I have the 98SE CD and have valid key.. but i have lost or misplaced any previous windows version... The hard drive was formated . i don't feel like buying another previously yeared windows version and i don't know anyone who has one to borrow. is there another way around this ? thanks

So it's an upgrade or update CD and not a full version?

try this:

run the cd and when it asks for a previous version direct it to look in the cd rom and see itself. Sometimes this works as a default for microsoft upgrades.

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Install MS-DOS first with CD support then install W98.........

Re #3. There are other methods to get an Upgrade CD (if that's what it is) to install on a formatted HD.

Putting DOS on there first is best avoided because it is unecessary and will almost certainly be an earlier version than that produced using the Windows install. To have two DOS versions skulling around is not a good idea unless you are really forced into it.

DerekW

Actually W98 will largely overwrite an earlier version of MS-DOS:

See the section "How to Upgrade to Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/217...

Very sorry for not stating this earlier: it is an Upgrade 98SE CD.

I tried lurkswithin advice (Response #2): run the cd and when it asks for a previous version direct it to look in the cd rom and see itself. Sometimes this works as a default for microsoft upgrades.

but it fails miserably =\

#5 appears to require two logical HD drives and is intended for multiple booting. No doubt Orbital will assist if you wish to go that way.

The procedure I would advocate is given on this website:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robert...

It entails copying your Upgrade CD onto the HD (into c:\win98), then replacing the file precopy2 with one downloaded and unzipped onto a floppy. You then do the install from the HD.

You will need a bootdisk (floppy). If you have a startup disk made in W98 this will be fine, otherwise download one from www.bootdisk.com

You will also need a blank floppy, onto which you put precopy2.cab from the top link on the website.

You then follow the instructions given on the website, repeated here for convenience:

Insert a wins boot disk with CD support
Select START COMPUTER WITH CD-ROM SUPPORT.
At a:\> type
A:\>c:\ enter then type
C:\>md win98 Enter then type
C:\>cd win98 Enter then type
C:\win98>Copy E:\win98 enter then
Insert Floppy with the patch
C:\win98>Copy a:\
Enter Y to Overwrite C:\PRECOPY2.CAB
C:\win98>Setup enter

If you go this way and need further assistance then shout back. Bear in mind that I live in the UK and it has gone midnight here (but I'm a night owl). Otherwise DAVEINCAPS might pass by and assist because I suspect this is in line with his thinking.

DerekW

Yeah, I just wanted to make sure he had the upgrade and wasn't confused about the prerequisites for installing a full version.

Bale's method should work, although your existing key may not work depending on whether the precopy2.cab file you swapped is retail or OEM.

If need be, I can just send you a copy of 95.

Ok i tried what was suggested by copying win98 directory to the hard drive as well as the Precopy2.CAB file located at: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robert...

now i typed setup and as usual it runs a scandisk to make sure the drive or whatever is correct and it comes up with an error of:

"The C:WIN98 directory is damaged. Some programs might not work properly when they access this directory.
Choose Fix it to have ScanDisk correct the invalid settings for the C:WIN98 directory."

It has three choices: Fix it, don' fix it, more info.
under more info it states:

"The C:WIN98 directory was an incorrect setting for its '.' directory.
ScanDisk corrects the problem by changing the directory's '.' entry so that it points to the correct directory..."

Well i ended up trying the fix option all it did was create a directory in win98 of '.' that seemed to do me no good because cd\. don't work or i don't know how to access it, so now i have tried deleting win98 directory it gets everything by the '.' directory. so i made a win98(1) directory to copy e:\win98 into which fixed the scandisk error problem but now i get an error at windows setup when its doing the counting bar. The error is that "There is a problem with this Setup (.cab) file. This may be cause by a virus, low conventional memory, bad media, or a hardware problem." i deleted this dir and recopied E:\win98 without the patch of precopy2.bat and no error came with setup, so i retried the patch and it has the error again (this is the file full2up.rar=(precopy2 from a 98upgrade CD Rom) from that site). the download was not corrupt, the size i have dled is 1,296 KB i dunno whats wrong now....

I think you need to start over.

Boot up with a 98 bootdisk and at the a:\> prompt type fdisk and enter. Y to large disk support and then option 3. Use it to remove the partition(s).

Then reboot, run fdisk again, Y to large disk support and option 1. Create a partition using all the space.

Then reboot again. Be sure to choose START WITH CDROM SUPPORT. Pay attention to the last few lines that load prior to the a:\> prompt as that will tell you the cdrom drive letter. At the a:\> prompt type format c: and enter. When it's done type md c:\win98 and enter.

Put the 98 cd in the cdrom and type
copy X:\win98\*.* c:\win98 and enter, where X is the cdrom drive letter indicated when you booted up.

You've recreated the partition, formatted it and copied the 98 files to the hard drive. I don't think scandisk will find any problems now.

Unzip the file you downloaded to a blank floppy disk. Put the disk in the floppy drive and type
copy a:\precopy2.cab c:\win98. Answer Y when it asks if you want to overwrite the existing copy.

