OS installation not going well

[MaLfUnCtIoN]

i put my 80 gig seagate in and reformatted my maxtor 40 gig.

so i'm trying to install 98se. i put in the boot disc and the cd-rom at startup. i type d: and get the d prompt (not sure of my cd-rom name as i never had 2 hd's). at the d prompt i type setup. it runs scandisk and that's it. so i exit. it then goes to a black screen that says copying files. but it's not the screen that is described in the building your own pc article on this site. i have no graphics or cursor. wtf is wrong?

[TheJackal]

Is the 98SE CD bootable? If it is just, boot with it, and forget the boot-disk. 'see if that works.

[MaLfUnCtIoN]

says "missing operating system".

[catfishjoe_1]

As soon as you hit the power you need to get in the bios. Set your cd drive as first boot device. Exit saving changes (usually f10). Boot the pc with the 98se disc in the cd drive and you should be in business.
cat

[MaLfUnCtIoN]

hotdamn catfish! :D i'd hug ya but there's the whole internet thing. thank you

[catfishjoe_1]

You are welcome very much.
cat

[MaLfUnCtIoN]

i get an error saying i'm missing system.ini. so i gotta reinstall windows. is there a way to do this with out losing my info or having to reformat?

[GaryRouth]

Sounds like you already have Windows on one of your drives? Here's a guide

Over-the-Top Reinstall of Win9x/Me
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70846

If this isn't what you need, let us know
. . . Gary

[p.s. ...to format the 80gb hard drive for Win98, you'll need to use either the disk utility from Seagate, or get a bootdisk from http://www.bootdisk.com with the new fdisk version on it for drives larger than 60gb - - - > this is assuming the 80gb Seagate is new & blank, and that you've added Windows to the 40gb Maxtor already]

[MaLfUnCtIoN]

it recognized the full size. my new prob is this system.ini error i get. says the file was missing. so i tried formatc: which gave me the message that that command was invalid. so i went to fdisk and deleted the partition on both drives.

i then changed the boot order to cdrom first and put in the windows disc. save d the bios settings and exited. it gets to this blue screen where it's going to format the drive or something and asks for the windows disc! it's in so i hit enter but it pops up again! wtf now?

[catfishjoe_1]

Ok lets take it to a raw system - blank - then go forward.

1st go to bios and make boot from floppy as 1st boot.

2nd put a 98boot disc in a: and boot the pc with cdrom support.

3rd type "fdisk" and then delete all of the partition info. You will need to go backwards in order, if you are not good with fdisk go here (http://fdisk.radified.com/)

4th shut down and then rerun fdisk to see if it is blanked and your changes took. If yes remake your partitions (radified also has a partition article i think), If no redo number 3

5th shut down again and see if partition info is how you want it

6th type "format c:" and hit enter. Drive should format.

7th put cd in drive (win98 cd), if you know the drive it is in and know dos you should find it quickly, If you don't know dos you still need to find the drive. To find it type "d:" then enter. Screen should be something like "D:\" with a blinking cursor.
Next type "dir /p" will give you the directory of d one page at a time. You should be able to know if it is the cd drive by the drive contents. If it is the correct drive, type "setup" hit enter. Setup for win98 should start. If not correct drive letter, type next letter, IE: "e:" and so on.

This should get you into win98 setup. If I missed something will someone please help me out with the list.

cat

[MaLfUnCtIoN]

when it sets partitions, it gives me a partition of 10 thousand some megs.

[glc]

That's because of the Fdisk bug over 64 megs that Gary mentioned. If you tell it to make the whole disk a single partition or use percentages instead of megabytes you will be OK.

Search Google for windows 98 fdisk 64mb and you should be able to find a link to the M$ article and patch.

[MaLfUnCtIoN]

how do i tell it to use percentages?

[MaLfUnCtIoN]

i can't use that fdisk sownload from windows web site becuase i have to open it. i have removed the os on mine and my parents dell has xp. it won't allow me to open it.

i removed the partition but didn't set a new one becuase it would self limit again as i don't know how to go around it. so after removing the partition, i'm formatting the drive (right now actually). then i will make my 40 the master and format that. then i guess i'll have to try to install it again without the partitions. if it doesn't work then i'll prolly quit.

[GaryRouth]

Do you have the CD that came with the Seagate hard drive? It should have "DiskWizard" on it, and it can format the entire drive in FAT32 for Win98. If you don't have the CD, you can download the tool from http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html

[catfishjoe_1]

To tell it to use percentages you would type "33%" If I remember correctly.
cat

[MaLfUnCtIoN]

gary: have no os on it right now. and it's my main so if i had an os on it i couldn't format it.

catfishjoe: when do i type 33%? at a prompt? d prompt?

[catfishjoe_1]

you type the percetage in when it(fdisk) asks you for the partition size. if it asks you if you want to use all for the partition answer no then it should ask for size.

http://fdisk.radified.com/fdisk_partition.htm

good guide.
cat

[GaryRouth]

Sorry, I should have mentioned the Cd itself is bootable (probably to Dr-Dos). The download link should work from your XP machine.

The link catfish gave you is a helpful site - on a similiar page on that same site you can find a WinMe bootdisk with the more recent fdisk on it that will work, or the WinMe disk from bootdisk.com would work too. If you'd like, just partition it from the bootdisk, and let the Win98 format it with FAT32 during setup. As long as the drive has the partition created correctly, it will format it fine. All the bootdisks mentioned in our links should create bootable floppies, even from an XP machine. [just don't boot the XP machine with those ;) - won't hurt anything, but a Win98 boot wouldn't be able to "see" the NTFS on the XP]

Don't worry if you've tried percentages and made a mistake, it won't hurt your drive to try several times. You're getting lots of hands-on experience. . .

[glc]

We have multiple threads going on this issue now - and that's getting VERY confusing. Now you say that you gave up on the idea of cloning the 40 to the 80 with Maxblast? That would have been a piece of cake compared to what you are going through now.

Your best option NOW is use Seagate Disk Wizard to set the drive up. You burned your bridges for cloning OR patching Fdisk when you nuked the 40 off.

[MaLfUnCtIoN]

glc: sorry bout the multi threading. i'll edit this subject outta the other threads.

i've got it all set up and working and am reinstalling the software. thanbks for your help guys.