Windows 98 SE installation (first boot)

[Markoman01027]

After Windows 98 SE installation, I rebooted and it went into hardware detection. After it detected my Video card, I installed the drivers, and then I think for like another drive or something like that, a dialog box asked me "please insert windows 98 disk" so I did, and then another dialog box came up saying something like "Windows cannot find the file <filename> on the disk or on the cd. Please locate it" then I would get like OK, CANCEL, SKIP, BROWSE, HELP, DETAILS, and what I would do is search for the file on my system, and I couldn't find it there, so I would look on the cd, but the file wasn't there. So I had to cancel or skip. I booted fine into the desktop, and then I rebooted cause I installed some more drivers, but during bootup, I got messages saying like windows needs this file to start. Please refer to system.ini or something like that for the file reference or try reinstalling the program. Press Continue to load into Windows".

I was wondering how I could prevent that? I mean I couldn't find any of those files on the 98 cd or even on the drivers disk. The samething happens on my old computer when I finished installing windows 95.

Anybody got any solutions? I would really appreciate it..

-Matt

[Cricket]

Hi Markoman01027,

Could you list the parts used in this computer.

Make sure the IDE cables are oriented correctly: red stripe to pin 1, blue connector to motherboard, black connector to master hard drive and grey connector to slave drive. Drive jumpers set to CS (cable select).

Are you sure the RAM is good?

Go to the drive manufacturer's website and download the diagnostic utilities and test the hard drive.

Make sure the power connector from the power supply is connected tight to the hard drive.

Have you tried copying the Win98 folder from the CD to the hard drive and install Windows from there?

When you're installing the OS, do you have everything installed on the motherboard already or just the bare necessities?

When you point the installer to the CD, you sometimes have to point it all the way to the Win98 folder.

:) Cricket

[Markoman01027]

hmmm...if I ever do install windows 98 again, I will just simplify the setup..Only install win 98 with video, memory, cpu, hard drive, cd-rom, and floopy.

[HackinCowboy]

It couldn't hurt to just install with the bare min. components. It sounds like you just couldn't find the proper drivers. Like Cricket suggested, sometimes you need to path all the way to the folder. Also what you could do is when you do finally get the machine up and running, write down exactly what drivers you're using and where you found them. What I mean by where is basically the exact path on the CD or diskette.

[Markoman01027]

Yeah, also I can just write down the files that I am missing(mostly they were .vxd files) and I can get them off from the net, and if I cant, I will just remove them from the system.ini file. Maybe I was pointing it to the wrong directory, but who knows. Ohwell, no big deal, gonna use win xp anyways, but in the future if I ever need to use win 98, I will do what you guys suggested..thanks

-Matt

[redbaron_snoopy]

You can still make a "WIN98" directory in your c drive and copy the contents of the win98 directory from your cd into it. In future if win98 files are needed, you can then just path it to the c:\win98 folder instead of dealing with the CD.

If you install win98 in the future, you can do the same as above and run setup in c:\win98 directory. All future file needs will automatically be pointed to this directory.

[gladiator]

I'm getting .VxD error messages also. For instance After i burn a cd A blue error screen comes up and says I have missing VxD. file to hardware , please run win setup

It doesn't give you much info about the VxD files?
one was
vf.vxd
redir.vxd

[Cricket]

Originally posted by gladiator
I'm getting .VxD error messages also. For instance After i burn a cd A blue error screen comes up and says I have missing VxD. file to hardware , please run win setup

It doesn't give you much info about the VxD files?
one was
vf.vxd
redir.vxd You might find an answer here: Missing .vxd Files (http://www.computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/245.html) Don't know what that vf.vxd file is.

Have you done a full virus scan with updated definitions lately?

:) Cricket

[Markoman01027]

Not yet. But I don't think it's a virus. A lot of people told me that the windows 98 SE tended to be buggy, by not providing the .VXD files.

-Matt

[redbaron_snoopy]

Well, win 98SE is not bad really. Better that WinMe, IMHO.
Coming back to your original post, did you see any yellow exclamation marks under "Device Manager" in "System" of Control Panel ?

Is the video driver the correct one ? What did it say about the "adaptor" in "advance settings" of the "display" in Control Panel ?

[Markoman01027]

I didn't see any exclamation marks, because I installed the video card correctly. Just that I couldn't find the .VXD files that setup asked for to find, so therefor, everytime at bootup, I would have a message saying Windows needs this file, please press spacebar to continue loading into windows.
The adaptor in advanced settings said Geforce 4 MX 420, that is the card that I have.

Thanks!

-Matt

[gladiator]

I went to the link that cricket supplied, there was not much help for me except thaat I found out that this a problem thats been around a while. and very common it seems.

I found a link WWW.techadvice.com Not sure where I got it ?? maybe through pcmech not sure. Anyway they have a lot of info on VXD error messages and solutions (alll but mine).

I got a clean reformat new win98 install soon as I install my DSL-for the ehternet card -BOOM _ I start getting the vfs.vxd redir.vxd error mesages . well at least I got my ATI drivers installed and working