New member with a question...

hey all,
this site seems very informative, and i hope i can contribute something worthwhile in the near future.. but i do have a question regarding my O/S...

i recently returned from arizona, while i was there i purchased a used laptop from a friend of a friend... i cant get in contact with either now- and the previous owner had Windows XP on the computer- which is impossible to use now because i am not the previous owner... ive tried loading my windows '98 software, but nothing works...

so my inquiry is, Can anyone help point me to any software or maybe a method to completely erase the computer and reformat it with my own O/S...?

thanks for any help...

First question is, the copy of Win 98 you have, is it the full version or an upgrade. If its a upgrade you will not be able to install it if you format you hard drive.

If the copy you have is the full version then what you need to do is put the Win 98 CD in the drive, and reboot the computer. It should then bring you to a screen where it will format your hard drive. Then you can install from there.

btw: why cant you use the compuer with XP on it. Bad install? no Passwords?

How about a dos boot disk. http://www.bootdisk.com

Then you can just run fdisk, delete the current partitions, create a new partition and format the drive. Then you'll have no problem installing your new OS.

<edit> sigh... I really must type quicker... </edit>

hi

Ok briefly....
it's likely that the WinXP installation was using NTFS as the file format... Win98 can't read this so what you need to do is make boot floppy for win98 - if you don't have one you can get a generic one from

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
or
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/instal...tm#boot_floppy

stick this into the floppy drive, boot the laptop and then type in

fdisk

at the prompt

delete all DOS partitions and then create a new partition, remebering to make it active. The below website may help if you get stuck with this

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;255867

then format the partiton you have just created (type in format c: at the command prompt). Ok now the disk is ready to be written to.

reboot the computer with the win98 in the CD drive (I'm assuming that the laptop will boot from CD of course - should do but repost if it doesn't and you don't know what to do) and then follow the usual setup routine.

Been a while since I had to do this on win98... don't think I've forgotton anything but... someone will point it out if I have. Best of luck

Z

Thanx a million u guys.. Ima try everything mentioned above tonite, and let u guys know how it goes... and yea, i dont have the passwords needed... and yea, its the full version of '98...

thanx again, i appreciate the help...

okay, im really losen it now.. lol.. i noticed that i DONT have a floppy drive on the computer.. only a CD drive.. am i totally helpless, or is there a CD boot disk i can run??..


thanx again.. and sorry..

You should be able to boot from the CD drive instead, but you will need to alter the bootup sequence in the bios. You can get into the bios by pressing the 'del' or sometimes the 'F2' key just after you start the computer. (if you have the manual this might be a good time to refer to it, if not then try downloading a PDF version from the manufacturers web site)

I expect someone can give you more specific instructions if you can say what the make of the laptop is and the bios make and version (this will most likely be the first thing to apear on the screen when you power up the machine).

Perhaps you could burn a BOOT CD somewhere and try that

Follow the advice from waverebel ..

Your Win 98 cd will self boot.. You will be asked "Press any Key to boot from CD" or similar
the next prompt you will need to worry about is what you want the startup to do.. inititily you will need to "boot without CDrom support" .. why? because we will be re-partitioning the HDD..
when the DOS prompt is up.. type Fdisk.. you will get some messages pop up one is .."Do you wish to enable Large disk support" yes please.. you may get an error as DOS won't recognise the NTFS format partition.. ..
Once in the Fdisk menu.. delete the existing partition, then create a new partition.. make the new partition "Active".. exit (esc).. restart the machine.. do as before EXCEPT now.. we wish for the Windows Setup (the Installer) to run....
there you go merry christmas

you know there is atutorial here somewhere that explains this better tha I.. I am too lazy to track it down..

Cheers

Cheers

Someone correct me if im wrong, but isn't there a disk that could reset the passwords on windows? that may be only for floppy, but i think u could use nero to make a boot disk... I may be wrong, but who knows... Hope this helps!