reinstalling win98 for idiots

jobel60 · #1 August 25th, 2003, 11:50 AM

Hi, I desperately need an idiot proof and easy way to uninstall windows xp and replace it with windows 98. Any help would be appreciated.thanks

Baser-X · #2 August 25th, 2003, 03:26 PM

Backup ALL data that you want to save either on CD or on another partition before proceeding!!!

If you are using FAT32 file system, the easiest way to do this (assuming you have a Win98/ME boot disk) is to pop in the boot disk, reboot and access the boot disk with CD-Rom support.

Once in you will be at the A:/ prompt. From here type (w/o quotes) "format c:" (or whatever drive XP is currently on). It will then warn you that formatting will erase all data currently stored and ask if you want to proceed. Select yes and wait.

Once it has finished formatting, insert the Windows 98 CD and go to your CD drive by typing the drive letter at the prompt (ex: G: ). When using a boot disc, your CD drive will be moved to a different drive letter than in Windows (for example, if your CD drive is F: then it will be G: on the boot disk). To confirm you are on the correct drive, type (w/o quotes) "dir" and you should see the windows 98 files. Type (w/o quotes) "setup.exe" and zzzzoooom zzzzooommmm the 98 install will begin.

jobel60 · #3 August 25th, 2003, 06:05 PM

thanks for the quick reply Baser - x, I am starting to grasp the nettle but one thing confuses me: I dont have a win98 boot disc/cd but I do have the installation disc can I use that? if not I know the site to get a widows boot disc but when I looked there was a boot disc for 4 different types of win98 and I dont know which to download. presumably I need to download the right one and can used that instead of a disc?
%Thanks for all the help so far

rurso · #4 August 25th, 2003, 06:26 PM

I'm having problems with one of my cpus I left plugged in while on vacation using win98-2nd addition. Using your method for reformatting(after a boot disk) says format not supported on drive c. The cdrom works but won't let me run setup-missing fat or fat32- tried to put that in from a floppy and wouldn't work. At other tries get need to partion in a dos boot disk? I keep getting,on a normal startup, o/s not found. I read on some other sites there was a virus that caused this problem which my anti-virus didn't catch-if that is the case.Fdisk doesn't work-no disk found. I just don't know what to try to just get it reformated,then I can go from there. Any ideas,thanks.

Baser-X · #5 August 25th, 2003, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jobel60

thanks for the quick reply Baser - x, I am starting to grasp the nettle but one thing confuses me: I dont have a win98 boot disc/cd but I do have the installation disc can I use that? if not I know the site to get a widows boot disc but when I looked there was a boot disc for 4 different types of win98 and I dont know which to download. presumably I need to download the right one and can used that instead of a disc?
%Thanks for all the help so far

Assuming you are referring to http://www.bootdisk.com:

Any of the ones listed will work fine so long as they have CD-Rom support. To check for CD-Rom support just put the floppy in and boot up, you should get at least 2 options 1) Boot without CD-Rom support 2) Boot with CD-Rom support. Most likely each of the custom disks listed will provide more options, but all you basically need is access to DOS w/ CD-Rom so those other options will not matter for this.

Baser-X · #6 August 25th, 2003, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rurso

I'm having problems with one of my cpus I left plugged in while on vacation using win98-2nd addition. Using your method for reformatting(after a boot disk) says format not supported on drive c. The cdrom works but won't let me run setup-missing fat or fat32- tried to put that in from a floppy and wouldn't work. At other tries get need to partion in a dos boot disk? I keep getting,on a normal startup, o/s not found. I read on some other sites there was a virus that caused this problem which my anti-virus didn't catch-if that is the case.Fdisk doesn't work-no disk found. I just don't know what to try to just get it reformated,then I can go from there. Any ideas,thanks.

Highly unlikely, but is the partition you are trying to format NTFS? If so it cannot be done from DOS. Otherwise, setup for some reason is not recognizing your file system (which should be FAT32 for a Win98 system). Try chkdisk and scandisk to verify no errors on the drive and then at the A:/ prompt type (w/o quotes) "cvt c: /cvt32" to convert it to FAT32 (assuming C:/ is the drive you want formatted -- otherwise replace C: with the appropriate drive letter). Once converted, from the A:/ prompt type (w/o quotes) "format c:". If you try to convert and you get an error, copy the error exactly as it appears and post it.

M$ Knowledgebase article on converting to FAT32