[NYC GOP Chick]

I've installed and formatted my hard drive, but never did the partition thing.

[XBob]

partitioning your hard drive is relatively easy, and very dangerous - you erase all your data.

normally, you use the dos command, FORMAT (search your C: drive for FORMAT.COM)

but, it used to be, if you don't partition it first, you would lose everything already on it. with the latest versions, I don't know.

Partitioning is dividing up one hard drive into two or more hard drives, which are the addressed separately.

For example, you probably have an A: drive - the floppy, a C: drive, you hard drive, and then the D: drive, the CD (or something similar. Partitioning your C: drive, say 40GB, into 2ea 20GB drives, and your C drive becomes a 20GB, your D: drive is a 20GB, your CD becomes E: drive, etc.

I always partition my main hard drive, and put all my data on my D: drive (that way, if I screw up my C: drive, my data is not gone - unless there is a real physical problem with my hard drive), and also, when I screw up I can re-format my C: drive, reinstall all my applications, and still have my data, safe.

the best bet is to buy a program called Partition Magic:

http://www.westgatemedia.com/products/part_magic8.html

[Revel]

If you have a stand alone AGP card then you should be able to upgrade your video if you want to. If it does not get you the results you need then you can transfer the card over to a new system if you build one. The best bang for the buck is the ATI radeon series. It is also the most all around compatable card in my opinion. Other cards like Geoforce may be ahead in some areas, but lack in others. Radeons come in many varietys. Staples sells a cheaper 32MB DDR card for about $49.00. And they go up from there. Even this card would be an improvent for you. But if you are going all out then go for at least 64MB. You can find a 9000 series for about $115 here: NewEgg

What brand is your hard drive ? Both Maxtor and Western digital have free programs that will partition(Via volumes) for you with there brand of drive.

Windows 98 does not manage large amounts of memory well. That is one of greatest arguments for updating to XP. Of course there a whole lot of reasons not too.

[mdmathis6]

maxtors max blast sotware for formatting drives will also partition the drive for you as well in any flavor you choose. Besure to format to ntfs if you are installing winxp