Windows XP uninstall help

[Carl]

How do you remove Windows XP and reinstall Windows 98
where you have installed XP as a new installation
(effectively deleting the old operating system) and at
the same time the floppy disk has broken. The system
says that it can not install Win 98 whilst running XP and
the computer needs to be restarted in DOS mode. I have
tried everything I can think of. Can anyone help? Thanks

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Carl.

I don't understand why anybody would want to revert to Win98 from WinXP, but
that's your decision, not mine. If you insist, here's how:

Set your computer to boot from CD first. Insert the WinXP CD-ROM and let it
just begin the Setup process. One of the first options is whether to
repartition and/or reformat your HD. Tell it Yes. Naturally, you'll want
it to use FAT32, not NTFS. Also, read the screens carefully, especially if
you don't want the entire HD in a single partition, because Setup defaults
to using the whole drive. After the reformat is complete, abort the Setup
process.

Then boot from your Win98 CD-ROM and install Win98. It's been so long (5
years?) since I installed Win98 that I've forgotten the steps to do that,
but I'm sure you'll remember.

Of course, you'll want to back up all your data before reformatting. Don't
bother backing up Windows, because you'll be reinstalling from the CD-ROM.
And don't bother backing up your application files; you'll have to reinstall
those from the original media, too.

WinXP can't start in MS-DOS mode because, unlike Win3.x/9x/ME, it was not
built on top of MS-DOS and does not include MS-DOS at all. As you may have
seen, it does include a "DOS" window, but that is only an emulation of true
MS-DOS. The only true MS-DOS thing that WinXP can do is to format an MS-DOS
boot floppy disk. (If your floppy drive is not broken, just right-click on
Drive A: in My Computer and choose to Create an MS-DOS startup disk.)

RC

 

[Guest]

Thanks very much. It's a long story why I need to revert
back to Win 98. Lets just say the good wife used my
Laptops XP system disk to restore the Windows 98 Desktop
and to top it off deleted the original Win 98 operating
system.

As I am not as skilled with this as yourself and others
can I just confirm how to set the computer to boot from
CD first? Is it a matter of just restarting the computer
with the Win XP disk in?

Thanks

Carl

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Carl.

Sorry about the misadventure. ;^{

How to boot from CD depends on your own computer BIOS. For mine (Award
BIOS), I press <DEL> as soon as I turn on the computer. On my daughter's
HP, she must press <F10>. My Uncle's Dell uses <F2>. You'll have to read
the user's manual for your own computer.

Or, mention the make and model and somebody here probably will know the
answer.

RC

 

[Alex Nichol]

How do you remove Windows XP and reinstall Windows 98
where you have installed XP as a new installation
(effectively deleting the old operating system) and at
the same time the floppy disk has broken. The system
says that it can not install Win 98 whilst running XP and
the computer needs to be restarted in DOS mode.

Either if you have a CD burner, download an image of the Win98 startup
floppy from www.bootdisk.com and use a burning program like Nero to make
a bootable CD from it, or go buy a new floppy drive.

You need to boot the Win98 startup one way or the other, then use its
FDISK to delete the present XP partition, make a new DOS Primary and
reboot to FORMAT C:. You can then go to the Win98 CD in the drive and
run SETUP

 

[Alex Nichol]

Then boot from your Win98 CD-ROM and install Win98. It's been so long (5
years?) since I installed Win98 that I've forgotten the steps to do that,
but I'm sure you'll remember.

I have never run into a Win98 CD that is bootable, I'm afraid

 

[R. C. White]

Thanks for the reminder, Alex. As I said, it's been a long time...

RC