lost cabs folder in 98SE

[soundflux]

I'm wanting to overlay new 98SE over the top of the origonal installation in order to keep all my applications and shortcuts etc.
I found an old thread on this site telling me to boot from my boot disk, rename win.com to win.bak, dump contents of 98SE CD into C:\windows\options\cabs then run setup.exe from that same directory.
Trouble is I can't find options\cabs in the windows directory or anywhere else even by using the find command and I've ensured that windows isnt hiding any files by unchecking that in folder options.
Anyone got any ideas whats going on.

[rraehal]

The folder may not be there. I never put files there on the systems I built. I put the files in C:\SUPPORT\WIN98. Simply make the folders and then copy the <CDROM>:\WIN98 directory to the C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS and start the setup process from DOS. (Press F8 when you are booting to get the start up menu and select Command Prompt Only)

[crossedup]

If you still are running the computer in question just do a search for *.cab, the folder it finds a lot of them in is the most likely one you want.

I as well NEVER put them there, I always put them in the root of the drive in a folder called CABS

[Crashman]

Hey, as long as everyone else is putting them in various places, I always put them in C:\Win98. The fewer switches you use the easier, eh? Boot from the CD and change to the CD drive letter (like D:\), type
md c:\win98
Now that you have the folder, change directories. At the D:\ prompt, type
cd win98
And now you can copy everything inside the D:\WIN98 folder to the C:\WIN98 folder:
copy . c:\win98

And you're done. Change directory to c:\win98 and run setup.
c:
cd win98
setup

[rraehal]

I put everything in C:\support including drivers, updates, etc... I burn a CD (or DVD) of the folder after everything is running. If I make a change then I simply update my CD. When I crash, I have everything in one place - including drivers and updates.

[soundflux]

Thanks for the advice that gives me something to go at. by the way do any of you know the significance of renaming win.com before i do the W98 overlay?
I probably won't understand the answer cos I'm not really that brilliant with PC's but it would be handy to know.

[BipolarBill]

WIN.COM is a basic DOS program for bootstrapping Windows (Windows 98 is basically a program that runs from DOS). Since the file is never altered from original, there's not need to keep it. It's best to ditch all files that you don't need before reinstalling.