You would need software if you didn't have enough space...

in order to create an archived copy of everything. Norton Ghost is an example of such software.

But it sounds like you have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to storage space, so I would just use the DOS XCOPY command to move the files and the directory structure from your hard drive (You can Google XCOPY and find a lot better instructions on how to do this than I can give you.)

Good luck. Let us know how this all goes.

[Tripper11]

2. For IE go to File then Import/Export

and then you can export your bookmarks to a floppy. Not sure how Netscape does this, I think it would be essentially the same though. A floppy has ample room for bookmarks. When yoy have reinstalled 98 or whatever you are doing, then just import them back into the browser.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. Found this:

http://www3.ltu.edu/~s_schneider/howto/ie_favorites.shtml

The "Quick and easy" way refers to Windows 2000 locations. In WIndows 98 the pertinent folder MAY be C:\WINDOWS\Favorites.

Edit: Netscape bookmarks reside in a single file named bookmark.htm, I'm not sure of the spelling, search the entire drive for files named "*bookmark*".

[Enraged_Ape]

4. I'm doing this very same thing!!

I agree with kgfnally. If you have the storage space, go ahead and mirror your whole drive, reinstall windows, and pick and choose what you want to bring back from your archives on an as-needed basis.

I have a different problem in that I DON'T have enough storage space, so I'm having to go through on an item-by-item basis and save what I absolutely need ahead of time (Outlook Express .dbx files in Windows\Application Data, saved games, graphics, documents, Palm backups, device driver files and software upgrades, etc.) to ZIP disk and CD-ROM. Believe me, if I had enough storage to just copy the whole hard drive, I would do that. It would be a whole lot easier.

[notadmblnd]

5. re-installing windows98se will not

cause you to loose other applications on your p.c. You might want to run repair on your browser though

[Enraged_Ape]

11. It sounds like he wants to do a clean install...

which would involve reformatting and/or repartitioning the hard drive. This actually would wipe out all his files, but is the one sure way to get rid of all Windows weirdnesses built up over years of installing/uninstalling software and countless other registry changes, bloated temp files, etc.

But if he merely plans to reinstall Windows 98SE over what he has now, then you're right, it shouldn't wipe out his other applications. (It wouldn't do much for performance, though, either.)

It sounds like this is a clean install we're talking about, but correct me if I'm wrong. Nevertheless, it's a good idea to back up the data anyway.

One thing I would do if I had all that storage space: As soon as I had Windows reinstalled with all my applications and everything was stable, I would mirror the whole configuration and save it for a rainy day. I wish I had done that when I first got this system, but I didn't have the storage then.

[kodi]

6. can you copy the site links to a word document and store on a disc?

then when you have reinstalled the operating system load the word document, then click on via hyperlink and go directly to the site, and hit the favorites key to add the sites back as favorites.

it may be a dumb way to do it, and there may be better way to do it, but that is what i did when i had to re-install my operating system last year

[ChoralScholar]

13. .

Your Internet Explorer Bookmarks are in the C:\Windows\Favorites Folder. Your Netscape bookmarks are in the default user directory of the Netscape Directory in a file called bookmarks.htm. (probably C:\Program Files\Netscape\users\default\bookmarks.htm)

Not sure about the address book and inbox archive.

[CanuckAmok]

14. Ye Gods! That was an ordeal!!

One damn thing after another. Forst I found out, upon reboot, that I had the wrong Windows Key Code. Once I got the correct one from the PC manufacturer, I couldn't get my video drivers to install. Since I was running in only 16 colours, I couldn't run many of the other drivers I needed, because their fancy wizard graphics won't open if you don't have "high colour".

Then I found out my video driver was toast, and that there were still some conflicts due to my PC's 1999 configuration (it didn't know how to deal with an ethernet card, USB2.0, etc).

So, defeated, I decided to do what I promised myself I wouldn't...

I took it to a repair shop.

The bad news was that they needed to keep it overnight, but the good news is that it only cost me $40 to get it running crackerjack!

So, now all it's going to run is my browser, Office 97, Winamp, a firewall,and Anti-Virus.

Hopefully, it'll stay alive until my stupid new laptop gets back from the Manufacturer's Warranty Repair Shop, whenever the hell that is!


So...what'd I miss?

[banana republican]

15. I've had similar problems

I just brought a cheap pc to use for playing and surfing on the internet. I have reformated and reinstalled win98 se about three times this year. this is sooo much cheaper than having to send the pc to the shop....