Of course, this begs the question, "Why put Windows 98 on when you can go to XP?" and the answer there is that I'm talking about a vintage 1998 box that simply won't take Windows XP as it's too under-powered and some of the hardware devices may not be fully compliant. This box is the one I use for basic e-mailing, etc. so doesn't need to be overly high spec.
So if you find yourself with an old Windows 98 box and feel you can get a bit more life out of it before taking it to the tip, here is what you need to do!
The procedure is broken up into a number of stages. Bear in mind that most of this would also work if you were upgrading to a newer version of Windows than 98 (such as Windows 2000 or XP). If you do go for a newer version of Windows (recommended), then you need to make sure that all your hardware will be compliant with the proposed version of Windows before you start anything else.
With no further ado, here we go:
Phase 1: Preparation
- If you're upgrading to a newer version of Windows, make sure your box is powerful enough to take it. For example, see here for the minimum specification required to run XP Professional. Although this old box of mine could easily take it judging by those specs, I really wouldn't want to try it. Also, you need to check Microsoft's Hardware Compatibility List for your chosen version of Windows to make sure that all your devices will work after the upgrade.
- Save your e-mail address book if it's one stored locally on your PC. If you're unsure how to do this, check the Help for your address book's program. It will probably be listed under "export" and "import". Save the exported address book into a folder that you will be burning to CD-R later on.
- Locate ALL your original disks that came with your system plus any CDs that came with any hardware that was retrofitted. This will include things such as your original Windows CDs, your sound and video card drivers, and any internal and external hardware you might have (e.g. digital cameras, external drives, printers, scanners, etc). Also any other purchased software along with their licence keys, where applicable (for example WordPerfect, if you prefer that over Microsoft Word). Make sure you round them all up into once place and that not one that you will need is missing.
- If you are missing any drivers, search for them on the Web and download them. Save them to floppy or to CD .... if you save them to your hard drive they'll be lost when you wipe it!
- Make a note of or save your Favourites so you can restore them afterwards. Some people have literally thousands of these!
- Note any programs that you might need to reinstall that were downloaded from the Net. For example, if you use a freeware antivirus scanner, Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware, IrfanView, Ewido Anti-Malware, software firewall (e.g. ZoneAlarm), etc. You might want to save the setup wizards for the most recent versions, or just make a note of them for redownloading. If required, in the case of the software firewall, I'd definitely recommend having this saved onto a disk ready for immediate installation rather than redownloading it from the Internet after the rebuild.
- If you can, get the Microsoft updates onto a CD so they can be applied as soon as possible after the rebuild. They can be quite chunky to download from Windows Update! Especially Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2); this is available for free from Microsoft to Windows XP users. All you have to pay for is the disk itself. Enquire at your local PC store.
- Locate all your important document folders and ensure you have an up-to-date backup of all of them on CD-R. Do not use CD-RW as these seem to have a shorter lifespan and in my experience seem to be less reliable. Use as many CDs as necessary and label each one clearly using CD-R pens and not stickers. If when scanning your folders determining which ones to save, if you're in doubt as to whether any given one needs to be saved, save it. Murphy's Law states that if you don't, you'll definitely need it. But the same law also dictates that if you do save it, then it won't be needed any more. Take your pick as to which version of that inexorable law you want to see obeyed!
- Make a note of all your dial-up connections details. For each one, you need at the telephone number, login, and password. You've probably got only one of these for your dial-up Internet connection, but there could be more if you need to connect to other servers or 'hosts'.
- Make a note of your Broadband connection settings, if necessary. This will probably be the connection name, user name, and password. The phone number will probably be blank or a zero.
- Make a note of all your e-mail send/receive account settings in your e-mail client software, if you use such programs as Outlook or Outlook Express. You need the send/receive server settings, and the logins and passwords. Note that your anti-virus software will have probably tinkered with these settings, so may be worth uninstalling your AV before noting these so they are reverted to what they would have been before you set them up, or working out what they would have been before the AV messed about with them. If you do uninstall your AV or get it to reset your e-mail settings, then it's inadviseable to use the Internet until you've re-instated it after the rebuild!
- Make a note of all your FTP (File Transfer Protocol) settings if you upload to websites, etc. If you don't maintain a website or don't know what FTP is, then don't worry about this step.
