I tried every which way (That I know) to reinstall our Win 98se OS without success so far.I had done this previously without too much difficulty,but this time I will need help from someone who can show me how to get past this problem.

Here are some examples of what I tried to do:

1-When I type Format c: / or Format c: in the RUN box,I get the following:

Sorry,I wanted to insert the Screenshot I got here,but looks like things are changed,since I last tried this!! I no longer see the Insert thing anymore! in any case the Screenshot essentially said this:
"Drivec C: is currently in use by another Process"
Aborting Format


I don't know what "Other Process is being used here" as I closed just about everything I know !

2-I can't use the "Win 98 Startup Disk"

3-My CD Drive is not responding,when I insert our "Original Win 98 OS Disk" it eventually opens the "My Computer" Folder !

As usual,I would greatly appreciate all the help I can get to fix this.If more information is needed,pls ask

VAN

You cannot format the drive that windows is currently being run on from within windows.

Windows will lock files to prevent them from being accessed meaning the drive will also be in use. The worst thing one could ever try is to format the C:/ drive with the windows install from inside windows.


What you'll need to do is create a windows boot disk. Done from inside the control panel -> add/remove programs -> startup disk tab. Then boot into MS-dos off that.

Make sure before you exist windows that you have your windows product KEY available. If you don't have it at hand or lost the cd/case with the key, you can get it by:

1) going to start -> run -> regedit
2) navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> software -> microsoft -> windows -> current version and look in the right for "ProductKey" in the right panel.
3) Now boot ontp the startup disk you made earlier
4) Insert your windows98 CD and check to see if drive D: if available.
5) If so, you can either run setup on D:\setup or right now format C: and then run the setup on D:\setup

I just did a reformat and fresh install....last night! Go to Start > Shut Down and choose Restart in MS DOS Mode.

From the C:\ prompt type, format c:

WARNING! This will erase all data on non removable drive C. Do you wish to continue?

Of course you know what to type after that! Next, use your Windows 98 startup disk to choose option 2 upon startup. Option 2 = Start computer with CD ROM support. Once all the drivers have been loaded, then type X:\setup (X being your CD ROM drive letter). You're on your way to a brand new computer!

*EDIT*

I didn't think I needed to mention this, but make sure you have your Windows 98 CD in the drive before typing X:\setup! And as Chozo4 has mentioned, make sure you have the product key. I'd also add that you should have ALL installation discs for your various programs handy as well as device driver discs/diskettes, and a few hours of free time to reinstall everything, depending on how much you had on your system.

Thank you so very much Chozo4 and Daniel-J for your quick replies to my problem.Really appreciated.Tomorrow morning,I will tackle this task again,and let you know how it went.
BTW,Why was I not able to include my Screenshot in my previous Posting?Checked all over,
could not find the right button to do so.Thanks again.

VAN

Personally, I see it best to just move whatever you had on your desktop to a folder like C:\moved and then startup with your windows98 boot disk and type:



Then do as you would a reinstall. This way the old registry is not reused and files are overwritten as neccessary ALso your driver files are still available, most of your programs will still not need to be reinstalled as they are still in C:\program files, and you'll be running on a relatively fresh install again without the need for a reformat.

A complete reformat is really too drastic of a measure >.>

Hi Chozo4,
Thanks for the suggestion.But as I indicated before,I can't ...Start with my Win 98 Boot Disk or anything else for that matter.I know it's Drastic to reinstall,but I'll have peace of mind afterwards.
I have everything backed up on CD's.
Any thoughts about the Screenshot thing? Thanks.

Van

Create a new start up disk.

I forgot how this can be done thought...

Thanks,

I already did this, as per Chozo4 Postintg #2 above.

VAN

Hi,
I'm back to report on my lack of progress in re-installing our Win 98se OS. (Actually.it's a Disaster!)
As per Chozo4's suggestion "Quote:What you'll need to do is create a windows boot disk. Done from inside the control panel -> add/remove programs -> startup disk tab. Then boot into MS-dos off that."I already had a "Win 98 Start up Disk" that I have used previously with no problem.
Then as per Daniel-J's suggestions,I did the following:
1-Re started in MS Dos mode
2-At C:\ prompt,typed "format C"
3-After this all got done,I got "C:\> where I added A:
4-At A:> I restarted the Puter and tried rebooting from the"Win 98 Start up Disk"
5-Now I get "Invalid System Disk,Replace the Disk and then press any key"6-I do so(Note: there's no disk inserted here !I guess it's referring to the Hard Disk !) and I
keep getting the same error message.
7-I changed the Bios setup "Boot" to "Atapi CD Rom".inserted our Win 98se OS cd" and
keep getting the same "error message as above"
I've tried all kinds of combinations to fix this with no luck.Can anyone help me fix this mess?
Thanks again to you all.

