Spin_Star wrote:
> Ok Friends...You are welcome to rip into me as much as you want, but I
> really
> need some help here. I did something stupid. Bought a retired
> government PC. .Inexpensive, a nice Dell, big CRT monitor, and a
> TOTALLY scrubbed hard drive in accordance to DOD regulations.
>
> Not doing my research first and being a total techno-ignoramus, I
> brought my Dell WindowsXP Prof. Recovery disk from work and put it
> into the PC when I
> first started it. It looked as though installation was going fine and
> I was
> going to save a couple hundred dollars. Of course I don't have the
> key code
> and installation remains incomplete. Not only was that stupid, now
> I've read that it may be illegal!?!?
>
> Since then, I've purchased an unopened/uninstalled copy of Win98se at
> a
> garage sale. Windows XP wont let me uninstall, format, or nothing. I
> tried looking for osuninst.exe but there’s missing registration info
> and the ever
> drastic C:\ format from SafeMode with command prompts.
> Nothing…Nothing works. All I want to do is undo this horrible install
> and legitimately install the
> Win98 I acquired. I'm not great with code and so most of the
> Microsoft
> support is too technical for me. What can I do and how can I do it
> without spending what it would cost to buy a new cheap machine?
Try Linux? ;-) Seriously, you may have difficulties in finding drivers
for Win98 for the hardware in that box. You can try, although I don't
recommend it if you plan to go on the Internet with that box. So your
first step is to go to Dell's tech support site for that specific model
computer and see if there are drivers for Win98. If there are, download
them and burn to cd-r. If there are no drivers, forget it and see my
last paragraph. If there are drivers, to install Win98:
1. You need a Win98SE boot floppy with cd-rom support. If you don't have
one, get one from
www.bootdisk.com.
2. Boot with the boot floppy and you'll now be at the A: prompt.
A:>fdisk [enter]
Delete all the partitions that you find and create a new one. Reboot
after you're finished with fdisk and leave the boot floppy in the
drive.
3. A:>format [enter]
When the formatting is finished, reboot - again, leaving the floppy in
the drive.
4. A:>c: [enter] (you're changing to the C:\ drive)
C:>mkdir win98 [enter]
C:>D: [enter] (you're changing back to the cd-rom drive)
D:>copy win98 C:\win98 [enter] - files copy
D:>cd C:\win98 [enter] (you're changing back to the Win98 directory you
made on the C:\ drive)
C:\win98>setup [enter] - The Win98 installation setup begins
After the installation is finished, install all your drivers, an
antivirus that works in Win98 (F-Prot still does, you'll need to check
around first for others) and a firewall that works in Win98 (don't know
of one offhand, you'll need to research this first). Don't go on the
Internet with that box without a firewall and av in place.
Sure you still want to do this? Linux is free. A good distro for
beginners is Kubuntu. Or go to the store and buy Windows XP Home
Edition Upgrade and use the Win98SE disk for the qualifying media.
Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
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