When it's done remove the floppy disk and type
c:\win98\setup and enter. That should start the installation.

If it's not clear, there a space between

copy X:\win98\*.*

and

c:\win98

in the command in the 5th paragraph above. And make sure you replace the X with the actual cdrom drive letter.

Hey, looks like you've got a compaq. When you run fdisk in paragraph 2, DON'T delete the non-dos partition (if one exists). Just delete the DOS partition.

Or run fdisk, option 4, to show partition info and post back what it says.

1) Create a floppy with a file called win.cn_
Doesn't matter what is in the file
2) When it asks for a previous installation stick the floppy in.

You should be able to run the upgrade then.

That does not work with 98. There is a similar trick for '95, but it asks for two files.

I wouldn't mind reformatting the drive again but it took 3-4 days the last time i did so; I'm not to trilled to do that. But I somewhat fixed the scandisk problem but i have a error occur around 19% done at windows 98 setup progress bar (this is the bar after the first little window that pops up in windows install where you hit the first "continue") saying: "There is a problem with this Setup (.cab) file. This may be cause by a virus, low conventional memory, bad media, or a hardware problem." again this only happens when i put the precopy2.cab file in c:\win98 directory. As for all the partitioning stuff that was mentioned above i did that the first time i formatted the drive.

Are your current problems after starting over using #10 (without the reformat)?

It sounds like something screwed up on your original try and it is now keeping the install from running properly.

Reformat and re-install shouldn't take longer than an hour. What made it take so long? It's putting all your programs and updates in that usually takes the time.

DerekW

Three or four days?!

That's just... ridiculous

Bad hardware, possibly RAM or the HDD - futile to continue until resolved

I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn't need an interpreter.

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What is the background to all this. Was the machine given to you or did you have some problem then reformatted or made some hardware changes in order to try and fix it?

I agree with jboy, even with severe finger trouble reformatting itself only takes a few minutes.

DerekW

Sure, that's an indication of something gone awry - - maybe it's as simple as reseating the RAM or snugging up (or replacing) the drive cable - but those would be 'best case' scenarios

I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn't need an interpreter.

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for # 16 I have done that multiple times with the same outcome. For what took the format so long i have no clue, its a laptop Compaq presario 1200 1.2mHz cpu with one owner. Though while I have had no problems with the hardware in the past, it was always really slow, sometimes very unreasonably slow with XP in having 300MB of RAM. But I'm not kidding about the 3-4 days format, i wish i was.

If you just type format C: from a boot floppy you should just be able to stand back and it is all done in a few minutes.

Were there any error messages? If not then you must have a hardware problem along the lines stated by jboy. Another possibility is a faulty HD, so see if it reports any bad sectors when finished.

In any event having got part way through an aborted install you are better off to reformat to get rid of the tosh already on there, as this will almost certainly prevent you re-installing windows properly.

Even better to do FDISK first and delete only the DOS partition as DAVE advised in #12.

DerekW

There were not any error messages when formating and for reports of bad sectors on HD it has not found any. As for doing #12 i did, so i suppose a hardware problem is to blame. I'm planning to go back to XP, should do for now.

Thank you all for your support and help in attempt to resolve my issue's, I'm greatly appreciative.

Well, if XP reload fixes it then that will prove there is no hardware problem after all (unless your HD is way too large for W98SE or something). Otherwise the hardware issue will still need to be addressed.

Never did understand what happened during those 3/4 days (ie was it moving ultra slowly after format c: or what).

By the way, you would have needed to invoke a minor tweak in W98SE with 1.2G of RAM, but we never got that far.

Good luck anyway.

DerekW

yea XP loaded fine little slow, the HD has a capacity of 20GB so i dunno if that would cause a problem. For the 3-4 days of formating i typed format c: and it started and was allocating bytes at a time; at 2 days it was around 1.2MB formated no joke! then 3rd day around 3MB then all of a sudden on the 4th it said it was done. it only has around 300MB of RAM though.

Thanks again for the help

Very weird, faulty or incorrect boot floppy maybe.

There is no problem with 20G HD on W98SE or 300M RAM (bit light for XP tho).

DerekW

I think i found the problem, i installed XP and tried to do resize the partition through acronis it came back with bad sectors, and it wouldn't do anything until fixed, so i ran chkdisk to fix this but it couldn't do anything either. what is weird is that i ran chkdisk multiple times before installing XP and it found no such errors; im guess a format will fix bad sectors problems?

Bad sectors, well at least that part figures. Thx for update and I hope it works out.

DerekW

Formatting won't fix bad sectors. Those are usually caused by bad spots on the drive platters and can't be fixed at all. Formatting will find the spots and mark them as bad so they won't be used but their mere existence can indicate a drive going bad.

Sometimes spots will be marked as bad even when they're OK. In that case the format/c command will check the clusters currently marked as bad. Or on drives that allow it you can run a low level format, then partition and do a regular format. That will force the computer to refind and mark any bad spots.

But the fact it took a few days to format almost certainly indicates you've got a bad drive.