Chapter 1
Preparing for the Windows 98 Installation
IN THIS CHAPTER
- Windows 98 System Requirements
- Preparing Your System: A Checklist
- Some Notes About Dual- (and Multi-) Booting
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
Before you can unleash the power of Windows 98, you need to unleash Windows 98 on your system (or on your users' systems). Still, that's no big deal, right? Don't you just slip the CD-ROM into the drive, run some kind of setup program, and then kick back while Windows handles all the dirty work for you? Well, that might be true if you were installing just another run-of-the-mill application, but you're dealing with your computer's operating system (OS) here. This isn't some dinky little utility you can toss willy-nilly onto your hard drive to check out. Windows 98 is a demanding program that will take over your whole system, so you need to be prepared for the ordeal to come.
Before diving into the deep end of the Windows 98 installation,
you should dip a toe or two into the waters to make sure that you know what's
in store. That's just what you do in this chapter as you explore the setup process
in depth, and as you get yourself and your computer ready for the installation.
Then, in Chapter 2, "From Disc to Disk: Installing
Windows 98," I'll take you through the entire setup procedure, whether
you're installing Windows 98 "clean" or upgrading from another operating
system.
Windows 98 System Requirements
Personal computing is governed by two inexorable, and not unrelated, "laws":
Moore's Law: Processing power doubles every 18 months (from Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel).
Parkinson's Law of Data: Data expands to fill the space available for storage (from the original Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available).
These two observations help explain why, when the computers we use are becoming increasingly powerful, our day-to-day tasks never really seem all that much faster. The leaps in processing power and memory are being matched by the increasing complexity and resource requirements of the latest programs. So the computer you're using today might be twice as muscular as the one you were using a year and a half ago, but the applications you're using are twice the size and require twice as many resources.
Windows fits neatly into this scenario. With each new release of Microsoft's flagship operating system, the hardware requirements become more stringent, and our computers' processing power is taxed a little more. Windows 98 is no exception. Even though Microsoft spent an enormous amount of time and effort trying to shoehorn Windows 98 into a minimal system configuration, you need a reasonably powerful computer if you don't want to spend most of your day cursing the dreaded hourglass icon. (Windows changes your mouse pointer into an hourglass when it's performing a lengthy task that prevents you from using your computer.) Table 1.1 presents a rundown of the minimal and reasonable system requirements you need to install and work with Windows 98.
Table 1.1. System requirements for Windows 98.
System Component
|
What You Need
|
DOS version
|
Minimum: DOS 3.31.
Reasonable: DOS 5.0 or higher. DOS 4.0 was so buggy that you're really taking a chance installing Windows 98 over it.
|
Processor
|
Minimum: 66 MHz 486DX2
Reasonable: Pentium, Pentium MMX, or Pentium II. Note, however, that Pentium Pro systems do not run Windows 98 noticeably faster than other Pentiums running at the same clock speed. The Pentium Pros are optimized for pure 32-bit code (such as you find in Windows NT), and Windows 98 contains enough 16-bit code to prevent any significant speed increases.
|
Memory
|
Minimum: 16MB.
Reasonable: Windows 98 runs much better with 24MB of RAM. For best results, I recommend at least 32MB, with 64MB being the bottom line for the truly impatient.
|
Hard disk free space
|
Minimum: The minimum amount of space required by Windows 98 Setup is 225MB.
Reasonable: A full install of Windows 98 could use up as much as 400MB of hard disk space. (See the following Note box.) Setup may also require another 45-50MB for the backup copies of your system files, and Windows 98 will need 20MB or 30MB for its dynamic swap file.
|
Video
|
Minimum: VGA, 14-inch monitor.
Reasonable: Super VGA, 17-inch monitor. Windows 98 enables you to open and work with many more applications at once than did Windows 3.x. So to maximize screen space, your video card and monitor should be capable of displaying 256 colors at 1024X768 resolution. If you plan on using Windows 98's multimedia features (such as video), a video card that can handle true color (16 million colors) and DirectX is a must. You need to install a second adapter to take advantage of Windows 98's multiple monitor support.
|
Peripherals
|
Minimum: 3 1/2-inch high-density floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, and a mouse (Microsoft or compatible).
Reasonable: If you plan on using The Microsoft Network, Microsoft Fax, HyperTerminal, or any other communications packages, you need a modem or a fax/modem. To take advantage of Windows 98's built-in sound support, you need a sound card and speakers. If you plan on using Windows 98's networking features, your system must have a network interface card installed.
|
|
HARD DISK SPACE
REQUIREMENTS
Here are a few things to keep in
mind when thinking about Windows 98's hard disk requirements:
- These recommendations for hard
disk free space are higher than what Windows 98 actually usurps. They
include about 45-50 extra megabytes that are used by Setup for temporary
files that it creates during the installation process (and deletes when
it's done).
- The actual number of megabytes
required by Windows 98 depends on the installation options you select.
For more information on these options, see the section in Chapter 2
titled "Setup Options."
- Windows 98's disk space requirements
are also a function of the cluster size used on the target partition
(see Chapter 9, "Peformance Tuning: Optimization
Memory and Disk Access").
- You don't have to install Windows
98 on your system's boot drive (usually drive C). If you have a hard
disk partitioned into multiple drives, or if you have multiple physical
disk drives, you can install Windows 98 on any drive. Note, however,
that Setup will install about 3MB of files on the boot drive. (Don't
assume, however, that you can therefore partition your boot drive down
to 3MB. Setup normally uses the boot drive to install its temporary
files, so you really need your boot drive to be at least 15MB. On the
other hand, it is possible to specify a location for Setup's temporary
files. See "Setup's Command-Line
Options" in Chapter 2.)
- Most Windows applications like
to add optional components (such as DLL files, fonts, and Help files)
to either the main Windows directory or Windows's SYSTEM
subdirectory. So even if you install these programs on a different drive,
this extra clutter will still add to the disk space needs of whatever
drive you use to install Windows.
|
In addition to these requirements, your system must also meet the following guidelines:
- Your system's BIOS shouldn't be any older than January 1994. Windows 98 often seems to have trouble with any BIOS older than that.
- Your hard disk must have a DOS FAT (File Allocation Table) partition. Windows 98 doesn't recognize, and therefore can't be installed onto, drives partitioned as NTFS (Windows NT File System) or HPFS (OS/2's High Performance File System).
- If your computer's boot drive is compressed, it must have at least 3MB of uncompressed space available. Windows 98 works with disks that have been compressed with DoubleSpace, DriveSpace, Stacker 3.0 and 4.x, and SuperStor compression schemes.
- If you have the Windows 98 upgrade package, you must either have Windows 3.x installed on your system or have the original installation disks. If you have the full Windows 98 package, your system doesn't need to have an existing operating system.
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