"I now have an original Win98 CD with the key..its Second edition for new computer"That's either a Retail Full version or an OEM Full version CD, not an upgrade CD. It won't allow you to install Windows if you boot from the CD unless the hard drive is empty.
You can get around that and attempt to repair Windows 98SE already on the drive, and not lose any personal stuff or software already on the drive, by running an "overtop" Setup.
You boot the computer with a Win 98SE Startup floppy disk. Whenever 98SE Setup is run , you make a Startup floppy as part of the Setup procedure. If you don't have one you can make one on a computer that has 98SE on it, or you can download the files for one off the web, and copy them to a floppy, or run a boot floppy making program you downloaded that does that for you.
If you need to make one, on a working 98SE computer, go to Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs, click on the Startup disk tab, insert a Win 98SE CD in a drive, insert a floppy disk in a drive, click to make a Startup Disk.
"Overtop" Setup.
98SE Setup doesn't have a Repair option (2000 and XP Setup have up to two screens where you can choose to Repair an existing Windows installation) - this is the closet you can come to that - it will replace Windows files Setup finds in an existing Windows installation that are missing or corrupted, but it can't fix any problem not caused by a file on the Windows CD.
With the Win 98SE CD in a CD drive
1. boot the computer with the 98SE Startup floppy in the floppy drive.
(If the floppy doesn't boot, you need to change the bios boot order - the order in which bootable disks are booted, if they are bootable. Enter the bios Setup while booting the computer by pressing the key for that while you see the prompt "press xxx to enter Setup" or similar - find the boot order settings and change them so the floppy drive or A is first - if you can, make the CD drive second, the hard drive third while you're doing that - save settings, reboot.)
If the bios boot order settings are correct, the bootable floppy will be recognized and load files and you will see a menu of a few choices - choose the default choice - load the files that support your CD drive - let the floppy continue to load files.
2. When it has finished loading files, type: setup (press Enter). That starts Windows Setup. If the hard drive is larger than 528mb, you will be asked if you want to enable large hard drive support or similar - answer yes - doing that will not harm any data on the hard drive.
3. Setup will look for existing Windows installations, then ask you where you want to install Windows. In order to sucessfully do an "overtop" Windows installation, you must install Windows in the SAME directory Windows is already in - usually that's the default C:\Windows - if it says something else, change it to C:\Windows.
(If you want to make sure the existing Windows is in C:\Windows, press F3 at this point to quit Setup and see below)
4. "I intalled Win 2000 pro on another pc and also XP and they both had the option of saving files...Does the win 98 SE cd have that option?
You may be asked at that point if you want to save existing Windows files - you can answer yes or no - it doesn't have anything to do with whether Setup will erase files already on the hard driven other than ones it needs to make Windows work - it only allows you to go back to the way Windows was before in Windows itself - I haven't found that to be of any use - I usually answer no. If you answer yes, you can get rid of the backed up files later if you are having no problems in Windows once Setup is finished.
5. Setup will proceed pretty much the same as a regular Setup, except you will be asked far fewer questions, and you will not be asked to supply a Product Key unless the location where that data is, is corrupted.
6. Remove the Startup floppy and try re-booting - if Windows seems okay, you don't need to load Windows from scratch.
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If you want to make sure the existing Windows is in C:\Windows BEFORE re-installing Windows "overtop":
- boot with the 98SE Startup disk floppy
- choose any choice - if you want to be able to go to Setup once you have checked, choose the default - load the files to support the CD drive
- when the floppy files have finished loading, type C followed by a colon
e.g. C: (press Enter).
type: dir (press Enter)
you should see a folder listed \Windows.
If you see that your Windows installation is in the default place - C:\Windows.
- if you loaded cd drive support, type Setup to start Windows Setup
- if you didn't load cd drive support, press the Ctrl and Alt keys at the same time and hold them down, press the Del key, let go of all three keys, to reboot - load the cd drive support from the floppy - type Setup when the files finish loading.
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If you end up re-installing Windows from scratch:
Fdisk in Win 98, 98SE cannot recognize a hard drive larger than ~64 gig without an update, if it hasn't been installed. What Fdisk will see in those cases is e.g. ~80 - 64 = ~16 gig (or ~120 - 64 = ~56 gig). If your drive is larger than ~64 gig, this is what you need. Get the update here:
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...
If you use a Startup disk to Fdisk the hard drive, you must copy the updated Fdisk from Windows to the floppy. If you boot/install Windows from the Win 98/98SE CD, you cannot Fdisk/Format a hard drive larger than 64 gig - use the Startup disk with updated Fdisk instead.
The update is supposed to be installed on a working Win 98 or 98SE computer. If you don't have that, you can get the updated 98/98SE Fdisk.exe on the web. In it's Properties it's size is 64,460 bytes, and it's date is originally 5/18/00 (depending on where you get it from the date may be something else - the right one is 64,460 bytes).
