Someone gave me a computer, it hadn't been working right (possibly had a trojan) and they bought a new one. That's why I'm not sure of the RAM (64 I think). I also found it had 2 hd in it, something I'd never experienced before. Both are the same size, and I've now disabled one in settings, leaving the primary master. It was confusing because they were D and D, making the CD-ROM drive F during the install. I tried 4 times yesterday, to format the hd and reinstall WIN 98 (I have a full intall CD, which I've used on oher pcs) When I first got it, it wouldn't go past the first WIN logo, an error box would come up saying there was no mouse (there was). So, I started out with the bootup disk and formatting it. Wanted to anyway, because of the possible virus. I couldn't get it on, to run a virus scan and find out for sure. The instal will go all the way through, till after the "Thank you for using WINDOWS", then when the indicator comes up (on pale Aqua screen) saying "copying files" it gets to 5% and starts bringing up error boxes saying the file is missing and can't be found and to insert the CD (WIN98) I do this, but can't get the path to go to the CD ROM. Apparently all the files and drivers aren't on the hd, or in the right place (it looks on C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\PRECOPY). When I went through the insall wizard, I just left it as "typical" because I didn't know where else to instal it, and I've done this with other computers and it found them fine. I end up skipping the missing files and then cancelling it and while WIN will come on, important things don't work. LIke dial up network adaptor, and modem. It says at the start files are missing. I think most, maybe all of the files and drivers don't get copied, and not sure they are even there. I started writing down the names but there are too many (probably all) like system.ini, vnetbios.vxd, mgallX64.dll, mgallX32.dll, etc.etc. I read somewhere to copy the files from the CD (at the start) to the hd and run it from there. I don't know enough of DOS to know what I'm doing. I tried following the instructions (I found for this) and got the files saved (it suggested naming it WinCabs) but then couldn't find them after. All I usually get is "bad command file name". I've also read about saving the WIN 98 install disk to the hd and running it from there, all in dos? I'm not sure the CD ROM drive is working good (since I didn't have this computer when it was being used and the previous owners say they never used the CD ROM so don't know) I have other computers I can take the CD ROM drive out of and put it in, but I've never done this and would like to avoid it now if there's another way. If there is a way to save the install CD using DOS and run it that way, could someone please write it out (exactly) for me, or point me to a website that has this? I've been putting things in SEARCH and looking all over and asking every where I can. I'm a great-grandmother, fairly new to computers, and really interested in learning to fix them up (just to learn it). But, I end up getting tired and frustrated when I try and do something that doesn't work and I keep trying different things to figure it out. Thanks, Carrie

Did you check your Windows 98 CD to make sure there were no scratches/dings/fingerprints/etc. that could make it stop copying? I've tried to install Windows before just to be hampered with a CD gone bad. If this isn't the case, When it asks you for the path where the files are (Where you entered 'C:\Windows\System\Precopy\' try instead 'C:\Windows\Options\Cabs' where the Cabinet files are usually installed. If that doesn't work, perhaps we can go into the problem a bit further :) -Anthony