I'm back w/more ???

[bbwgtr]

Hi there guys & gals, ok this is what I did:

I have a win 98 start up disk, booted to it & it took me through 'startup w/cd rom' it completed its task & then said 'starting system'?? I think? It took me to fdisk, I fdisked and created the first partition & size of partition, c:, went to create another on & it wouldn't let me, kept telling me that it was already done? or something like that?

I then put in 'partition magic'. the program took me to where I could partition & label, etc., the partitions as follows:

c: label-Win 98, type-fat 32, status-active, pri/log-primary.

* no label, type-extended, size-17,477.0, free-0, status-none, pri/log-primary.

d: & f: thru k: type-fat 32, status-none, pri/log-logical.

e: label-miscfat16, type-fat 16b, status-none, pri/log-logical, (I didn't know if this was necessary, if not I will delete it)

I then formatted all partitions.

then it rebooted when I exited & scrolled to 'verifying DMI Pool Data' & then no where else, it just hung up?

I got to a c:prompt & tried to load win98 & it did its thing until 'while copying files needed for windows setup detected a corrupt setup (.cab) file.

Questions:
1. Is fat16 partition necessary?
2. why does it hang up @ 'verifying DMI Pool Data'?
3. So where or how do I correct the problem w/.cab file?

I am almost there, I can feel it in my bones, hopefully someday I can help someone else with a similar problem???

Thanks again, Gayle

[Pantion]

Well seems like you got the partition and format part ok...

The hang up propblem could be because 2 things:

1) You didn't set C as active
2) You tried to boot from C without using the SYS command first to make it bootable

Fdisk should show something like this:

Display Partition Information

Current fixed disk drive: 1

Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
C: 1 A PRI DOS WIN98 9617 FAT32 100%


Total disk space is 9617 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)

Press Esc to continue

Of course if you made several partitions it should show them and their format FAT32, FAT16, NTFS, etc.

Make C partition active, there is an option of FDISK. If it is already active then maybe you forgot to use the SYS command.

FAT16 isn't necessary since you are installing Win98. A partition will receive FAT16 format if its too small so there is no problem with that.

Clean the CD and check it for scratches... if you can't get the cab... well send me a message on ICQ at 19082200 and I'll send it to you... but only from 9am to 12pm. Or I can put it up on a http page I have empty so you can download it any time you want.

[BBA]

Sounds like a hard drive problem or maybe a memory error problem. FAT32 is fine for Win98, FAT16 is becoming a thing of the past nowadays.

Try a low level format on the drive, you can download a low level format utility from the drive manufacturers website, and we can help you through the process.

If you have multiple DIMMs for memory, try taking one or the other out and see if you can eliminate a potential problem that way. (If you have SIMM's, for most PC's, you need pairs of them to function, so you have to have at least one "bank" of 2 simms left if you remove any)

Just think of how good you will feel when you finally figure out the problem yourself!

BBA

[Susan]

Gayle, could you please post what motherboard and CD ROM drive you have and how the CD ROM is hooked up? Also, how is the BIOS seeing the hard drive and CD Drive? Is there a very long pause when the BIOS see's either of them?

[bbwgtr]

Hello, once again,
ok, questions:
1. C: is active, & yes I forgot to use the SYS command first, but I used 'Partition Magic to format & partition HD. Do I still need to use the SYS command & if so can you please go over that one more time. I can't find my notes, sorry.

2. CD clean & no scratches. I just had a thought, can I copy all the cab files from this computer to a floppy & then copy them onto my machine? If so, can you give me 'how to' details?

3. when I tried using fdisk before, it wouldn't let me, however if I look at the partition info from fdisk, having created partitions w/partition magic, would I still see the same thing as you have outlined?

Thanks, once again, Gayle
ps, looking forward to your answers.

[Pantion]

Well no prob. here it goes:

1. Partition Magic only cuts and format drives. So if you want to boot from HD then after booting from a floppy write "sys a: c:"
(supposing you copied sys.com to the floppy or if you used the windows start-up disk creator then it is already on the disk).

2. Well a cab file won't fit into a floppy unless its Extra Density floppy. You'll need a zip drive or something similar. Or if you want it the hard and real slow way... well you need a program like SplitIt and cut each file to fit a floppy and then glue it again. SplitIt creates files that will join the files together without installing SplitIt or need of Win9x (it really uses the copy command to join them, but it works like a charm).

3. Yes you should see a lit of all partitions you have made and show its format for those that FDISK knows and will show UNKNOWN for formats it doesn't support, but don't worry about that... unless it shows UNKNOWN on a partition that should be FAT16 or FAT32; it will mean it needs to be formated.

[bbwgtr]

ok everybody, here goes, I am once again going to be gone for a while trying to load win 98. I'll let you know what happens.
Gayle

[ktwebb]

Forget about copying cabs to a floppy but you should copy your cabs to your hard drive anyway. Copy the entire win98 cd to a directory on your HD and run setu from there. It makes the install quite a bit faster and you wont need the CD everytime you install something. After the install you only need the .cab files so you can delete all the other BS files. Actually you only need the cabs and setup to start with but it is easier to just copy the entire win98 directory and delete the other later.