- Make a note of any other special settings you have on your system. For example, I have a number of file types that can be opened with an editor by way of right-clicking on the file's icon. Note all these down so you can set them up easily afterwards without having to work them out all over again. Another one might be message rules or filters - if you use message rules to sort incoming e-mail into folders and for helping identify spam (as I do), then you might need to note down these or save them if possible.
- Double-check you have got EVERYTHING you need off your system prior to reformatting your hard drive. Once you've started the reformat, there will be no turning back! You're committed, whether you like it or not!
Phase 2: Wiping the Hard Disk
- Make sure you have a boot-up floppy disk and that the format and fdisk commands are available on it.
- Power down the PC and disconnect all USB devices, if any.
- If there is any new hardware you wish to add or some hardware you wish to remove, now is a good time to do it. You may want to add a larger Hard Disk than your original one, and if so you'll need to make a note of any jumper setting etc. that may need to be altered. Consult the drive's documentation.
Power your PC down, DISCONNECT FROM THE MAINS SUPPLY, and remove the cover. Take out any now-unwanted hardware and insert any newly-required hardware. This will be PCI devices more than anything else. This way, when Windows is rebuilt, these devices will get set up at installation time or shortly afterwards. Replace the cover and reconnect the mains. - Boot up from the startup floppy. If you wish to repartition your hard drive, now is a good time to do it using fdisk. Most users will probably not need to do this, but now is a good time to do so if required. Reset your PC by powering off and back on again afterwards and boot up again from the startup floppy if you did anything here.
- Format your hard drive by issuing the format c: command; do a full format and not a quick one as this will be more thorough, will erase all your old data, and check drive integrity also. Acquire a receptacle of your favourite beverage and call a long-lost friend while the formatting takes place. Note that the file system for Windows 98 is FAT32 whereas for XP it's NTFS. Make sure you format the disk correctly! Please see here for further information on the Fdisk and Format commands.
- When this has finished, reset the PC by powering off and back on again. Your hard drive is now wiped and is ready to have Windows reinstalled onto it.
Phase 3: Reinstalling and Updating Windows
- If your machine is powered down, power it back up with the installation floppy in the drive.
- Install Windows using the original Microsoft Windows CD. Follow the prompts as the installation proceeds. Although you'll be playing the waiting game here more than anything else, I'd advise waiting it out as there's nothing worse than disappearing for 1/2 an hour only to return and find that your PC has spent that time waiting for further input from you! In most cases, you can leave the Windows defaults as they are prompted, but you will probably wish to personalise such things as name of this computer, etc. Once installation is complete, you may be asked to register your copy of Windows. You can either do this now or later, but you will almost certainly need to have a dial-up modem installed.
- Make sure your dial-up modem / broadband modem / router hardware is installed; use the supplied instructions to do this. This is to get you onto the Internet so you can collect Microsoft updates. But don't install any other hardware devices at this stage other than the PCI hardware inside your PC. Most of this will have been installed with Windows, but there may be some devices that were not detected.
- Does your modem / router contain a firewall? If not, then install your software firewall at this stage. Attackers only need to see an Internet connection to get you, even if you're not using the Web! Microsoft updates are pretty huge downloads, and there is plenty of time for an attacker to compromise your system during the downloading. I've seen it happen. If your modem / router does contain a firewall, you can omit this step as your new Internet connection will be firewalled and thus safe enough from attackers, at least for now anyway. The firewall and possibly your modem / router drivers are the ONLY 3rd party software you should install at this stage; not even a 3rd party browser is to be installed yet!
- Set up your best Internet connection and visit Microsoft Windows Update using Internet Explorer. Scan for updates, and install the critical security patches and service packs. You may well find that some are preselected for you and that they must be installed separately from other updates. This is normal. Install the critical ones first. You'll probably have to reboot after the installation - reboot as instructed if so.
- After the reboot, go back to Windows Update to get more critical service packs and security updates. This will be an "iterative" process, and you'll probably have to do this a number of times. Don't worry if the number of critical service packs goes UP after any given installation, as the extra software brought on board will have its own set of patches that can only be applied after installation. This is normal.
- Once you have all the critical patches and security updates, choose from the optional ones and install the ones you want from there. For instance, Windows Media Player might be an optional one as might the Microsoft .NET framework. Only choose those ones you had before and/or those ones you know you will find useful - none of these are essential. Once again, some may require separate installation from the others.
