window98se

[hybrid]

Could be this is an old question, but here goes. I rebuilt my old computer, new power, new motherboard,new graphic card. Finally got it working using windows98se. Iam new at this so I was pretty happy getting this far. The hard drive was the original with windows98se on it. I got win98 up and running but with odd things happening. Then at boot up got a message something was wrong and it tells me to do the set up again. Can I just run setup over whats on the hard drive, or do I need to do something else first. The computer had windows 95 with windows98se. I have only the cd from windows 95 and the win98se cd with the code. Can I do a clean install from these cd's ? I don't mind the work, I enjoy doing this.

[bailey]

yes you can do a clean install with the cd's,
I recommend that you do not do the upgrade route

[hybrid]

Thanks for the reply, if I do the clean install should I get rid of any other programs first? Iam not sure what you mean by not doing the upgrade route, are you refering to windows98se?

[setfree]

I think what bailey means is to just do a clean install of 98se. When you boot off of the 98 setup cd it will allow you to format the harddrive which will erase EVERYTHING and then install windows 98. This is sometimes referred to as a clean or fresh install.

[Cricket]

Since you made some changes to your system but kept Win98SE, try the ENUM Trick.

Cricket

[hybrid]

Thanks Setfree and Cricket, I will go with the clean install. I tried the enum trick after I installed the hardware which intern got me to windows and ran ok untill the odd things started happening.

[hybrid]

When I turn on the computer I get black screen with a message saying windows configuration is invalid , run setup. How do I get to the point of running setup? I wanted to do the clean install of windows98

[Cricket]

Go into BIOS and change the first boot device to the CD-ROM. If you have more than 1 optical drive (CD-ROM, DVD, CD-RW), put the Win98 CD into the optical drive that is the master on the secondary IDE channel. Save and Exit the BIOS and the system will reboot to the Win98 CD-ROM and the installation will begin. Since you have an existing installation on there, you'll get a message stating so and you'll be presented with some options...choose the new installation and hit Enter. The installer should take over.

If you can't get it to boot to the CD-ROM, you'll need a boot disk. If you don't have one, you can go to bootdisk.com and download one or you can make a really good one from a file on the Win98 CD. Follow these instructions: "To make a better Windows 98 bootdisk then the one that came with your Windows CD, put in your CD and seek out \tools\mtsutil\fat32ebd\fat32ebd.exe and double click on the file." Once you have the bootdisk, follow these instructions: FDISK & FORMAT.

Once the hard drive is prepped, reboot to the bootdisk again, choose CD-ROM support and then change from the a: prompt to whatever drive letter the CD-ROM is and type setup at that prompt and hit Enter.

Cricket

[hybrid]

I tried booting from the cd rom as you suggested but it did not work. I did find a windows 98 boot disk that was made when the computer was first built. Can I use this one or do I still need to make a new boot disk? The message I get now is "invalid VxD dynamic link call to VSDATA95(01). Is this refering to windows 95?

[GaryRouth]

Seems like you might have leftovers from earlier incomplete uninstalls: the file VSDATA95.vxd is usually associated with the firewall software "Zone Alarm". See if this link helps with that http://www.argusleader.com/wiseguys/....21.2003.shtml
__________________
I'm a little curious as to how the hard drive is partitioned & formatted. At one point you mentioned the computer has both Win95 and Win98 - so: do you see a dual boot menu? - or did you actually mean that Win98 was installed as an upgrade over the Win95?
___________________
You mention "odd things" - have you done an antivirus scan just to cover that possibility? (I'll guess that you probably have). If your main error was the Zone Alarm error, and everything thing else seems OK, you might be fine with just a run of a Registry Cleaner of some sort. I like Microsoft's RegClean, mainly because it's free http://download.com.com/3000-2094-881470.html?tag=list (and it usually works OK)

If you've got a lot of old programs that are still mostly working but would be a pain to hunt down the old installation disks for, you can also try an "over-the-top" reinstall of Win98, which would leave those oldies intact. Here's a cut-and-paste howto:
_____________________
Over-the Top ReInstall of Windows 98

To try an "over the top" reinstall, which if successful won't destroy all your data: boot with a bootable floppy or CD - "with CD-rom support", and from DOS rename the win.com file to win.bak. Like this

C:
cd \Windows
rename win.com win.bak

Then switch to the drive letter of your CD drive [often drive D:], and start setup (by simply type the command: setup) When Windows asks if you want to use the directory C:\Windows.000, instead choose “Other” and type in C:\Windows [without the .000 following]. You'll need your CD-key handy.

