Here's that article
Windows 98 practically demands purchase of a
larger hard disk
If you're thinking about upgrading to Windows 98, you might also be
thinking about making another upgrade -- getting a larger hard disk.
The new version of Microsoft's operating system, due in stores before
June 25, takes up a lot of real estate -- some 200 megabytes of disk
space for a typical installation.
My beta copy of Windows 98 was lying around for a few weeks
because my three-year-old hard disk was too full to load it.
So, tempted by one of those rebate offers from CompUSA, I bought a
4.3-gigabyte hard drive to replace my 1.2-gigabyte drive. I thought the
changeover would be relatively painless, since I had installed hard drives
before. But I didn't know what I was in for.
First, my plan was to replace the new drive with my current one, make
sure it was working properly, and then upgrade to Windows 98. But the
directions that came with the hard drive presented the first roadblock. It
said my version of Windows 95 did not support disk drives over 2.1
gigabytes.
I had installed one of the first versions of Windows 95, amid all the hype
surrounding that product launch nearly three years ago. But a few months
after its initial release, Microsoft quietly issued a newer version of
Windows 95, often referred to as ''OSR 2,'' only to computer
manufacturers. It corrected a lot of bugs and made other improvements,
including support for drives like my new one. Microsoft didn't offer an
upgrade to OSR 2.
There were two options. One was to ''partition'' the drive. That is, divide
it into two or more sections, and the computer would pretend each one
was a separate hard drive. In other words, a single disk drive could have
three partitions, and the computer would treat them as three different disk
drives, called C,D and E. But my system already had a second drive
called D, so that option would screw up all the references in Windows to
programs already stored on the D drive.
(Later in my Web travels, I discovered a free utility from PC Magazine
that addresses the reference problem. More information is below.)
The other option was to upgrade to Windows 98 first, and then install the
new hard drive, since that operating system does support hard drives
over 2.1 gigabytes. That seemed to be the way to go.
Then of course there was the chicken-and-egg problem. My current hard
drive was full so I had to delete and transfer files to make enough space
for Windows 98.
Fortunately, the upgrade was simpler and less eventful than that of
Windows 95. But it wasn't without pain. The video driver didn't get
installed properly, but that was rectified by reinstalling the software that
came with the video card.
Next the new hard drive was plugged in to the computer and formatted
according to the instructions that came with it.
Now the challenge: make a mirror image of everything on the current C
drive and copy it to the new one. It seemed like a simple task, not much
more difficult than duplicating a floppy disk, I figured.
Wrong. It seems you can't simply copy all the files from one hard disk to
another using Explorer because Windows won't let you copy system files
that are in use.
What next? I found an interesting program that sounded perfect: it's
called ''Ghost'' and it makes a mirror copy of one hard drive onto
another. After an hour of trying that, another glitch. The program did
work as advertised. However, it divided the hard drive into two
partitions -- just what I was trying to avoid.
Finally, a search through various Internet news groups yielded the
solution. It wasn't pretty.
It came from Microsoft's Web site in the form of Article ID: Q166172,
''Duplicating Windows 95 Installation to a New Hard Disk.'' The eight
pages of instructions came with plenty of scary disclaimers: ''The
WARNING designation is placed before procedures in which a mistake
in following instructions can cause serious data loss.''
The instructions were convoluted and jumped back and forth between
sections. Basically, the procedure Microsoft recommended was to back
up your current hard drive, replace it with the new hard drive (which
would still be empty), then reinstall Windows all over again. That detail
was mentioned almost in passing in the instructions, but it requires an
hour or more of sitting in front of the computer and answering silly
questions like, What time zone are you in? This was ridiculous since I had
already installed Windows 98.
After backing everything up, I plugged in the new drive. But before I
could reinstall Windows, my CD-ROM drive no longer worked. I had to
locate the original disk that came with the drive and reinstall that before
the CD-ROM would function.
After Windows was once again installed, I restored the old data onto the
new drive. Finally, success. After several hours of studying, formatting,
partitioning, backing up and reinstalling, I had finally ended up pretty
much where I started, except I had a whole lot more disk space.
After that experience, I have to scratch my head and wonder whether
Microsoft could have dreamed up a better way. With hard drive prices
lower than they've ever been and dropping, along with disk space-hungry
Windows 98 coming out, more and more people are sure to be
upgrading hard drives.
Microsoft likes to point out that its products have gotten better and
cheaper over the past few years. That is true in many cases, but this is
one example of a gaping hole in its flagship product.
So you see window 98 will not make life easier to start for the computer Dummies who tries to update it themselves. |
