Re-installing Windows 98SE - PLZ HELP me before I scream like a little girl...

[Snake]

Sorry to make another thread, but this is unrelated to the last Win98 thread.

Alright. I've gone and done it. My older computer finally started telling me that I needed to reinstall Windows.

So after immense searching over the net, yesterday, I had found an ISO of Windows 98SE with the key included (don't know if it'll actually work, but I got it anyway). Downloaded it, burned it. Also had to do the same with the boot disk since my floppy drive is a fucking cunt.

Here goes my problems again (CDROM this time):
Note: Please keep in mind that I've never had problems with my CDROM drive before...

After the clusterfuck of having to UNCOMPRESS my harddrive before being able to format, which took all day, I was finally able to format.

Formatted.

So I start the computer with the boot disk. Run FDISK and make a new partition.

Partitioned.

Rebooted and formatted c:

Formatted.

Rebooted with the Windows98 CDROM and opened up the CDROM drive

CDROM DRIVE OPEN

I open the directory to make sure everything's there.

Everything's there. I locate SETUP.EXE and type it in...

Code: ags

D:\SETUP
CDR101: Not ready reading drive D:
Abort, Retry, Fail?_

You fuck.

I'm at a loss here. I've tried a million different things, even changing the jumper to Cable Select, which has worked for some people I guess.


I do not need any drivers since they all load automatically. My CDROM is a Toshiba and it doesn't require any additional drivers to run.

I don't understand how it can go from reading information on the CD to not being recognized. I mean, I can open up every directory and look around at all the files, but as soon as I try to setup, bah.

Here's something that you might find interesting:
One of the installation methods I tried in the beginning was copying the contents of the WIN98 directory into c:\CABS. It reads the disk and copies 4 or 5 CAB files and then I get that messege.

What's the issue. I've searched all last night and since 7:00 this morning. Please, what do I do here?

[Dualnames]

Two things, try D:\dir/w

and secondly D:\Setup.exe

Trust me dos, is stupid sometimes..

[Snake]

Setup.exe I tried already ofcourse and I get the same thing.

I tried the D:\Dir/w and it boots the CD, but then gives me the Bad command or filename messege.

[Dualnames]

Perhaps it's not written well, re-burn it and set speed to 1x(slowest)

[monkey0506]

Having taken the role of official overseer of maintenance of the family computer for several years (still on-going in fact) I do know (from when I've done formats for system performance boosts which has been several times) that Windows 98 is very freaking particular about the boot-disk you use to run it. I'm sure you've probably made sure to get a good boot disk, but you might want to try a different one just in-case?

Another thing you might try as well is modifying your BIOS so that it checks for CDs prior to the HDD (if it doesn't already) and try loading the setup directly that way without a boot disk (normally you will have to look for the prompt and press enter or something to load from CD).

[Snake]

I had to burn an ISO of the Win98 boot disk and run fdisk and format off of CD since my floppy drive keeps saying it can't read it.

Anyway, I've reburned the Win98SE CD for the hell of it like Dualnames had suggested and I get the same thing. EXCEPT, this time it's actually telling me what's wrong when I FAIL the drive:

Code: ags

Error in EXE file

There we have it. I guess I'll be looking for another Win98SE ISO

\\--EDIT--\\
What does the FAIL option exactly mean, anyway? I've always wondered that and years ago I was afraid of failing drives since I thought it would render them useless. But it must mean that it tells you why it failed to load?

\\--EDIT2--\\
I was able to copy 47 files to the C drive, but some could not be.

[Ponch]

What does the FAIL option exactly mean, anyway?

If I remember correctly, Fail does the same thing as Abort, but does it more cleanly, without leaving the application unstable. It's been so long, I can't remember exactly how it works, only that when given the choice, you were always supposed to choose fail.

Ah, the halcyon days of DOS. The memories...

[monkey0506]

According to this site I stumbled across the difference between Abort and Fail is implementation-dependent. It says that Fail is supposed to try and attempt to stabilize the program and then abort, whereas Abort just aborts.

So generally you'd probably be safer trying Fail and if fail fails (fail at failing = win?) then try Abort instead.

Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. Best of luck with it.

[arj0n]

There we have it. I guess I'll be looking for another Win98SE ISO

If it wasn't a bad W89SE ISO disk it could have been a bad cable, but that seems not to be the problem...

[Snake]

I've tried 2 different CDROM drives in the past hour and a half and I get the same results.

I was starting to think it was just my drive.

[m0ds]

1 cent, cos I don't have another...Take out the HD, throw the rest of the PC in the bin. Salvaging old computers is like convincing yourself you'll be safe in the fast lane of the M25 on horse & cart.

Good luck!

[Calin Leafshade]

You can't install windows 98.. everyone who knew how to do it has already died.

Its like learning to pronounce latin words.. we can have a good guess but we'll never really know.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

The error you are reporting sounds less like a bad disk (bad disks tend to report individual file errors) and a 'not ready' error tends to indicate a complete failure to access.

What seems to be happening:


You reboot with only the windows 98 cd.  At this point there is no mscdex running and therefore you have no cdrom support.  Try booting up with the boot cd, enable cdrom support, then put in your windows disk and run setup.

Does the bootdisk offer real mode cdrom support?  You might try running mscdex manually (mscdex /D:FULLNAMEOFYOURCDROMDRIVER /L:D).  It is possible that the drivers on that boot cd aren't 100% compatible with your cdrom, also.