- If you do download any optional components, you may find that there are some more critical and security updates to download. If so, download these as they will patch known vulnerabilities in your extra downloaded software. At the end of this process, the number of security and critical updates available for your PC must be zero. Keep visiting Windows Update until this is the case. Make sure you reboot after the final installation, even if it not required., and double-check that there no further critical patches required for your system.
- Optional step: Take an image onto CD-R at this stage. If anything goes wrong with following installations or you want to reinstall again, then restoring from a saved image on CD-R will save a LOT of time. Just copy the entire contents of your C: drive onto as many CD-Rs as required.
Phase 4: Reinstalling External Hardware and 3rd Party Software
- Now install your external hardware devices. Follow thw instructions; for Windows 98 you often have to install software from a supplied CD BEFORE you connect the device, but check the instructions as this is not always so. For each USB device, locate the instructions and follow them, exactly as you would have done when you first installed that particular device. Also install any legacy hardware as well (such as parallel printers and scanners, if your system is that old). At this stage, you may also want to install photo editing software, etc. that may have come with your scanner / printer / digital camera, and/or the CD/DVD creating software that came with your CD/DVD burner (if you have one). Reboot after each hardware device is inatalled, even if not asked for by their respective wizards.
- Test each hardware device after installation to ensure it is working correctly.
- Install any other 3rd party software you may require. For instance, if you prefer WordPerfect over Word, you may find yourself installing WordPerfect at this stage. Same goes for any 3rd party browser you might wish to use such as FireFox. Install anything else such as editors, etc. that you may use. Install all your security software at this stage: software firewall (if not already installed and if required), anti-virus package, anti-spyware packages. Reboot after each one is installed, even if not asked for by their respective wizards.
- Optional step: Take another image onto CD-R at this stage. If anything goes wrong with following installations or you want to reinstall again, then restoring from a saved image on CD-R will save a LOT of time. Just copy the entire contents of your C: drive onto as many CD-Rs as required.
Phase 5: Reconfiguring the way you like it
- Apply any tweaks here, such as customised right-click menu options to allow certain file types to be opened with specified software easily. In my case, I have a little editor utility which I like to use for editing files of type txt, php, css, and htm, so I set a right-click menu option up to allow me to open those file types with that editor.
- Restore your Favourites if you had them saved.
- Restore your e-mail address book and configure your e-mail software to send and receive e-mail. Make sure it is set up to pass all incoming and outgoing e-mail through your virus scanner! Your anti-virus package may be able to configure it automatically for you.
- For users of Outlook Express, you may be interested in the following settings that I have different from the defaults, partly for security reasons and partly for personal preference:
- Turn the Preview Pane off. The Preview Pane, although a nice feature in and of itself, has the property that it opens the highlighted e-mail and if this proves to be a spam with malicious code embedded in it, the chances are the malicious code will try and install itself. Turning it off prevents this possibility unless you double-click on the mail (you can spot most spams from the sender and subject line alone). Go to View >> Layout on Outlook Express and uncheck Show Preview Pane in the 'Preview Pane', click Apply and exit with OK.
- Turn the Info Pane off. This is more personal preference than anything else. Again, in Outlook Express, go to View >> Layout and uncheck Info Pane in the 'Basic' section. For me, this is simply a feature I don't use so it may as well not be there.
- From time to time people will send attachments you want to get your hands on, and you won't want OE to remove access to these for you!! To get shot of that message, OE removed access to the following unsafe attachments in your mail, go to Tools >> Options and click on the Security tab. Uncheck Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus. Click on Apply and OK out of that window.
- Turn the Preview Pane off. The Preview Pane, although a nice feature in and of itself, has the property that it opens the highlighted e-mail and if this proves to be a spam with malicious code embedded in it, the chances are the malicious code will try and install itself. Turning it off prevents this possibility unless you double-click on the mail (you can spot most spams from the sender and subject line alone). Go to View >> Layout on Outlook Express and uncheck Show Preview Pane in the 'Preview Pane', click Apply and exit with OK.
- Reconfigure your e-mail software to take it back to the way you like it; signature, background stationery, message rules (filters), etc. You may have some saved data from the preparation phase to help you restore your original settings here.
- Reset your Desktop to the way you like it - wallpaper, etc.
- Restore any other settings the way you want them.
- Now you're ready to go!
I developed that procedure when rebuilding my Windows 98 box, and as I see it most of it should hold good if upgrading to a more recent OS and you want to do a clean build rather than a direct upgrade.
As a result, it's a tried and tested procedure and should save you hours if you decide to rebuild.
