First post, by Ultrax
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My 486 battlestation (a Compaq Presario 425, for those curious) has been in need of a new OS for some time now. I have never reinstalled Windows since I got it.
...
However, just a few minutes ago, I snagged a WFW 3.11 disk set off eBay. And so it begins...
I plan on installing this copy of WFW 3.11 on it not because I want to, but because I need to. The current install is so messy that I can't even get digital sound to work with my sound card within Windows. It's some crap within win.ini. There's loads of crap installed and it takes around 15 to 25 seconds to fully start and the hard drive is churning through all of those seconds. It's time for a reinstall. Plus, I wish to use it on my offline LAN for file sharing, something 3.1 cannot do, or at least without some intense screwing around.
I want to keep the install of MS-DOS that I have. My plan is, to take everything I wish to keep, and move it into a special folder directly on my C drive. Then, begin installing WFW 3.11 from the floppies. I need to know, however:
-Will win.ini (among other config stuff) be cleared? It's one of my primary issues (digital sound not working, hardware finnicky, etc.)
-If I put important (games, documents, midis, etc.) stuff in the C directory, Windows won't mess with it, right? I'd assume Windows would only delete stuff within the WINDOWS folder. Formatting the C drive is something I can only do with MS-DOS disks.
-Will it cleanly install WFW 3.11? Remember, 3.1 is already installed.
-Does it absolutely nuke the Windows folder?
I tested in a VM, and it lets me install two ways: over the current version of Windows, or as a different installation entirely. If I installed it in a different folder and changed the PATH in autoexec like it says, would that work? The old installation I could switch back to at any time.
If not, I'd need to uninstall tons of drivers, remove/move a bunch of stuff, then finally deltree C:\windows.
I'm diddling around in a VM for the time being. It will take some time for the floppies to get here.
I'll make an effort to clean up what I can before I perform the installation. Answers to these questions and any advice is most definitely appreciated! 😀
Ultrax
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Presario 425|DX2-50|8MB|SB V16S|D622/WFW3.11 😎
Deskpro XE 450|DX2-50|32 MB|NT4.0/95
SR2038X|Athlon 64 X2 3800|2G|GT710 WINXP
Dimension 4400|P4 NW 2 GHz|256M|R128U AGP|WINXP
HPMini311|N270|2G|9400M|WINXP
Libretto50CT|P75|16MB|YMF711|WIN95 😎