[C] From: pbarrette@wilson09.res.iastate.edu (Peter Barrette)
Date: Sat, 3 May 1997 18:48:02 -0500

Recently, I deleted and rebuilt my Windows95 partition. I have decided to
tell you all the story in the hope that it may help some of you (and make
some others laugh).

I have two partitions on my HD. One is the F10 Diagnostics partition
from Compaq which I installed from my original disks when I got my Aero
4/25. I purchased mine used from someone in New York (If you are out there,
thank you) who had taken the precaution of deleting everything and
reinstalling the original software, but must have forgotten about the F10
partition.

My other partition is running Win95. I have been running 95 ever
since I put in a new 540MB HD and upgraded to the Southland Micro 16MB
memory module (for a total of 20MB RAM), but there were several problems.
Most of them due to my fiddling with the Registry, but some due to the
install since it was slightly bootlegged. My floppy never did hotplug
correctly, and power management always seemed like a chore.

So, finally, I decided to delete my main partition and reinstall Win95. 
So, I got my own set of installation disks (that's right, all 29 of them),
FDISK'ed my partition and formatted it. So the steps I followed, in order,
were:

1) Update system Bios using sp1992 (This was done long ago)
2) Create Win95 rescue disk
3) Delete Primary partition using FDISK
4) Create Primary partition using FDISK
5) Boot from floppy using Win95 rescue disk
6) Format HD using "FORMAT C:\"
7) Reboot from floppy using Win95 install disk #1
8) Swap disks for hours while Win95 installs itself
9) Dial in to local ISP and search for: sp0414, sp2646, and sp2035
10) Apply softpaqs in this order: sp0414 - HD powerdown utility
                                  sp2646 - Diagnostics for Windows
                                  sp2035 - Supplemental Programs for W95
                                           (Includes power mgmt., etc.)
11) Tell you all about it.

All my PCMCIA devices (Including my 02XXX floppy) are working and
hotplugging perfectly. I still have the clock advancement problem although
it is very seldom that my Aero is suspended overnight. I usually have it
plugged in or turned off.

From Compaq Diagnostics for Windows:

  Hard Drive 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Type  65 (543.3 Megabyte)
    Cylinders  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1179
    Heads  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
    Sectors per Track  . . . . . . . . .  60

From Chkdsk:

Volume AERO_4-25   created 04-30-1997 2:33p
Volume Serial Number is 106A-15EE

      468,385,792 bytes total disk space
        4,718,592 bytes in 55 hidden files
          753,664 bytes in 90 directories
      152,895,488 bytes in 2,234 user files
      310,018,048 bytes available on disk

            8,192 bytes in each allocation unit
           57,176 total allocation units on disk
           37,844 available allocation units on disk

          655,360 total bytes memory
          590,592 bytes free

peterb