To all Helpers! I am planing on doing a clean install of win 98, However the hard drive has 3 partitions on it! I want to remove these partitions I have a copy of Partition Magic (4). Can anyone give me any kind of info on using Partition Magic as I do not have any documentation for it, along with some dos instructions on how to get into the mode of 'dos' I need to be in to use Partition Magic. Thanx. If anyone is truly an expert in this area feel free to e~mail me with instuctions. Again Thankyou Keokepup@aol.com P.S. I'm not blonde.

Why don't you use fdisk?

As I was told that I needed to use Partition Magic To remove the partitions! Is this not correct? Can I just use FDisk?

Depends on your plans when installing. Either fdisk or Partition Magic will do the job. The advantage of Fdisk is it's on a floppy - good when everything's gone from the hard drive whereas PM 4 is good in Windows as well as Dos. Decide on how you would prefer your hard drive divided or partitioned. Is it going to be one big partition? Do you want to divide it up in several smaller chunks with each having specific purposes (eg one for personal stuff, one for programs)? Once you have an idea as to what you want, I suggest you use the Win98 setup disk (create it if you haven't got it using the Setup Disk tab in Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel) to "rough out" the main partitions (divisions)on your hard drive. You'll have to format (prepare for use) each partition. Install Windows 98 - even this can require planning depending on what you want to install (eg Fax, networking etc). Afterwards - hours or days later - use Partition Magic to fine tune - and add extra, remove or slide existing partitions around. It is possible to use PM 4 from a floppy - there is a Dos folder somewhere in the PM main folder. Copy the contents across to a floppy. You can make this floppy bootable (Dos 6.22 system files are best because of limited space) or boot(start) with another floppy and then change over. Type PQMAGIC and you're away. This version even comes with a built in mouse driver. With PM 4 the help menu is sufficient (I think) to help overcome all but really major problems. Even the Dos version has a limited help menu. Trust this hasn't created too many more questions. Just recapping, Plan - even roughly - how you want to partition your hard drive. Use Fdisk on the Win98 Setup disk to do the major partitioning. Format the partitions. Install Windows 98 Use Partition Magic to make any alterations without having to start way back at scratch.

Well wasn't that last one fun??? USE FDISK! The only reason you would use PM is in cases where FDISK comes up short. FDISK can't resize partitions, doesn't do a good job of repairing partitions, and PM was usefull before FAT32 when it was needed if you wanted to use all of your hard drive rather than just the small portion FAT16 supported. PM is still necessary for some things, but it's rarely needed in cases like yours. Just use FDISK from a boot floppy and follow the on screen prompts, it is quite easy. If you have any questions, email me.