re installing win 98

Hi

If you suspect you have a virus, go to a website that will perform a free check of your system (symantec.com, panda.com - I think). If you install Win 98 onto an infected drive, depending in which folder the infected file resides, a reinstallation will not remove the virus. You must remove the virus first. Anti-Virus solutions are not expensive, and some are free. Windows will not overwrite program settings, and will keep old program registry settings.

Good luck

If you suspect a virus is present on your system,run the virus scan to detect and remove the virus.

To Re-load the OS,you can wipe the drive clean and do a fresh install

Boot the computer with a clean startup disk,at command prompt type FDISKSelect,Yes to enable large disk support
At the next window,selct option (3) to delete partition,then select (1) to delete the Primary DOS partition if only one partition exist on the system,once the partition is deleted you now want to create the partition,answer yes to use the maximum dos partition,press ESC and select (1) to create a primary dos partion,once the partition is created,proceed to re-boot computer,at command prompt type Format C:(which should be the drive letter of hard drive,after format completes reboot and type Setup at command prompt

As much as you're trying to avoid it, I would strongly suggest that you do a complete wipe and install, saving whatever settings files and data you need to keep. Immediately after installation, install an antivirus ware with latest updates and copydata back to your drive.
it's probably TIME to do a fresh install anyway.

If your dump in d: which i presume is your ghost image, was made with all your softwares, then re-installing will be possible after the dump. Likewise if your software was loaded after making the dump, you will get the os running but will have to load the individual software.

Dear Rekha

With the extra information you have provided it appears that your current installation of Windows has become corrupt. You say you have scanned your system using Norton AntiVirus, and have found no viruses. Assuming you are using up to date virus definitions, you have two options: 1. You can purchase a copy of a quality Windows utility program such as Norton Utilities and attempt to repair the installation, or, 2. You can reinstall your copy of Windows. Before you attempt either ofthese you should check any error messages you are receiving during boot up against Microsoft's Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com). You may find a solution here.

Norton Utilities contains WinDoctor which performs a comprehensive scan ofyour system registry and, if errors are found, it will attempt to repair them. You have full control over the repair process - you can allow NU to apply the best solution or you can manually fix it or you can search the Web for a solution. Microsoftalso released an unsupported program called RegClean which examines common elements of your system registry and offers to fix any errors found.

If these do not repair your system you should check your disks. Run a diagnostic utility such as scandisk or chkdsk from a command prompt (boot the computer, press and hold down F8 - or the CTRL key depending on your system, and select option 5 from the Windows boot menu - command prompt only). Even if no errors are found, boot into Windows normallyand run a third party disk diagnostic program. If errors are found on your disk, allow the program to fix them.

If you still experience problems with your copy of windows, you should back-up all your data (make sure the back-up can restore your data also), then reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows.

Reinstalling Windows on your drive as it stands now will not overwrite any software you have since installed.

This question was auto closed due to inactivity