reinstalling 98 on an older machine...

badassmak

badassmak

Herbi-Whore
...because it caught a virus :). The problem(s) I am having is that it won't read my boot floppy or cdrom. It knows that they exist but won't start from there.

I am however, able to install xp from cdrom, I know that works. The problem is that its a copy of xp I am already using, so I can't actually use it. (Not that I would). The reason I did this was to see if it was reading the cdrom, and it is.

Is this a problem with my boot floppy?...hmm I've tried downloading a bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com , but it won't read that either. It's been awhile since I did this and correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought I was supposed to boot from that floppy, after I had formatted the harddrive.

One last note, it's a compaq :D, and I was getting a *1782-disk controller failure* error, leading me to suspect mobo issues. However, it now reads the freshly installed xp drive with no hangups.

WTF?
 
If your floppy drive is bad, thats a problem. Normally a cheap one to fix, a floppy drive is only about $15. Unfortunately a standard floppy drive may not fit in your Compaq, depending on the particular model.

The best way to install Win98 on a PC, especially an old one that won't boot from the CD, is to boot from a floppy with a DOS CD-ROM driver. Then copy the entire WIN98 directory from the CD to your hard drive. Then run the setup.exe file from inside that directory on your hard drive. When finished leave the WIN98 directory on the C:\ drive

This is usually a faster install, and in the future if Windows needs a file from within the CAB files, the proper location is already in the reistry and it will just go fetch it from c:\win98
 
Great reply thanks very much.

Ok, so here is a lazy way of doing things (without the DOS CD-ROM driver), I'm wondering if it will work.

If I boot my computer (XP), with the gibbled harddrive as a slave drive, can I copy the files from the cd rom onto the gibbled drive, and then run the setup from there? Or will XP let me? The thing is, I can't even get to dos on the gibbled drive, so the only way I can run it is from somewhere else.

Is it possible in formatting I have wiped out the DOS?...this is the only thing I can think of that I may haved screwed up on.
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Copied the files from cd to drive G:,
ran DOS from DOS disk;
G:
SETUP

It then begins installing 98SE yeehaw.

Then, *Failed, because there is no DOS partition*.

How big do I have to make the DOS partition?
Do I copy the DOS disk to this partition, or does DOS install itself from the WIN98se cd?:confused:
For that matter, does the DOS automatically install to the active partition, because maybe I partitioned it wrong?

Here is where its at currently;

F: 16 GB Healthy
G: 4 GB (OS) Healthy (active) ((should I have made this active))

Just the two partitions currently exist as shown above.

P.S. I partitioned it with XP PRO, in the Computer Management Window.
 
Re: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

badassmak said:
Copied the files,
ran DOS drom DOS disk,
SETUP.

Failed, because there is no DOS partition.

How big do I have to make the DOS partition, and do I copy the DOS disk to this partition? :confused:
Click to expand...

Ok, this doesn't make sense to me at all. Let's start all over.
So you have issues with your floppydrive/floppycontroller on the Compaq computer.
I assume that you still have the W98 installation files on the hard drive.
Now try this: Put this hard drive in your other computer as master;
boot that computer with a DOS disk;
make the hard drive bootable
a:\> sys c:<enter>
place the hard drive back in the compaq.
Boot the Compaq from the hard drive. You'll just get a dos prompt like c:\>
Then run the windows 98 setup from there.
 
Sounds like you are going to have to re-partition the hard disk with the fdisk utility on your win98 dos disk. Although Winxp has partitioned the drive, by default it makes NTFS partitions. Win98 wants to see a Fat32 partition. You must delete the old partition before creating a new one.

1) Boot from Dos Disk
2) Run Fdisk from dos disk. Delete old partitions. Create max size partitions.
3) Reboot dos disk. Run Format c:
4) Continue as RWhite said before.
 
johnhoe said:
Sounds like you are going to have to re-partition the hard disk with the fdisk utility on your win98 dos disk. Although Winxp has partitioned the drive, by default it makes NTFS partitions. Win98 wants to see a Fat32 partition. You must delete the old partition before creating a new one.

1) Boot from Dos Disk
2) Run Fdisk from dos disk. Delete old partitions. Create max size partitions.
3) Reboot dos disk. Run Format c:
4) Continue as RWhite said before.
Click to expand...

Ok, when I partitioned in XP, it gave me the choice of FAT32 or NTFS, so I choose FAT32, thats what the partitions are.

I want two partitions, one for the OS, one for everything else; apps, documents etc etc. I don't need another one for DOS right?

I know there isn't any issues with the floppy disk controller because it reads the DOS disk just fine. It doesn't like my 98 bootdisks for whatever reason. The first bootdisk I had I made from the 98 system when it was first installed (well before the virus). The second bootdisk I just downloaded from bootdisk.com. Neither worked.

As was said before I couldn't even get to DOS, so did I erase it? or is that possible? Sorry DOS has always kinda thrown me. Is it part of Windows or completely seperate?

Ok I'm gonna try a few of these ideas, thanks a lot, I'll be basck I'm sure :D.
 
Re: Re: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

christiaan said:
Ok, this doesn't make sense to me at all. Let's start all over.
So you have issues with your floppydrive/floppycontroller on the Compaq computer.
I assume that you still have the W98 installation files on the hard drive.
Now try this: Put this hard drive in your other computer as master;
boot that computer with a DOS disk;
make the hard drive bootable
a:\> sys c:<enter>
place the hard drive back in the compaq.
Boot the Compaq from the hard drive. You'll just get a dos prompt like c:\>
Then run the windows 98 setup from there.
Click to expand...