If you've lost your CD-key: before you start the reinstall look for it by starting regedit from the Start/Run box, then navigate to the key (you navigate in regedit like you do in Windows Explorer) HKEY_Local_Machine/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion . . . if you click on "Current Version", you should see a list of keys and values in the box displaying on your right. One of these will read "ProductKey" and will consist of 5 sets of 5 alphanumeric characters = your CD key. Be careful when in regedit just to look at things and not make accidental changes.
_____________________
. . . and, of course, if none of this stuff works, the clean install should provide you with lots of computer tasks for a while. (Visiting Windows Update for all the Security Updates being one of them)

Have fun (and hi everyone)
. . . Gary

[hybrid]

I did not install the os myself. I believe 95 was installed so that 98se could be installed. I have the 95 cd and the 98secd with the code (for the 98cd that is) I had 98se up and running, chkd. for viruses(none). Zone Alarm was installed orginally. Then one day at boot up, it gave me the vsdata95 message, that was all that came up, I could not get 98se up on the screen. I restarted and the computer told me to start up in safe mode. I went to add/remove just today to take out zone alarm, it would not let me and went to blue screen. Each time I boot up I get vsdata95 message, then if I restart again, I get Safe Mode message. Iam useing another computer to do these posts. which is running xp home

[GaryRouth]

If you are planning to go with the clean install, you can pretty much ignore the VSDATA95 error, since you are going to erase everything & start over anyway.

You mentioned that you weren't able to boot from the CD drive. Were you able to find the boot order menu in your Bios that Cricket talked about? If not, it's possible that it truly is a pre-Win95 era computer, and doesn't have the cd-boot option in it's bios. Since you have Internet access from another computer, might be easiest just to download a bootdisk from http://www.bootdisk.com Get one that matches the Windows 98 version you have the installation disk for. If it's Windows 98 2nd Edition - you should be in good shape. That is one device-friendly Windows: it has an amazing amount of decent drivers for much of your hardware right there on the installation disk. [ . . . before you boot with the bootdisk, scan it for viruses, and then slide the little write-protect tab over to "Locked" . . . ]

Two things to watch out for: 1) drive-overlay programs, and 2) proprietary Non-DOS partitions on the hard drive (such as in some Compaqs). There's a simple way to find out if you've got these going on: Boot with your bootdisk from bootdisk.com. Then from the A: prompt type the command: fdisk. Select option 4 - this will just show you the partition information for your drive. If all you see are Dos partitions, you're in good shape. If you see Non-Dos partitions, leave these alone: you have one of the two conditions above. As long as you leave those non-Dos partitions alone, no worries.

Then:
1) Delete the Dos partitions on the hard drive. This will destroy all data on them.
2) Create a DOS partition.
3) Exit fdisk.
4) Insert your Windows installation disk into the cd-drive.
5) Reboot either with the bootdisk or the CD.
6) If with the bootdisk, switch to the drive letter of your cd-drive, and type setup [the drive letter for some of the bootdisk.com disks is "R"]
7) If with the CD, proceed with setup as prompted.

Windows will detect that the drive is not formatted and offer to format it for you. Say "Yes" to the "Enable Large Disk Support?" question (this will let Windows format the drive with the FAT32 file system) - and off you go.
__________________________

If you decide you want to clean up the old installation, and see if it will run, you'll have to clear up the ZoneAlarm woes. Look in on http://www.zonelabs.com/store/conten...nalm26Main.jsp for more info for a manual complete removal. It's a pretty detailed procedure - in your situation, you would be working mostly in Windows Explorer in Safe Mode deleting files, and them in regedit, doing similiar cleanup duties.

Let us know if you have more questions. I'm on the West Coast, so if some of the East Coaster see your question first, they probably know more that I do anyway & you can feel pretty good trying out their suggestions. I like the team effect: the more brains the better.
. . . Gary