I had an HP AMD K6-II, 333 and fried the motherboard. I used the CD ROM and processor on a new motherboard to build a new machine. The only copy of Windows 98 I have is on the recovery disk. The problem is that, since the BIOS and motherboard is new, the recovery disk no longer recognizes the machine as an HP, and consequently will not run setup. Is there ANY way to extract the files from that CD and either burn them to a new CD, or "fool" it into running on the new machine? I also replaced the HD and I sold the old one to a friend and he already reformatted it (big mistake but didnt think of the potential problem), so I cant get Windows off it! Any suggestions apart from having to buy 98 all over again?

Sorry, but I think you're screwed. You're going to need a Windows 98 CD one way or the other. Good luck, Ken

When the restore disk stops installing because it doesn't find the HP computer, does it leave you with a DOS prompt or not? For example: C:\> If it does, there are ways you can work around it. If not, then you probably can not use it. The CD probably has a boot partition that is hidden from normal viewing that contains batch files that handle the installation. Included in these files is a test to determine if it is an HP or not. If you are left with a prompt, then you have booted into this partition in dos mode. You therefore have access to all the hidden installation files. You can copy them to floppy. Modify the test line. Boot from floppy & install from the CD. Of course it helps to be knowledgable of batch file commands etc. to understand what your reading and editing. I don't know if this helps any or not, but GOOD LUCK.