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General discussion

Clean Install of Windows 95 to Windows 98SE

Mar 17, 2004 7:08PM PST

I am helping out a large Infants Primary Public School who have quite a number of older computers that are malfunctioning [They having problems of having no computers for some of the classrooms] These Computers used in class rooms by five to six year old students who supervised by teachers using educational programs.

They have a number of Windows 95 which have been some time ago had been updated to Windows 98SE.

Can you direct me with a "link" to articles of instructions so as to enable me to do a "Clean" Install of the Windows 98SE on these Windows 95.
Yes I did search this afternoon on the internet and somehow could not find a reference to same. Most references relate to only to install over Windows 95???
Also please advise can you reformat the hard drive and then do a clean restore with Windows 98SE

I know you would understand that there are quite a number of schools out there with only limited funds and I am willing to help them out! They have been able to supply me with the Program Disks!
Your help would be appreciated
Regards
Colin Darby [Australia]

Discussion is locked

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Re:Clean Install of Windows 95 to Windows 98SE
Mar 17, 2004 8:33PM PST

The best thing indeed: format, then install Windows 98 SE from CD. Get a boot diskette with CD support from www.bootdisk.com, if necessary.
Be sure you have all necessary drivers; use belarc for example to find out the current hardware. But when a machine is old enough, Windows 98 SE will recognise the hardware and install good enough drivers.

Then get the 'critical update' CD from Microsoft and apply the patches. If you're sure these PC's won't be connected to the Internet, this isn't really necessary.

Good luck,


Kees

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How To Format Using W98SE
Mar 18, 2004 8:53PM PST

You will need a retail full version CD and its boot disk of W98SE. And upgrade W98SE will not work.

With computer off, insert the floppy bootdisk and turn computer on.

When a command prompt appears, type:

Format C:

and press Enter key.

A warning will appear stating that all data will be lost. Continue y/n? Press the y key and then Enter, and formatting will begin. Do not stop process once started.

When formatting is complete, press Enter key and turn computer off.

With boot disk still in computer, turn computer back on, and quickly insert the W98SE CD.

A list of options will appear with a counter counting down. Let the counter finish counting and computer will automatically start loading W98SE.

If boot disk will not format computer, then it must be modified before using to format computer. Here is how:

Modify Boot Disk Windows 98 SE: Retail version boot disk must be modified before it can be used to format hard drive.
Insert boot disk and turn computer on.
When prompt A:/> appears, set it up like the following:
A:/>extract ebd.cab format.com
Press Enter
Boot disk is now ready to be used to format hard drive.

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Re:How To Format Using W98SE
Mar 25, 2004 1:26AM PST

Quote: "You will need a retail full version CD and its boot disk of W98SE. And upgrade W98SE will not work."

No you don't and yes it will.

It will just ask to see your Win 95 disk on installation so that it can verify you have an OS that qualifies for upgrade. A Windows 3.1x install disk will probably work too.

Do the Windows/Options/Cabs install too, that's good advice.

The only other thing I would suggest is that if you have a whole lot of machines to do, start with one that has a burner and partition the drive. Install to one partition and then make a Norton Ghost to the other. Burn the Ghost file to a CD and then do the other install from the Ghost CD. Your install will take five minutes instated of 30-60 minutes.

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Re:Clean Install of Windows 95 to Windows 98SE
Mar 18, 2004 10:57PM PST

I have used the following procedure to have an older computer rise out of the ashes of totally messedupness!

boot up the system with a win98se boot disk selecting boot with cdrom support.

at the a:/ prompt type fdisk

delete all partitions one at a time

then reset you primary partition to full size with 32bit support

reboot with cdrom support
E: is probably your cdrom drive since the floppy boot disk will set up a ram drive as d:
SO go to e:/win98 directory and type format c:
this will reformat the harddrive at the best level for win98se.
put your win98se disk into the cdrom drive

once formatted type these commands
c:
md windows (enter)
md windows\options (enter)
md windows\options\cabs (enter)
copy e:\win98\*.* c:\windows\options\cabs (enter)

you may need to change d: above to e: since the win98se boot disk sets d as a ram drive and sets the cdrom as e:

now you are set to install win98se
type the following:
c:\ (enter)
cd\windows\options\cabs (enter)
setup (enter)
and away it goes----
this method of installation is considered an IT standard setup---it allows for no need to use the setup cd or floppy disk again even if hardware or drivers are needed in the future.

Hope this helps! has worked multiple times for me!

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Re:Clean Install...be sure you have your product key
Mar 22, 2004 9:23PM PST

the w98se cd will not have the product key printed on it. email me reefurbb@yahoo.com if you can't find it. it is 5 sets of 5 letter-number combos: example: kk22h p37vb fqfdd 4prgf x2k9d. No key...no install.
A safe way I use, if you have the hard drive space, is to slave the hdd on another pc and put all the current files into a new folder "old 95" for example. Then after w98 install if you need drivers, look into that folder, into windows, into inf folder.
NOTE: on clean install, ALL 95 info and programs will be wiped out. Being a school, the PC is probably networked and that's a whole 'nother story.