loading win98 into new HD

[rfield55]

bot new HD, trying to load win98 onto it. have win98se start disc and win98 disc. following instructions in win98 manual, I get dos prompt, then it says type setup, and i get everytime error "cannot run this from dos prompt"! any ideas?

[redwench]

make sure youre switching drives before typing that, and that youre selecting boot with cd rom support. if it still doesnt work, you might need to download fresh boot disks. unless the 98 install disk is bootable, some of them are.

[Antti2004]

Well, first make sure that your BIOS regonnizes the hard driver.
Insert the Windows 98 SE boot disk into the PC and start the PC.
You should get menu appearing askin options, choose the start with the CD Rom support, and wait. When you get DOS Promt type on it FDISK and press enter.
Answer Yes enabling large disk support, nect choose option 1,i.e Create DOS partition, and next set the partition active via option 2.
You have to start the PC before the settings are functional.
Start the PC with the Windows boot disk in and choose again with CD Rom support option.
Wait and when DOS promt appears type format c:/s
and wait.
When finnished start the installation changing to E partition and type in setup.exe (press enter), well that should do it, well I have done this many times and will have to do so still many years. :( :)

[rfield55]

Thanks for your suggestions, but since nothing seems to work, I am more confident that the message printed on my WinCD is true. Namely that said disk is useful only for REBOOTING the emachine it was supplied with. A new, empty HD cannot be loaded with this Win disk. SO now I need a source for a proper WIN 98 disk at reasonable price.
thanks

[NegotiatorSmith]

If there's no setup.exe on that disk, then that explains why typing "setup" doesn't work. My first laptop came with one of those restore discs that doesn't have an actual Windows setup program.

[rfield55]

actually there is a setup.exe on the CD, but when I type setup or setup.exe from the "E" drive (start disc changes D to E), I always get, "cannot execute this program from DOS comand line". I dont understand it.

[NegotiatorSmith]

Been a while since I've installed Windows 98 on any computer, so I did a little research and found this:

http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/software/windows/upgrade/inst98.htm

Here's the part that's important:

"Change to the win98 directory on the Windows 98 CD and run setup.exe.

a:\> d:

where d: is your CD-ROM drive letter.

d:\> cd win98

d:\win98 > setup /ie

Do not run setup from d:\. There is a setup.exe there, but it won't work with this procedure."

I'm pretty sure that my first laptop's restore disc didn't have a setup.exe file anywhere; the disc was only for installing optional components when Windows was already installed, and Windows was installed from a special Toshiba restore disc instead.

EDIT:

I just realized that the instructions I posted are for the upgrade version of Windows 98. Still, I'd check the win98 directory on your disc to see if there's a setup program there that you can run.

[rfield55]

thanks for the help, but the disc I am using has only "software" dir, then sub-dir "AS"???. in AS is a setup.exe which gives same error, namely, "cannot run this program from DOS prompt". I believe the cd restore disc is a special dick which can not be used to build a new HD, that's what it says on the disc! <sigh>, guess I'll have to buy a win98 disc. I will try a copy command from E to C of everything.
thanks again to all.

[rfield55]

sorry I meant special DISC, must have been Freudian slip. Also I meant software dir was only dir visible that made sense.

[redwench]

why would you buy 98 now? even if you could find it, its antiquated, and will not be supported much longer. if youre going to buy a new OS, get XP. 2k if you must.

[rfield55]

Originally posted by redwench
why would you buy 98 now? even if you could find it, its antiquated, and will not be supported much longer. if youre going to buy a new OS, get XP. 2k if you must.

[rfield55]

too late, already bot 98 for $49, others are much more $$. I am happy with 98, and is sort of the "standard" for my 4 pukers (when I get them all running). If I cant get it running with that, I'll back for more help. Thanks to all who have written.

[kpc9405]

Did you ever get win98 loaded? I am struggling to install win98 over winnt... any help would be appreciated

[redwench]

you cant install 98 over nt, theyre different kernals. you can dual boot, or format.

[rfield55]

I had to buy a new legal disk; I was trying to use an Emachines re-boot disk which is incomplete as far as a new HDD is concerned. Once I loaded the new one I am about 90+% ok, still have other problems, which I may post here. I consider this thread closed and I thank all who contributed to it.