Install Windowes 98 SE

[gregrae]

I am Having trouble installing Windowes 98( SE )
I have a AMD Athlon (tm) 64 Processor 3200+ 2.01 Ghz , 1 GB of Ram .
Can I install 98 on a Computer with this processor.
The 80 Gig hard drive jumper is set for Master.
Is there a sight that I can go to to show me the proceadure.
Placed OS CD into computer sellect Run from Boot from CD then the process goes through to the blue screan with the loading files etc on the LH side of the Moniter down to the PC restarts, then it restarts and a black screan comes up with a cersor in the top LH side of the Moniter. then it askes to sellect boot from hard disk or CD I sellect Hard disk then the comand keeps coming up all the time.
I then sellected Boot from CD and it goes back to the origional boot sequence.and go's through the same setup again .
Where am I going wrong.

[EzyStvy]

then it askes to sellect boot from hard disk or CD -> Don't do either. The installation knows to look on the cd....

[glc]

Exactly how are you partitioning and formatting the hard drive?

[Chris in U.K.]

I reckon GLC is asking the key question.....I seem to remember using a flop to format, partion, and create a "virtual RAMdrive" (letter z ?) and then slotting in the CD......cue music, "The Way We Were...."

Chris

[glc]

Well, the CD is bootable and has fdisk and format on it - this needs to be done.

[Panama Red]

You might also uninstall some of the memory until after 98 is loaded. Unless you do some tweaking, 98 will balk badly with even 512Mb of ram. I always install it with only 256Mb of ram and then make the adjustments. Here's a good step-by-step site for 98 installs from MS.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/221829

[Dan Penny]

I agree with Panama Red. I think memory is the issue. 98SE runs nicely with 256 to 384 MB.

[glc]

It will run 512mb without any Vcache tweaking. I also wonder if the processor speed is causing problems - the official limit is 2.1 GHz for installation but with these A64's I wonder if the ratings are clouding the issue.

My biggest concern is how the drive is partitioned and formatted. It has to be FAT32 and without a modified Fdisk anything over 64gb causes problems. Also, if the drive is a WD you cannot jumper it to master unless a slave is present.

[gregrae]

I am using a F disk to format the HD into Fat 32.
When I boot up there is a message comes up ( NTLDR is missing restart ) this does not fix the problem. What is NTLDR and how do I fix this problem.

[EzyStvy]

How large is the C partition? If it's bigger then 32 gigs, try making it smaller then 30...

[nightsky]

NTLDR is Network Loader...
1. set jumper in a neutural position .. Do Not set to Master..
2. Fdisk with LBA/32bit support
3. Format hdd to make it bootable
4. Reboot w/Disk

Get this newer Unattended Boot CD for Windows 98/98se v4.5 version of windows98se (works great) http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=88008
Still having problems get fresh boot disks here:
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm or here: http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml

[kilgoretrout]

NTLDR is the windows NT bootloader:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTLDR

The message would indicate that at one time, your hard drive had an NT version of windows(NT, W2K, WXP) installed on it and this bootloader may still be on your mbr. Partitioning and formatting generally does not remove an existing bootloader from the mbr; you have to overwrite it with something else. So once the NT bootloader is installed, it will stay there until overwritten.

Win98 can have problems when other non-win98 bootloaders are on the mbr. Then the only way to get win98 to install is to zero fill the hard drive using the hard drive manufacturer's utilities which are readily available on their websites. That will zero out the entire drive including the mbr and you can start the installation with a fresh hard drive. If you continue to have problems installing, I would try a zero fill.

Note, the above analysis assumes you do not have any other OS installed on your box, in particular, any winNT based OS.

[Dan Penny]

Boot with a Win98SE Boot Disk. When you get the A:> prompt, type in sys c: and hit Enter. You should see "System transferred". This will rewrite the MBR.