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Win98SE DriveSpace in DOS mode?

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First post, by Harry Potter

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Hi! As you probably already know, I have a Windows 98SE tower at my mother's house, but Windows is not starting up properly. Also, somebody online recently showed me that I can get Windows to clean install without removing the installed programs by deleting the contents of the Windows folder but not its subfolders before reinstalling Windows. If that doesn't work, or if I want to boot to DOS again, how do I use DriveSpace from DOS mode? The driver seemed to load, but I wasn't able to access compressed floppies, and when I tried "drvspace /s," as somebody here suggested, I got a "This program requires Microsoft Windows" error. I prefer Stacker for DOS mode but was unable to get it to run under Windows, as they're incompatible. 🙁 How do I use DriveSpace from DOS? BTW, I'm using a DOS boot disk for now.

Joseph Rose, a.k.a. Harry Potter
Working magic in the computer community

Reply 1 of 2, by darry

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I can't help for Drivespace as I have not used it since the mid 90s and hope to never have to.

For

Also, somebody online recently showed me that I can get Windows to clean install without removing the installed programs by deleting the contents of the Windows folder but not its subfolders before reinstalling Windows.

do keep in mind that at least some programs likely will not work or have issues because

a) dll files that were copied into the Windows directory structure at program installation time will be gone . With necessary dll files missing, programs will error out or crash

b) registry entries that some programs need to run will no longer be there. Some programs will recreate those as needed if missing while others will not and will error out or crash.

Reply 2 of 2, by Harry Potter

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I thank you for your info. Is there a way to keep the mentioned files but restore settings and drivers to factory-default settings? BTW, I accidentally deleted the root folder files the last time I was there. 🙁

Joseph Rose, a.k.a. Harry Potter
Working magic in the computer community

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