i am having trouble installing win98 onto a new hard drive. i can start win 98 in safe mode, but a vmm32.vxd error prevents me from starting up in normal mode. i have done some research, and i understand that vmm32.vxd is created for the specific machine during the win98 installation. i have learned that when, during normal use, a vmm32.vxd file gets corrupted - the last chance fix is to reinstall the operating system, as it will then create a new, uncorrupted, version of the file. it appears that in this case, the installation is creating an incorrect, or corrupted, version of vmm32.vxd. so, my question is - how is it that i am getting this problem during a new win98 installation on to a new hard disk? and, what should i do about it? the pc is a dell dimension desktop. i am using the boot disk that shipped with the pc, and the win 98 disk that shipped with the pc. there have been no unusual changes to any devices since the computer was purchased. could dell have shipped the wrong boot disk with the pc? would this even cause my problem? if so, is there a way to make a boot disk in safe mode? i don't think the floppy works during safe mode. could dell have shipped the wrong oem version of win98 - would that cause my problem? thanks for any help jeff

Make sure that all partitions are no larger than 32 Go before re-installing Windows to eliminate all errors reporting by Windows 98 tools.If you have a true OEM Windows,you would install with the switch NTLDR setup /NTLDR .You can download a boot disk from: http://www.freewebs.com/semler/bootdisk.html Good luck.

Go into the BIOS and ensure that the boot sequence has the hard drive before the CD drive.