I jus wanted to fire up my old computer again and i did n it aws fine but then i wanted to format the drive n install windows 98 se again with mty start up disk and Win98se cd. but i took out the HD from old computer and attached it to my new comp as a slave n formatted it there so now it has nothing, so i thought its good to go . But when i attach my HD to old computer everything gets detected even the hd n cd drive but in the next step it says .. "OS load in progress.. " and thats it the cursor is blinking n it keeps on blinking forever nothing happends..remember tha strt up disk is in the drive and also WIn 98 is in drive BUT if i restart my comp without a hard-drive its fine ,, it say "os load in progress..." den wait den 'Windows 98 starting up' den "You want to operate with or without CD-rom prompt or som;'n like dat' den i do D:/> setup it is fine but NOW IT needs a hard-drive to install win 98 on, so im stuk . And wen i attach my hard-drive it gets stuk at "Os load in progress...."

Make sure the floppy drive (or a:) is the first boot device in cmos/bios setup. If the hard drive comes before the floppy then it's not going to boot from the floppy. If at all possible the drive needs to be partitioned in the computer in which it's to be used. I don't understand why you removed it since you have the bootdisk and floppy drive. Just boot up with the bootdisk. At the a:\> prompt type FDISK and enter, Y to large disk support, then option 3--remove the partition(s). Do that, exit fdisk and reboot. Run fdisk again, Y to large disk support, then option 1--create the partition(s). Do that, for simplicity use the entire space for the partition. When it's done exit fdisk and reboot. Be sure to choose the cdrom support option. Pay attention to the last few lines that load as that will tell you the cdrom drive letter. At the a:\> prompt type format c: and enter. When it's done and with the 98 cd in the cdrom type X:\setup, where X: is the cdrom drive letter indicated when you booted up. That should start the 98 installation.

DAVEINCAPS instructions are assuming that you are 'not' using Packard Bell's software to reinstall.

Thank you for your reply DAVEINCAPS, But when my hard-drive is attached and i run my computer, even with the floppy in the drive, the screen gets stuk at "OS load in progress..." _ (blinking) , n the cursor keeps on blinking forever and ever. So i;m unable to go to A:/> prompt and do something. But everything works wen the hard-drive is not attached , but in the future it needs a hard-drive to put win 98 on. And also i do not think the hard-drive is messed because my new comp. detects it perfectly and i could save files there easily. ALso wen i deleted everything off my harddrive, it was still partioned with 2 drives, how do i Un-partition it, make it all one and do everything again using another computer that works.

I guess you could do it on another computer. You'd do it the same as if it was in the original PC so the method I mentioned above would work. There are some problems when installing the 98 on a different PC than the one on which it's to be used. You might check my #7 here: http://computing.net/hardware/wwwbo... But if your computer isn't booting from the floppy drive then either (in order of liklihood): 1) The floppy isn't set as the first boot device in cmos/bios setup. 2) The floppy drive or bootdisk is bad. 3) The floppy controller is disabled in cmos/bios setup. 4) The floppy drive is misidentified in cmos/bios setup. Or, if you've messed with the drive cable connection: 5) It may be connected wrong. I'd suggest you try to figure out what the problem is with that first. #1, 3 and 4 are easy to check in cmos/bios setup. With #2 you can create a new bootdisk either from an existing 98 system or downloading a file to create a bootdisk from someplace like www.bootdisk.com. If a new bootdisk doesn't work and #1, 3 and 4 are correctly set and you haven't changed its cable connection then it's probably a bad drive.