[Alanoll]

I'm interested in hearing all of your problems with installing Windows 98? not 95, as I haven't gotten to that yet

I've been running a few tests with a different way to get the CDROM letter and so far they are running flawless.

I'm curious as to your problems so I can try and emulate it and see if the new way works....try and be specific. Not like, mine doesn't work. it Just freezes. When does it freeze, how have you edited the floppy image, so on and so forth.

[Alanoll]

i should probally point out, any errors regarding can not access harddrive after Windows is "installed" don't count. You're most likely trying to install Windows ona multiprocess/hyperthreading system. Windows has problems with that.

[evilvoice]

uhm, what is this in reference to...I dont have any problems installin 98, or are you talkin about special installs?

[Alanoll]

some people have reported problems on installing Windows 98 and finding the right drive. Others say Windows setup stalls, and a few other things.

So i've been working on another way to get it to work.

[daywalker03]

@Alanoll My problem is that once I get to the point of formatting the hard drive it keeps asking for me to insert the Windows 98 CD. I'm using 98se OEM on a Multi-boot DVD built using flyakite's guide, including the disk images on his site.

[Alanoll]

what do you use to format? fdisk? or partition magic?

when does it ask for the disk? still in dos? or during the Windows Setup screens?

[daywalker03]

I haven't burned it to DVD yet since I don't want to do that til I have it working right before I do that. Even if I fdisk from a DOS prompt in Virtual PC, 98se won't format the drive in DOS mode. It errors out with " Please insert Windows 98 CD-ROM or floppy and press Enter."

[Alanoll]

you still haven't told me, when does it say this?

be SPECIFIC!

WHEN DOES IT HAPPEN!

fdisk only creates the partition, you still have to format it before you can use it.

have you tried copying hte install files to the virtual hdd before starting?

[Noise]

For my Windows98SE AIO CD I used a boot floppy image to boot the cdrom. In the floppy image I have scripts that check the volume label of the drive, if it doesn't see READY98 as the volume label it prompts you to format the disk.

I use GDISK (freeware) to partition and format the disk and set the volume label all in one big swoop. Then reboot.

The next boot it checks the label again and see's everything is groovy. It copies all the setup files to the hard disk and runs setup from there. I use a script to create an unattend.txt file.

I've used this process since (believe it or not) Windows95 - yes I even have a Windows95 AutoBuild CD. I wish this web site was around back then!

[Alanoll]

well, I"ve been using OEMSETUP.EXE and it partitions and formats for you. Then it runs setup.

[Noise]

What? OEMSETUP.EXE does that? ****. Does it run from DOS? If so, does it Partition/Format/Run Setup without a reboot, allowing files to be copied to the new C: drive?

[Alanoll]

It partitions, then reboots (tells you first ), then in your boot menu or if it's just a normal disk, you let it boot back into the floppy (image or real) and start OEMSetup.exe again, and it will then format it (on its own) and then runs setup.

[Noise]

Ah OK, I feel bettter. You had to reboot. Thought some black magic was going on I didn't know about

[Alanoll]

lol.

well come to think of it, i think there is a no reboot switch....lol.

[daywalker03]

@Alanoll, that's exactly what mine is not doing... It boot from the DVD image in Virtual PC, goes through the start up, tells me it needs to format the disk, at which point I get the error I posted. I thought I was being specific enough...

[Alanoll]

does Windows 98 EVER come up at the top of the screen? with theWindows logo to the left of it?

Or does it still look like dos.

That's what I meant by when does it happen.

If it's dos, make sure you have the PATH set correctly to your install files



If anyone else has any problems speak up, but BE SPECIFIC! I need to know EXACTLY when it happens. daywalker's error can come at ANY point of the install. If i'm even going to attempt to configure a setup to match yours I need to know the specifics. BE DESCRIPTIVE!

[daywalker03]

I was trying to get a screen capture so you could see exactly the error I'm getting. It's still in DOS. I'm using flyakite's 98se disk image, so I think the path is set right. For what it's worth, if I manually partition and format, OEMSetup will start the installation. Figure that out...

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

Alanoll I set the CD rom letters up as you described in other post as below, however during the dos setup it complains the drivers cannot be found on either drive d or e & if i swap to the other DVD drive it complains it can't find the driver on drive e or d. Im a little lost on this one?

@ECHO OFF
set EXPAND=YES
SET DIRCMD=/O:N
set LglDrv=27 * 26 Z 25 Y 24 X 23 W 22 V 21 U 20 T 19 S 18 R 17 Q 16 P 15
set LglDrv=%LglDrv% O 14 N 13 M 12 L 11 K 10 J 9 I 8 H 7 G 6 F 5 E 4 D 3 C
cls
call setramd.bat %LglDrv%
set temp=c:\
set tmp=c:\
path=%RAMD%:\;a:\;%CDROM%:\
copy command.com %RAMD%:\ > NUL
set comspec=%RAMD%:\command.com
copy extract.exe %RAMD%:\ > NUL
copy readme.txt %RAMD%:\ > NUL

:ERROR
IF EXIST ebd.cab GOTO EXT
echo Please insert Windows 98 Startup Disk 2
echo.
pause
GOTO ERROR

:EXT
%RAMD%:\extract /y /e /l %RAMD%: ebd.cab > NUL
echo The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive %RAMD%.
echo.
LH %ramd%:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:%CDROM%
IF EXIST D:\Win51 Set CDROM=D:
IF EXIST E:\Win51 Set CDROM=E:
IF EXIST F:\Win51 Set CDROM=F:
IF EXIST G:\Win51 Set CDROM=G:
IF EXIST H:\Win51 SET CDROM=H:
echo.
cls
echo Now installing Windows 98 SE
echo.
echo Loading...
path=%RAMD%:\;a:\;%CDROM%:\SETUP\98SE\WIN98\
OEMSETUP.EXE
echo.
GOTO QUIT

:QUIT
echo To get help, type HELP and press ENTER.
echo.
rem clean up environment variables
set CDROM=
set LglDrv=

Have I setup the batch file correctly to call the relevant drive?

[Alanoll]

hmmm, Mav that's a doosy....
seems like it should work....
have you tried changing the file?
In your config.sys are you loading the CDROM drivers to begin with.

[Alanoll]

daywalker03, on Apr 8 2004, 10:37 PM, said:

I was trying to get a screen capture so you could see exactly the error I'm getting. It's still in DOS. I'm using flyakite's 98se disk image, so I think the path is set right. For what it's worth, if I manually partition and format, OEMSetup will start the installation. Figure that out... 

what does your Autoexec.bat look like?