I AM THE OWNER OF WINDOWS 98 OEM 4.10 EDITION ON MY PRESENT E-MACHINES COMPUTER. I RECENTLY PURCHASED A NEW COMPUTER, 1.4GHZ ATHLON BUT NO OPERATING SYSTEM. CAN I MOVE MY WINDOWS 98 FROM ONE COMPUTER TO THE OTHER? IF SO, HOW? IF NOT, CAN I PURCHASE WINDOWS XP UPGRADE AND WILL IT WORK OR DO I HAVE TO PURCHASE THE FULL EDITION?

On your old disk, you can delete a file called: something\enum (This will delete all hardware links and cause Windows to search for new hardware.} Take disk out and put in new computer.Bring up OS and then clone to new disk. Damn! I lost the link that explained in detail how to do it. But don't destroy your old HD. Someone may come up with it.

Buying the upgrade won't do you much good without having something to upgrade FROM, now would it? =) You could always take the HD out of the old computer, put it in the new one, and turn it on, let Plug and Play find all the new devices, then download drivers for any item that PnP didn't catch. You can then use the new computer's hard drive completely for storage! Or you could purchase an imaging program, but that might be more exensive than buying an old copy of Win98 HTH -Dave C P.S. good timing with getting another computer. I bet that broken caps lock key was getting awfully annoying!

The 'something/enum' to delete is in the registry. In Windows on the OLD machine run regedit.exe as the last thing you do before shutting down to pull the drive. Select the key : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum Go to Registry menu in top left of tool bar and select 'Export registry file'. You'll be prompted about where to save it to and what name to give it. Pick an easy folder to remember and save it there. ( I always make or have a folder called RegWork on C drive to keep Resistry related items in ). This file will be your back up of the Enum settings if you want to replace the drive in the old eMachine after getting the new one going. Call it Enum.reg so you know what it is. To reinstall it in the registry just double click it and it will be merged back in. OOOPS, almost forgot to tell you to reset the display to 640 x 480 VGA. so the new machine can avoid trying to find higher resolutions on an unknown card right away. NOW, back in Regedit delete the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum Shut down the eMachine, move the drive over and hook it up as Primary master. Boot the new machine, and windows should initiate it's hunt for PnP hardware, etc. and ask for the drivers for the new motherboard and chipset, the sound, display adapter, etc. With the new drive set as primary slave or secondary master, go to work with the disk utility from the hard drive's maker to set up the drive and transfer your old windows to it. Change the plugs, and jumpers if needed, to make the new drive Primary Master. boot to windows and check that everything operates. Shut down, hook up the old eMachine drive one more time as master, boot up to safe mode, run regedit and delete that HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum again. Pull out the old eMachine drive, re-connect the new drive as Prime Master and boot to your old windows on your new machine. Put the old drive back in the eMachine, boot to safe mode, and run the file you made earlier to restore your device settings. reboot to full mode and all should be well. Hope all that gets you going on new speedy machine. tinkerbong

Tinkerbong gave good advise. However, you have violated the copyright by installing the same operating system on 2 computers. To be completely legal, you should purchase the full version of 98SE or XP OR format the old drive and use for storage. That will make Bill happy.

Would I be guessing right that this is the way to go when upgrading a motherboard? I'm really not looking forward to the idea of doing a complete re-install of win98, then upgrading to SE, not to mention all the apps (shudder). Also, what's the reason/purpose for saving then restoring the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum key? TIA, Sam

Sam, You're right. This is basically a variation of the new motherboard to old drive in box setup, but for a new motherboard you don't need to bother keeping a back-up of the old enum key info. The reason for restoring the enum key in the above case is simply to be able to put the old emachine back in working order,if desired, without having to install all the hardware drivers, etc. One would not restore the eMachine's Enum key info on the new machine. That would get Windoze more confused than if you didn't delete the key in the first place. dave I think it's a fair argument, in the twisted world of legalese, to call the old eMachine a back-up device and therefore a rightful copy of the OS. Certainly this logic is less twisted than the that used by the legal beagles making fortunes out of the anti-trust trials. Or do ye think Billy's a bit pressed for cash and needs the copy price to keep that farce going? ;)