VAN

You need to format c: /s
To copy system files across and make it bootable
Your bios needs also to have your floppy drive as the first boot option and should boot your win98 start up disk

Where's that "Win 98 startup Disk" at that point ? In your hand ???

sometimes the message that you see on your pc appears in mine; i have solved it disabling the search of floppy at startup in bios setup
After this you have to insert the boot disk for reinstalling
Newbie1

After formating C:, you don't need to restart your computer (It obviousely won't show much).
Just go to the drive containing the Windows 98 installation files, for example D: if the installation CD-Rom is inserted into the D: drive, then type setup.

Then sit down back on your chair, relax and read the Windows98 "new" features.

now because you have reformated already, I suggest that you restart your PC with the boot floppy inserted, and do as above (without re-reformating).

Thanks Oscardog,

Quote:You need to format c: /s
To copy system files across and make it bootable
Your bios needs also to have your floppy drive as the first boot option and should boot your win98 start up disk

Yes,I did that at first.In Bios "Boot" it showed as "Legacy Floppy" and I tried Booting with the Win 98 start up disk.
I do this again and,I keep getting the same Error Message! Thanks.

Van

Hi Ponch,

Come on now! I'm a newbie but not that bad!! (Smile) Of course it was in the Floppy Drive.

VAN

Hi Newbie 1,
I tried your suggestion without success,I keep getting the same error message.I was'nt 100% sure on how to do this,so anywhere in the BIOS where it mentioned "Legacy Floppy" I Disabled and re booted with the "Win 98 start up Disk" !
Was there a specific way of doing this? Thanks.

VAN

Thanks Fred.......

Quote:now because you have reformated already, I suggest that you restart your PC with the boot floppy inserted, and do as above (without re-reformating).

I've done that a dozen times and,I keep getting that darn Error Message each time,
I'm getting desperate,as this is my wife's Computer and I'm being hounded to fix it (smile).Thanks.

VAN

Definitely it seems like you have some problems in putting the DOS System files on C:.

Maybe you should re-start from the beginning.

Get a DOS 7.x Win9x) bootdisk and boot from it, this one is suitable:
http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/98.html
http://www.allbootdisks.com/downloads/Disk...No_Ramdrive.exe

Run FDISK and create one or more partiions from scratch.

Reboot.

Run FORMAT C: /s

Take the floppy out and try to boot.

jaclaz

When you've got antivirus stuff in the BIOS setup, disable it before trying to format C:. This 'feature' disables writing to the bootsector.

That's surprising because, normaly, when you boot on the floppy, it should work no matter what's on drives other than A:.
I can see either a hardware defect (floppy drive or memory) or the floppy disk damaged/unreadable.

Grab one of those floppies Jaclaz pointed to, create the physical media, try it in your other PC (try to boot from it, don't format anything of course). If it works, and preferably if you have CDROM access as well after boot, retry on your 1st machine. If it does not work, your floppy drive is defct or you haven't setup your BIOS properly (do you see the led on when it tries to read the floppy at startup ?).
If you can't bot from floppy, try to make a bootable CDROM with that floppy as the "boot image" and try to boot from it.
If you can do that and get a letter for the cdrom after boot, then you are saved. Pop in you Win98 install cd and launch the install.

Hi Jaclaz,
As you suggested,I went to this site "http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/98.html" to Download v 7.x and they only had v 6.25.From Wikipedia I saw their mention of V 7.1 and Googled and downloaded v 7.1 from Vetusware.com.Of course this had to go on a CD as it is 2.6 mb.I also downloaded on a Floppy Disk your other suggestion as below: http://www.allbootdisks.com/downloads/Disk...No_Ramdrive.exe
Although,I did'nt know whether that would reboot the Computer,I tried it and got this error message"Invalid system disk,replace the disk,and then press any key" So much for that!
Now,as far as v 7.1 Boot Disk (2.6 mb),it includes 2 versions,that is v 7.1.2 and 7.1.3,each at 1.44 mb.Of course each was too large for a Floppy Disk!I burned v 7.1.2 on a cd-rw disk, (re adjusted the BIOS to cd-rom) and tried re booting with it.I got the same error message as above.
I inserted a disk in the Floppy Disk Drive of my Win XP puter,and under Format I noticed that,I could create a MS-DOS Startup Disk,so I did one,and rebooted the Win 98 puter with it,and to my surprise, it opened with MS Windows Millennium.and " A:\>" !!My joy was short lived. I entered many different codes and combinations at this prompt, to no avail.I always got that dreaded error message.I guess the above will only work with XP !Can you or anyone else provide more suggestions to resolve this problem.Thanks.

VAN

Thanks for that Mijzelf,I'LL keep that in mind.

