Sorry for delay in responding but I have very limited Internet access when my
own PC is down!
I ran the Set-up/Reboot cycle five times in a row with the same result each
time - ie another reboot. The system did not hang.
In the light of your further comments, I tried to run chkdsk to see if it
would help. Chkdsk would not check the disk but asked me to run Scandisk
instead. This I did and it found problems with the size of my System.log,
Software.log and TVdebug.log files which is said were "misreported". It also
found that the amount of free space on my C drive was incorrectly reported.
I let Scandisk fix all of these and tried running Setup again. The results,
however, were almost identical. The only difference was that when Setup
started to check my drive it seemed to do so for perhaps five seconds instead
of three seconds previously - but perhaps I am just looking too hard for
signs of improvent!
Unless you have any further suggestions, it looks like the clean install you
suggest might be the only option left? This, however, raises another problem
for me. My XP disk is an "upgrade" disk (SP2) and booting from the CD rom
drive ONLY takes me to the "Setup" screen with the options that I have
already been trying. I do not seem to be able to access anything that gives
me the chance to install. (Do I have to go back and install Windows 98 from
my old Windows 98 disk and then subsequently "upgrade" from it?)
Advice, as always, greatly appreciated.
Having an upgrade XP and OEM Win98 can be problematic. IF the Win98 CD has
the standard Win98 setup files (folder full of cab files and a setup.exe),
then you can do a clean install of XP and insert that CD when prompted as
"proof" of owning the older operating system.
If the Win98 CD is a specialized OEM recovery CD, then it gets a little
sticky.
First consideration: Your hardware is a lot newer than what was around when
Win98 was released. You may have trouble installing it on that criteria
alone.
Second: Some OEM CDs, even in the Win98 era were BIOS locked. Made to
install on an exact set of hardware. Others were customized without the
extra protection of BIOS lock but still designed for specific hardware.
These do not always install well, if at all, on new hardware
configurations.
If you could get Win98 to install... There is a way to reinstall Win98 and
then clean install XP but it's been so long since I've done it, I've
forgotten the exact steps. I just looked this last week for a step by step
guide for someone else and couldn't find one. (When I did it, I had backups
and the luxury of experimenting with different methods).
You could strip down the Win98 setup to bare necessities and then upgrade
it to XP. Most of Win98 will be replaced anyhow due to the differences in
the operating systems. Sometimes this method works in your favor, sometimes
not.
Another thing that you could do - hang on to your Win98 CD as it's the base
for your upgrade license. But for convenience's sake, borrow a friend's
retail CD (if they don't need it any longer, buy it from them) and use it
for the verification step and do a clean install.
"Regular" backups with the last one being in November? I think you need to
re-think your "regular" schedule! ;^)
I've tried many backup and imaging programs through the years. I prefer
imaging programs to backup programs although backup programs are great if
you're just trying to preserve data. Previously, my favorite was Image for
Windows from terabyteunlimited.com. It's still a very fine program but I
have a new favorite that I tried last week - Acronis True Image.
I have Windows and major applications installed on C:, data files (my
documents, outlook's .pst file, OE's data store, etc) are redirected to
another drive. The redirection keeps the size of my Windows partition down
and it fits on a single DVD. I chose to backup to an external hard drive,
another option with these programs. Time to create an image: 10 minutes.
Time to restore an image: 10 minutes.
Sorry to bore you with those details but I think for any backup regiment to
be successful it has to be easily do-able. If it's too complicated or takes
too long, you're going to end up with a November date on your last
"regular" backup.
So what to do about all of that data you stand to lose, hmm.... One
possible solution: If your system can support another hard drive, they're
very reasonably priced these days. You might consider doing your clean
install on a new drive. Then adding your old drive back as a
secondary/slave. Grab your data off of it. Then re-partition and format so
that it can be used for storage.
