Installing Windows 98 - Please Help :-O

[Xenogear900]

Hey! I have an older Gateway PC, it was designed to work best with Windows 98, but the previous owner installed Windows 2000 on it. It has soooooo much junk on it!!! I want to clear all his junk off and start fresh with Windows 98. I have a Windows 98 CD and the Windows 98 serial # sticker is still on the PC. How would I go about doing all this? I heard that I need to make a boot disk, I dunno how. What do I need? What do I need to do? What steps etc? Please Help Me out!

Xenogear900@yahoo.com

[bazooka]

www.bootdisk.com

Download the 98 boot disk and then doubleclick it.

It will decompress the image and then save it to a floppy.

Then put the floppy in and reboot.

Once the computer boots up you should get a dos prompt.

Type a:/format c:

It will thyen format and you should be able to install 98.

[stiltman]

I don't think format will format a NTFS partition, if it is NTFS?

Might have to fdisk first

[bazooka]

I don't think format will format a NTFS partition, if it is NTFS?

Might have to fdisk first

It will work.

It will say that it is a non-fat partition but will still format it.

[handyguy]

"Type a:/format c: "

No, you can't use this. This would give him a HD that isnt
readable nor bootable.

Use: Format c: /s the board makes an emoticon, so you should drop space btween : & /

[bazooka]

"Type a:/format c: "

No, you can't use this. This would give him a HD that isnt
readable nor bootable.

Gee, that is funny since it works for me.

I just did it the other day.

[Scottie]

I like Fdsick to erease and create portions

then format.

[Dr. DOS]

A coupla' 10 oz and a few 5 oz portions

[Xenogear900]

Hmmm...I heard to do both
Type a:/format c:
or
Format c: /s
I'm not really sure what to do. Can't I just put the 98 CD in and it will tell me what to do? What would Microsoft do?
Xenogear900@yahoo.com

[bazooka]

Hmmm...I heard to do both
Type a:/format c:
or
Format c: /s
I'm not really sure what to do. Can't I just put the 98 CD in and it will tell me what to do? What would Microsoft do?
Xenogear900@yahoo.com

a:/format c: will work.

I have done it to several computers.

[ViRaL1]

Wow. First off, if he has the Window$ 98 CD, he should be able to boot from the CD without a boot disk. Second, a regular Window$ 98 boot disk (or the CD) will not allow you to format an NTFS partition without FDISKing it first (and probably a reboot). Third, the FORMAT command in DOS without the /s switch will yield a readable drive, but not a bootable one. If you proceed with the Window$ 98 setup without restarting you'll be fine, but you won't be able to boot directly to the hard drive if you just restart after formatting the drive without putting the system files on it.

My recommendation.

1) Boot to the Window$ 98 CD, choose 'Start Window$ with CD-ROM support.'

2) Run FDISK (from the A: drive if it's there, or from the WIN98 folder of the CD if it's not.

3) Delete all Non-DOS partitions.

4) Create a Primary DOS partition.

5) Exit FDISK and reboot.

6) Repeat step 1.

7) type FORMAT C: /S

8) DOS commands from here

C:
MD WINDOWS
MD WINDOWS\OPTIONS
MD WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS
CD WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS
COPY D:\WIN98\*.*
SETUP

This will copy the cab files to the hard drive and start the install from the hard driver versus the CD-ROM drive. This will also tell Window$ that C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS is the source for installing files so that it doesn't always ask you for the Window$ 98 CD every time it needs to load files.

[bazooka]

The /s switch is not needed.

I forgot the step of deleting the non-dos partition.

[ViRaL1]

It's not absolutely necessary if you're not needing to boot to the hard drive before running setup. But the hard drive won't be bootable until you either sys it, or setup Window$.

[glockjs]

wow, the good ole' days. maybe i shouldnt bish about xp so much

[bazooka]

I usually do not need to boot to the hard drive before running setup.

Once I delete the non-dos partition.

I format away without the /s switch.

A wise person once said "To each his own".

[ViRaL1]

DOS really wasn't that bad comparatively speaking. Not nearly as bad as the REALLY old days when we had UNO...and that ran from punch cards.

[Scottie]

I'd FDISK delete and create portition and then boot the Win98CD Star with CDrom Suport and then from CD in the win98 folder run format C: then just run setup from the Win98 folder.

[winifreid]

Stick with 2000 and just clean off all the junk. It is a faster, better (especially for video) OS.

[handyguy]

I always use the /S switch. That way I can boot to the hd & make sure its there. Then I can copy the w98 setup files to the hd & run it from there as its so much faster & if I need any files later, they are on the hd.

I forgot that the setup disk might be able to make the hd bootable. It's been so long. Let's see, W98 came out in, hmm, ah, yes, '98

[Xenogear900]

Hmm....98 or 2000?
The only thing I am using that PC for is watching video. When it was new, it had Windows 98 (as the Intel sticker says the PC was designed for), now it has 2000.
It plays video....decent.....but when you make it full screen its a little more choppy. Maybe I should just put in my PCI GeForce 4 card so I can play videos full screen on the TV, without maximizing them on the PC. What do ya think?
Or should I just go back to 98 and everything will be faster?
The PC is 750mhz. 64mb of RAM.
Whats the best I can do for playing videos smoother!? Switch OS, Keep 2000, put the GeForce card in to play full screen on TV w/o maximizing on PC....I dunno...any ideas?
Xenogear900@yahoo.com

[stiltman]

I would do a clean install of 2000.
Win98 is no longer being supported, personally, I would install it unless there was a specific reason to do so. 2000 should run just fine on 750mhz

[smearbrick1]

I would do a clean install of 2000.
Win98 is no longer being supported, personally, I would install it unless there was a specific reason to do so. 2000 should run just fine on 750mhz

He didn't mention that he had an original Win2k disc on hand to clean install. However, it would be in your best interest to install Win2k. I would take that any day over a 98 system. You could probably pick it up pretty cheap right now on EBay.