VAN

Hi Fredledingue,

Quote:That's surprising because, normaly, when you boot on the floppy, it should work no matter what's on drives other than A:.
I can see either a hardware defect (floppy drive or memory) or the floppy disk damaged/unreadable.

The Floppy Drive seems ok(as evidenced by reply to Jaclaz above).As far as the Floppy disk damaged/unreadable as you suggest.How else can I check that out?It worked ok a couple of weeks ago! Thanks for your help.

VAN

Quote:Grab one of those floppies Jaclaz pointed to, create the physical media, try it in your other PC (try to boot from it, don't format anything of course). If it works, and preferably if you have CDROM access as well after boot, retry on your 1st machine. If it does not work, your floppy drive is defct or you haven't setup your BIOS properly (do you see the led on when it tries to read the floppy at startup ?).
If you can't bot from floppy, try to make a bootable CDROM with that floppy as the "boot image" and try to boot from it.
If you can do that and get a letter for the cdrom after boot, then you are saved. Pop in you Win98 install cd and launch the install.
Hi Ponch,
I think,I've pretty well answered your above queries,in my reply to Jaclaz !Thanks for trying to help,really appreciated here.
VAN

@Evanhoe
I really don't get what you are talking about, (v 6.25, 7.12, etc.)

Just:
1) Download this file on a machine running Win9x/NT/2K/XP/2003:
http://www.allbootdisks.com/downloads/Disk...No_Ramdrive.exe
2) double click on it, insert a blank formatted floppy and let it create the 98 (DOS 7.1) bootdisk
3) insert the floppy in the unbootable machine and boot from it
4) at the A:\ prompt type FDISK [ENTER]
Follow this guide on how to use FDISK:
http://fdisk.radified.com/
you need to create a Primary Active partition
5) reboot the machine leaving the floppy in
6) at the A:\ prompt type FORMAT C: /s [ENTER]
7) remove the floppy and reboot the machine

jaclaz

Remove the floppy drive and test it on another computer. Nothing from what I'v read above proves that the floppy drive is working properly. Maybe it works only unproperly.
More puzzling is that you got the same error message when attempting to boot from the bootable CD-R. Here again it's not a scientific proof that the floppy drive is working, but rather that such type of boot disk (on CD-RW on top of that) is not compatible with your system.

If the floppy drive is not working it will explain many things.


I'v replaced my floppy drive twice already. And one week before I did, it was also still working.
Hardware problem are those we loose the most time on because we thing they are software problems.
HTH

what kind of floppy are we talking about here ???? 1.44 is the size of a floppy.


I didn't know XP makes WinME boot disks. I can't test here as I'm typing on a portable without floppy. Anybody confirm ?

Sure it does , though it is not a "full" floppy.

FYI, some info about it and some other ways to create it/get the files:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16745
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18896

jaclaz

Hi Jaclaz,
Geez,I thought I was exposing what I had done quite clearly! I guess I'm going to work harder at it(Smile)
As per your renewed instructions, I have re-downloaded" http://www.allbootdisks.com/downloads/Disks/Windows_98_Boot_Disk_Download49/Windows98_SE_No_Ramdrive.exe
on my Win XP machine (I can't on the Win 98 one),and did as you suggested in 2 to 7.While it was doing it's thing,I noticed it detected" Secondary Slave CD Rom,which is E Drive" Usually it detects The D Drive,which is the Secondary Master CD Rw Drive !!I finally choose "Start Computer with CD Rom support" Later it shows"Success loading Drive D" then I get this"Your CD Rom is Drive E" !
At the "A:\> prompt I type in D:\setup /P i and I get"Bad command or file name" I then restart,and tried with "E:\setup /p i" and got this:"CDR 101 not reading drive E" abort....
BTW: I downloaded and read and re read the following as you asked" Follow this guide on how to use FDISK:
http://www.msfn.org/board/ipb_seo.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffdisk.radified.com%2FI really don't know where to go from here.Can you provide more help with this.Thanks.
VAN

@evanhoe

Don't take this the wrong way, really, but where have you seen in my steps :


If you actually do what I listed in steps 3) to 7) you WON'T have anymore a A:\> prompt as in step 7) you REMOVED the floppy (or should have done so)

Possible explananation of why we seem not to understand each other:
I (and most of the other members that tried to help you) tried to make you install DOS on the hard disk BEFORE running the SETUP on CD.
You are trying to directly run the SETUP from floppy (which should theoretically work, but that it does not because of the following)

Now that you have described your hardware, it is possible that you are NOT succeeding because you have TWO CD-ROM's and it seems like one of the two (the CDRW probably) is not "seen" correctly.

SO, first thing, enter the BIOS of your machine and DISABLE one of the two CD-ROM drives, the CDRW.

Then, please do exactly as in the steps I suggested (forget for the moment about your Win98 CD, the command SETUP, just do that) and report if you can boot from C:\ drive, we were not able to understand if there is an actual problem in FDISKing/FORMATting your hard disk.

