re-install Win95
dsu...@gladstone.uoregon.edu
with suspend. Could you tell me how I should
back up my files, and what are the possible changes
or information lost?
My computer is a personal computer, Compaq.
Thnak you,
Donna
micr...@oregon.uoregon.edu
some backup software. A decent program that I've used is called Backup
Exec from Seagate. I've seen this software for around $89.00 in
catalogues. You can use Backup Exec to backup your data to tape, ZIP
drives, JAZ drives, optical drives and PD/CD drives. Oftentimes this
software comes with tape drives when purchased.
Another option is to do something like this:
* Purchase an external media device like an Iomega JAZ or ZIP drive. These
hold 100-200 MB and up to 2 GB on the JAZ drives depending on the model you
purchase.
* Find all the files you need that have original data (word processing
documents, graphics you've created, spreadsheets, databases, Quicken files,
etc.), and copy these files over to a ZIP or JAZ drive.
* You may want to copy over configuration files as well. This is harder.
One option is to create an Emergency Startup disk. To do this open the
Control Panels, double-click on the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel and
click on the "Startup Disk" tab. Click the "Create Disk..." button to get
started. This will give you 1 or 2 floppies that you can use to start your
machine if things go wrong. Note, under Windows 95 you may not have access
to your CD-ROM if you use this disk. This is a problem since Windows 95 is
likely to be on a CD-ROM, so it can be hard to install if you cannot access
your CD-ROM drive from a DOS prompt.
* If you do backup your data files to a JAZ or ZIP drive, or a bunch of
floppies, you could then do the following:
- Run the Windows 95 installation program from inside Windows 95.
Do this by inserting the Windows 95 CD-ROM in your machine and running
SETUP from within the WIN95 directory on the CD.
- The installer will note that you already have Windows 95
installed and, depending on your Windows 95 version, even ask if you would
like to re-install Windows 95 on top of itself.
- In all cases re-installing Windows 95 should simply replace all
Windows 95 files that can be replaced without causing problems. This will
often solve problems due to corrupted files. The re-install should not
replace any of your settings files.
In reality we have done this numerous times. After re-installing Windows
95 things usually look *almost* exactly the same. We've noted that the
following can happen:
- Some programs may need to be re-installed. They may just fail to
run properly. If you have the original program CDs this is not much of a
problem.
- Some settings may change and/or your Desktop may look a bit
different.
Overall, however, re-installing Windows 95 is generally a good technique
for resolving problems that are difficult to diagnose. The gotcha is if
the problem is in your System Registry (this might be the case with the
suspend problem). A re-install of Windows 95 will not clean up your
Registry file.
A final note - The Microsoft Web site has a large database of on-line
technical documents that may answer any questions you have about your
suspend problem. If you go to the following Web address:
http://www.microsoft.com/Support/
and click the "Support Online" link you can gain access to the Microsoft
Knowledge Base. The first time you access you are required to fill in
personal information, but it's actually worth it. You can then query the
database about "Suspend" problems, or query it using any text from error
messages you are receiving and see if Micrsoft has a document describing
your particular problem. This is the same database that Microsoft
technicians use when answer questions on the phone.
Best of luck with the process!
Sincerely,
Microcomputer Services at microhelp@oregon
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mlat...@oregon.uoregon.edu
One other item I would add to our previous response:
Check the CDs that came with your Compaq to make sure you really have a
Windows 95 CD. Some manufacturers bundle Windows 95 into a Recovery
CD/Windows 95 Companion CD that you cannot use to directly reinstall
Windows 95. The approach with these CDs is usually that you must run a
recovery process that will reinstall Windows 95 and all applications that
came with your computer, and possibly wipe out any subsequent applications
you installed. While this might get your computer back up and running
faster (because it basically doesn't worry about what is wrong, it simply
resets the computer to the state it was in when you bought it) it will also
require you to reinstall many if not all of the applications to have added
to the computer since initial purchase.
If you have a Recover CD or Windows 95 Companion CD and not simply a
Windows 95 CD you might want to check through the manuals that came with
your computer on how to reinstall Windows 95 or give Compaq technical
support a call to get the specific steps required to reinstall Windows 95
on your computer.
Sincerely,
Matthew Latterell for microhelp@oregon
(When responding please reply to microhelp@oregon and not the original sender)
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* Answers to microcomputer related questions. Please send responses *
* to MICROHELP@OREGON. Next time try our Microservices Help Form at *
* http://micro.uoregon.edu/microemailhelp.html *
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
* We are located in the Microcomputer Support Center (202 Computing *
* Center). Normal hours are Monday - Friday, 10 AM to 5 PM, 346-4412. *
* World Wide Web is available at http://micro.uoregon.edu *
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