Big Windows trouble

[caliphe]

I am having trouble with completing the final insallation for Windows 98SE. My girlfriend was trying to upgrade her system from 95 plus! to 98SE. When trying to complete the final installation I couldn't finish because the disk was scratched. She left the pc on for two days then turned it off. I ran scandisk and everything is fine. The trouble is that I only get the a prompt or the c prompt (dos) and can not finish the completion. There was 21 minutes left to finish the installation. I have the 98SE disk (new) and a 98SE boot disk. I don't have the 95 boot disk because she forgot to make one. Can anyone help me with this dilemna by providing step by step instructions?:(

[leprechaun_40]

OK, fairly simple really. If you have a 98 SE full install, not the upgrage you can fdisk her machine and format then install. Just be sure she has enough ram, etc. But if I remember right it'll tell you if you don't have the system resourses for it.:t

First, put in the boot disk, boot without Cd support ( you won't need it at this point.) once you are at the A: prompt type in fdisk. Answer yes to whether you want large disk support. Now, there will be a menu for the fdisk. 3 should remove any partitions, answer yes, and once it does that, hit esc. and then reboot. Now, go back to the fdisk and tell it to create the primary DOS partion ( #1 on the menu) and do that. Again, esc once it's done, and reboot. This time you can do it with CD support. You can insert the CD now. Once booted, type format C: and enter.
Once the formatting is finished you can go about the install in one of 2 ways, the fastest and most practical way would be to make a directory on the drive called win98. Then, go to whichever drive is the CD and copy the win98 directory there to the one on the HDD ( you just made that one). Once that is done, type cd\win98 and enter. Now type setup and sit back while 98 installs. The reason for doing it this way is 2 fold.
1. It's actually a faster install from the HDD than from the CD and more importantly,
2. If 98 needs a new driver for hardware or a file to repair itself, they are all right there on the drive and it won't need the CD.
If you choose to install directly off the cd you can, but it'll take a bit longer, it'll take less drive space but you'll need the CD if you have to change hardware or repair windows. I prefer to have the cab files on the drive myself.

Good luck, let us know if you need more than this.:t

[Sterling_Aug]

Any Windows boot floppy can be found here:

http://www.bootdisk.com

[caliphe]

It says proceed with format? I typed y.
Then it says checking existing format. Then it counts percentage.

Now my question is at what point do I and how do I create the directory for win 98? I'm lost right here.:confused:

[BipolarBill]

Commands in order:

C:

md WIN98

E: (or the CD drive letter)

cd WIN98

COPY *.* C:\Win98 /y

C:

cd WIN98

SETUP

[rusty4x4]

Sadly, much was lost when the emphasis went to GUIs.

Ironic though that Windows has evolved to Mac-like ease-of-use (ducks to avoid blows!) but the Mac OS X (http://www.macinstruct.com/tutorials/macosx/index.shtml) is heading full circle, with its basis being UNIX/BSD technology. If MS follows suit, the command line might even get popular again.