If you were not able to understand the usage of FDISK from the linked to site, try following this step by step:
http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/software...grade/fdisk.htm
and/or this one, containing actual screenshots:
http://www.perfectdrivers.com/howto/fdisk-format.html

jaclaz

Or setup.exe is not on the root of D:, but in a "Win98" or "install" directory so you get "Bad command or file name" trying on D and "not ready reading drive E" as there's no media in it.

setup.exe is in the folder "win98" on the CD.

Good Morning to you Jaclaz,
I will try and follow your instructions to the letter (As I usually try !),and come back with results.
DTW:Regarding your instruction # 7 (in your previous posting) I did that"Remove the Floppy and reboot the machine" and after a couple of minutes I got "C:\>" and because I had no further instructions from you,I typed in codes that I believe worked a few months back !Thanks for all your help and patience.

VAN

Hi again Jaclaz,
Quote:Now that you have described your hardware, it is possible that you are NOT succeeding because you have TWO CD-ROM's and it seems like one of the two (the CDRW probably) is not "seen" correctly.

SO, first thing, enter the BIOS of your machine and DISABLE one of the two CD-ROM drives, the CDRW.
I don't see the CD RW drive at all in the BIOS,so can't Disable!The odd thing though,is that before I attempted to reinstal originally,it was working,but the CD Rom was not at that time.

I downloaded and read your #2 Fdisk (Inc Screenshots) Web site suggestion which is great,but in the end I'm left to decide what to enter at the C:\> prompt !! Where do I go from here? Thanks again.

VAN

You need to get there I think :

A:\> format C:\

Hi Eidenk,
I'm well pass that I'm afraid !I need to know what I'm supposed to type in after I get the following prompt: "C:\>" ? Can you or anyone else help with this?

VAN

Hi Lecco,
Sorry i'm late with my reply.I'm not exactly clear as to what you mean here?If you mean the Win 98se OS disk,then as I said before,I just can't open Setup in my "D" Drive to go from there.Thanks.

VAN

Hi Ponch,
Sorry I'm late with my response.If what your saying is a probable cause,fo my problem,can you suggest a fix for this?Thanks.

VAN

HI Fred...

I'm a bit late,but to answer your query,the Floppy Drive works ok,since i'm able to Boot up with the "Win 98_se_no_Ramdrive" bootup disk!
My CD RW and CD Rom drives,that's where it appears to be the problem from what I read here!
Hope we can fix soon.Thanks.

VAN

Boot with the floppy.
Do format c: /s
Do d: (where d is the letter of your CD-ROM drive)
Do cd win98
Do setup

Sorry but as this thread is getting very confused I thought you had not formatted yet.

You want to run setup now, is that correct ?

That is the bit you missed when so close to the goal, instead of "D:\setup /P i", you need to type "D:\win98\setup /P i"

Quote:That is the bit you missed when so close to the goal, instead of "D:\setup /P i", you need to type "D:\win98\setup /P i"

Hi Ponch,
I rebooted with the "Win 98 Boot up Disk" and at the A:\> prompt,I typed "D:\Win98\setup /P i" as you suggested and I got this error message"CDR101: Not ready reading drive D".
Note:When booting up,and just before the A:\ prompt thing comes along,it reads as follows:

A:\>a:\mscdex.exe /D:CD_Rom
MSDEX Version 2.25
Copyright © Microsoft Corp 1986-1995.All rights reserved
Drive D: =Driver CD_Rom Unit 0

What does that mean?Thanks for all your help,

VAN

Quote:Sorry but as this thread is getting very confused I thought you had not formatted yet.

You want to run setup now, is that correct ?

Hi eidenk,
Yah,right from the start I'm afraid.This is so frustrating,and a waste of everybodies time.Thanks.

VAN

Quote:Boot with the floppy.
Do format c: /s
Do d: (where d is the letter of your CD-ROM drive)
Do cd win98
Do setup


Hi BenoitRen,
Thanks for trying to help.Done all the above before,and as I indicated to Ponch (see error message I get) I can't "Setup".Thanks.

VAN

Sorry if I missed something again but can't you just boot the computer with the setup CD ?

Quote:Sorry if I missed something again but can't you just boot the computer with the setup CD ?

Hi eidenk;
No,I can't,either with my D Drive or the E Drive!See my queries to Ponch and Jaclaz for what's involved here.If you can help,and need more details,pls ask,Thanks.

VAN

Did you disconnect anything in between ? Can you try puting the cd in your other drive and retype "D:\Win98\setup /P i" ?

This means the boot floppy loads cdrom drivers and one of your drives has received the letter D. You probably have one FAT partition on your HD that's called C:.

Have you tried unplugging one of your CD drives ?