installing 98 off cd

[milkman4_hi_r]

can u install win98 from a cd? or do you need the floppy? i tried to put in the 98 disc on a clean hdd and it doesnt seem to want to install. i have 98 on this hdd but its a hp bundle and i want to get rid of all the crap and do a fresh install without losing what is on this drive. i figured i could install the other 98 on a clean hdd and then run this one as a slave to get the info i wanted off it... doesnt seem to want to work though. do i need the floppys to install or can i just use the disk like in xp? or is there a way to do a "repair" with the clean 98 and over write the hp bundle without losing my files and info that i want? i had the drive im trying to install the clean 98 on as a slave in this computer, its formated but there is nothing on it. i set the jumpers up right and only had the one hdd hooked up at a time. what am i doing wrong?

[Nuclear Krusader]

What version of 98 is it?

OEM and full version CDs are bootable. The Upgrade is not.

This is true for the first edition of Win98.

If you need a bootable W98 floppy you can get one at www.bootdisk.com

[milkman4_hi_r]

its win 98SE. i have to setup my bios to boot from cdrom then hdd then floppy drive. when i get to install 98 it gets to a point where it says the system has to reboot. when i reboot it asks me the same questions about installing 98 as it did the first time. then if i pick boot from cd, again, it goes back into the setup for 98 and asks if i want to install it again becouse there is already an os on my pc. and there is an option to quit that. when i choose to quit it goes either to a screen with a blinking - at the top left of the screen and doesnt do anything further or it goes to a command prompt and i dont know if im supposed to do something from there, if i do i dont know what to do. the hdd is blank and the setup says its copying the files and i used to use this drive in another computer so i dont think its messed up. oh and i tried to go into bios and switch the boot sequence back to flopppy, hdd, cdrom and that didnt work either.

[Panama Red]

Someone referred me to this link awhile back and I found it really helpful for installing 98se.

http://www.waynescomputerworld.com/cleaninstall.html

[andyms18a]

dont pick boot from cd on the restart let it boot from the hard drive and setup will continue

[milkman4_hi_r]

i tried to do that and thats when i get the cursor\hyphen blinking at the top left of the screen, almost like its thinking and is going to do something further but i let it sit there for a long time and nothing happened

[GaryRouth]

First of all, I'll tell you what I'd do, and secondly, I'll try to help you do the procedure you have in mind.

1) I'd actually advise you to be happy with the original hp drive, with all the correct drivers and expensive software already loaded in and set up. To get rid of the "hp junk" that you don't want = simply use Add/Remove in the Control Panel. Windows is so customizable you can then customize any appearances and menus the way you like, without having to resort to a clean install.

2) That said, to do your project: We'll start at the beginning. a) remove the original hp drive from the computer physically.
b) place the new drive in the case & plug in connectors
c) boot computer with cd or floppy disk: choose "start computer with cdrom support"
d) use the command fdisk from the command prompt and delete all existing partitions (option 3)
e) in fdisk, use option 1 to create a Primary Dos Partition and mark it active
f) reboot with the Win98 installation cd and let Setup format the drive with FAT32 for you ("Enable Large Drive Support? = Yes")
g) during the Setup of Win98, it is normal for the system to reboot several times, each time it asks to reboot, make sure to choose "boot from hard drive" [just as andy advised] (if you still have the system set to cd as the 1st boot device - - - it might be easier if you switch the order to boot A,C,Cdrom and use a bootable floppy: if you don't have one, you can download one from http://www.bootdisk.com)

That should do it. Try it again from the beginning. [Or try life with the original hd and just clean and customize it a bit]

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[do realize that some OEM models have hidden or proprietary (or both) partitions on their hard drives for such things as their specialized System Recovery routines, or customer/machine setup info. Some old Compaqs even had part of the system bios on the hard drive. . . so if the above procedure doesn't work, you may want to check the hp site, or call them]

[milkman4_hi_r]

thanx for all the help! i think i got it this time