"Program cannot run in dos mode"

[khanibal]

I'm trying to help guide a friend through formatting and reinstalling windows 98 SE on her computer. We've done Fdisk and FORMAT C, basically we're ready to slap windows on there. We have the boot disc in, as well as the cd, and we do e:\install (for some reason the disc has install on it, is setup only on the normal 98 disc?).

We just get "program cannot run in dos mode".

Any thoughts? :\

[mike]

Hi,
"program cannot run in dos mode" means it is a windows program only.

Look for "Setup.exe" on the cdrom disk.

You are correct to use the boot disk with cdrom support to get the dos drivers to load cdrom, to see the win98 cd disc.

If E is the cdrom drive, change DIR to E: and type in :

SETUP


(NB: SETUP = Setup.exe
When a command is typed in at the dos prompt, command.com looks for .exe, .com, .bat , etc in a respective order.......... .exe files have priority.)

Hope it goes OK,
Cheers

[Alfons]

Originally Posted by khanibal

I'm trying to help guide a friend through formatting and reinstalling windows 98 SE on her computer. We've done Fdisk and FORMAT C, basically we're ready to slap windows on there. We have the boot disc in, as well as the cd, and we do e:\install (for some reason the disc has install on it, is setup only on the normal 98 disc?).

We just get "program cannot run in dos mode".

Any thoughts? :\

You might be trying to use a Restore or Recovery Disk for a brand name computer like HP, Compaq, etc. These CD's were made to be bootable, so you should try setting the boot sequence such that the CD Drive is before the HD, then put the CD into the drive and restart.

If it is one of those type of disks and not for the particular type of computer that you have, it normally won't let you install the OS.

[khanibal]

It's not an OEM or restore disc. There isn't a setup.exe on the disc either (I don't understand that).

.. any thoughts? :|

[renegade600]

Originally Posted by khanibal

It's not an OEM or restore disc. There isn't a setup.exe on the disc either (I don't understand that).

.. any thoughts? :|

what files on the cd do you have that ends with .exe .bat or .com

[minnehaha]

The problem does not seem to be with the cd. The problem might be that you have the wrong cd driver and what you are reading is still the floppy disk (ex. - you can use drive a: and drive b: designations for a single floppy drive) or more than likely you have bad or missing files on your boot disk (you are booting into dos not windows like you should be). I hope this helps.

[GretaP]

for some reason the disc has install on it, is setup only on the normal 98 disc?

What type of disc are you using if it's not a "normal" 98 disc?