Sorry I should have made that clearer.

I was able to get to DOS, via the DOS disk, the first prompt was - A

So I typed in the drive letter - G:

then I typed in SETUP

It began installing windows 98, then gave me the error about the DOS partition...
 
'Ok forget all that crap. It appears I cannot use my MSDOS disk I made in XP to format or fdisk my 98 drive :rolleyes: . 300$ for frickin XP PRO, and it can't do this shit, what a total rip.

Anyhow, what would be the correct version of DOS to download to floppy?
 
Never fix someones puter for free...

I took the liberty of copying down errors as they came up;

When running from the MS DOS disk I made in XP, it would tell me that *format* and *fdisk* were invalid commands.

So I typed in SETUP, whilst on drive G:

Here's what it said.

"This version of Microsoft Scandisk will only work with MS DOS v.5.0 and later.
Setup found a compressed volume or a disk-cache utility on your computer. Quit Setup and check your compressed volume with your disk compression software or remove the disk-cache utility.
Then run setup again."

So I forged onward, and ran windows setup anyways (by pressing the ESC key, which it asks for) :D

Into the nice pretty blue Windows 98 setup screen we go

"Message SU0013
Setup cannot create files on your startup drive and cannot setup Windows 98.

If you have HPFS or NTFS, you must create an MS DOS boot partition. If you have LANtastic server or SuperStor compression disable it before running Setup. See Setup .txt on Setup Disk 1 or the windows 98 cd"

Neato.

I don't understand all this headache. I used to own this machine, and have formatted and fdisk'd before, with no hassle. Now its being a cantankerous POS.

From the above, I gather that probably XP PRO is LYING to me and saying the partitions are FAT 32, when really they are NTFS. WTF eh?.

Not only that, but my MS DOS made in XP works only for XP apparently, but hey, why would you need a boot floppy for XP????

Please forgive my ignorance :D, I am but a grasshopper.

Please help :confused: :confused: :confused: ...
 
badassmak said:
The problem is that its a copy of xp I am already using, so I can't actually use it. (Not that I would). The reason I did this was to see if it was reading the cdrom, and it is.
Click to expand...

If I am right...you can use the same copy of xp that you use on other HOME computers. You just can't use the computers at the same time.

I could be wrong though (wouldn't be the first time):D
 
lol yea there are two computers on a hub, hooked to the net at all times (cable connection), so there is no hope for that unfortunately. As it is, I can't install the service pack update for the 2nd puter hehe :D, rendering it virtually useless for most applications.

I have been working on this problem already for a few days prior to posting here, and have been doing a lot of reading thus, but somehow everything is still fubarred, so I'm gonna go watch some hockey and vent for awhile.
:mad: $#@$@%$@%@$%^% compaq #@&*^*$#&%$@&^%$#@^:mad:
 
I hate to drag this up again but...

...things are still not functional here. I cannot get into DOS. How the hell do I get there? ( A nice link to an exact DOS version I am needing would be wonderful :D .)

BTW I have replaced the floppy drive, and IDE cables.
 
Not sure I have the whole picture here...

...but with regards to the DOS stuff, you need to have a path specified, so it can find your non-native dos commands.

on my work PC, the command would be "path c:\winnt\system32"

on yours it would be "path" plus whatever drive and directory holds your DOS command files, specifically format.com and fdisk.exe (or fdisk.com - not sure because it's been removed from our PCs here).

the path command tells DOS where to look for program files if they're not in the current directory.

GFL - when I had to reinstall ME, I lost a bunch of software, plus my DVD codecs. What a giant pain.

Daf
 
why not just make a boot disk of another windows 98 machine? or just put your xp cdrom into the cdrom and erase (format everything?)

If you want to delete everything you can type format c:
to erase everything on your c drive
 
he'll still have to do the path thing. That's why his boot disk didn't work before.

If you don't want to mess with the path, you can copy the format and fdisk programs to your floppy, or your hard disk's root drive. With no path, you will have to be "in" the directory you're running from, or your commands will have to be fully qualified (e.g.,
"c:\winnt\system32\format" instead of just "format")

Daf
 
if he's formating the whole machine he can simply type format c: and it's all good

if he boots from floppy he types the same

if he boots from cd-rom he types the same thing
 
He already tried that, and got an error message.

"Format" is an external DOS command, not an internal one (like "dir", for example). There is a separate program file, named format.com, that is needed to execute the format command. DOS will not know where to find the "format" program file unless
(1) it has a search path defined that includes the directory that format.com resides in, or
(2) the command is fully qualiifed (e.g., c:\winnt\system32\format), or
(3) the command is executed from the directory in which format.com resides. This can be accomplished by changing directories, or copying the files to the directory you wish to execute from.

Without using one of these 3 methods, DOS has no way of knowing where to look for the external commands. It will try the local directory on the current assigned disk, and then stop looking and return an error message.

BTW, format has some limitations, I think - probably why fdisk was part of the discussion too.

Daf
 
he could just type c:\windows\cabs\setup.exe
that would reinstall windows 98, and keep all programs installed, however a clean install is always recommended
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top