installing 98 over ME?

[mb26]

Is it possible to install Win98 (FE) over windows ME (ie, retaining hard drive contents; not a clean install) as something went wrong with my hard drive with winME on and (although errors have been repaired by scandisk/scanreg) it does not boot into windows, tellling me there is in invalid system disk or something to that effect.

[edfair]

You ought to be able to do that. But you'll have to manually remove some windows stuff to get it out of the way.
And there is no telling what is going to upchuck afterwards.

[mb26]

remove what stuff? and do u mean before or after (bear in mind i can't get into windows)
and yea i was wondering what would happen afterwarrds?

[racerbrownn]

if you really want to save old data on the hdd, consider slaving it to another drive that you do a clean install onto. it's no fun to spend time installing a op sys and get stuck spending hours trying to debug it.

[RJ]

If you can't get into Windows then the best is to do a clean install.
If you have data on your windows partition that you don't want to lose, then the best thing is to install Windows ME over your damaged Windows ME. Then save your data.

And then you can wipe the drive, make at least 2 partitions (so that OS and data are separated, that way you can always wipe the OS partition without worrying about your data) and install Windows 98.
But why don't you want Windows ME again ?

Also, before you do anything, make sure that there is no floppy in the floppy drive, as that can cause that kind of error that you get if it's not a bootable one.

RJ

[edfair]

You would use a bootdisk with CD support to do the reload. But you would probably want to remove most stuff in the windows directory and let it rebuild during the new install.

[mb26]

i tried reinstalling windows ME again over the top, that is what i wanted to do really, but the damn thing crashed whilst installing.. the only thing i could think of was that the disc must be damaged?

also an old hard drive i had to spare for such an event seems not to be working.. and all other hard drives i have contain stuff i want to keep.. so i cant have another HDD as master..

lines of investigation now i think are;
-either getting drivers for my WIFI card for Knoppix so i can move any data i want off the hard drive and reinstall.
-or fixing the boot-up on the drive.. as i dont think much of it is damaged.. scandisk found some cross-linked files on it but only about 10 i think..

[Update:] well i did the good ol' Sys c: thing and it worked straight away i dont have anything on the start menu, but i think thats backed up and kazaa lite isn't working but i can reinstall that.. i expect i'll find a couple more things dont work over time.. but i can reinstall programs if theres any prob i think they just occured due to the cross-linked files..
i got 2 errors after start-up..

RUNDLL
Error loading powrprof.dll
One of the library files needed to run this application cannot be found.

- i think this is just loading the power profile i expect will be fixed by setting a new power profile otherwise disabling the loading of power profiles..

Error Starting Program
A required .DLL file, WINSPOOL.DRV, was not found.

- i understand this is something to do with printers or something? how do i fix this?

[Update 2:] well i can't 'open' the power options in control panel, or display settings

[GaryRouth]

Might want to test the hard drive with the diagnostics from the drive manufacturer's website first, but you could probably try the over-the-top again ---> see if there were any details you might have missed in this guide: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=70846 . . . mainly, make sure System Restore is disabled, that the Bios antivirus is disabled, and the network and peripheral connections are unplugged. Have your product key handy, and remember to install to C:\Windows and not C:\Windows.000 . . .

Hope it's OK soon
. . . Gary

[edfair]

My worst experience with "OTT" installs was 4 tries before it really worked. So don't get discouraged.
Granted that 4 was excessive, but the drive had stuff that was absolutely vital to a customer, and each install cleaned up a little bit more of the mess.
Rather than calling it the "intelligent installer" I would name it the "somewhat intelligent installer".

[mb26]

Well, its working (basically) now so i will just get files off the ME cd where they are missing i think..
having the installer crash even after being booted off the CD, i really dont think it will work no matter how many times i try it. and i am not keeping this computer for much longer so i'm not enormously bothered aslong as it works just about.

[edit] could someone (with Win9x) please tell me where powrprof.dll and winspool.drv are located?
i have got them off the CD but would like to know where i should be putting them?
thanks.

[edfair]

windows\system