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Stuck in Limbo between OS builds

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15 replies

by f3rg13

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Cyrix 586 166mhz machine. The owner was running Win98 but wanted to change it to Solaris 8 for intel. Discovered that building to Solaris 8 was not possible on his platform and tried to go back to Win98.
The machine informs him that there is already an operating system on the target disk and then hangs instead of completing the Win98 install. User claims some urgency in regaining the Win98 build (tax info on disk).

15 replies

by clover252525

You can do 2 things:

1. Boot up to the DOS prompt (press F8 as soon as the memory check is done), go to the C:\WINDOWS directory and rename win.com to something else, like winold.com then run SETUP again from the CD.

2. Install Windows into a different directory (but this is recommended only if the 1st option fails).

clover

by f3rg13

Renamed "Win.com" to Win.old.... system tries to boot but hangs after leaving a message about placing diagnostic tools in a RAMdisk (D:)

by dmiles

One try using the norton recovery utility to recover the files on the system,if backup optin is not available
Now try rebooting the system using the WIN98 boot disk to access the operating system,the only other thing that will ultimately be done will be to FDISK the HD and reformat the hard drive.Hopefully you can recover in first.

by >@ >@ gone fishing @< @<

Do you have a SPARE Hard Disk :
If so load a fresh copy of 98 on it in his system. Once completed install the damaged drive, from Explorer, or whatever extract the appropaite data to the good drive. Now Ghost the good drive to the bad, Done.

Orif the amount of data is small and easily located, access it at a dos prompt with a spare drive installed, or floppy and back it up and than re-insatll from scratch.

by george_koitchev

Obviously the user has OEM version of Win98, i.e. version for new computers without any OS. Depending of the possibilities to save the worthy information, you can:
1. (Toughest) Format the drive and reinstall from scratch. This way is clearer, but you must use a spare disk for backup.
2. (Tested-Recommended) Use DOS-Prompt command "deltree windows" to delete Windows directory with all files and subdirectories. You must after reinstalling windows reinstall also all the other software.
3. (Nottested-reported successful) Rename the file win.com to win_.com (or something else), so that the setup do not find the previous windows installation.
Have a safe Day! :-)
George

by f3rg13

The only one I would try - renaming win.com - I have already tried and the system hangs after loading diagnostic programs onto a RAM drive ...

by clover252525

It seems you are trying to reinstall Win98 with a version designed for systems without Windows. Usually renaming win.com works but not always. It may be necessary to buy an upgrade version of Win98 designed for systems where Windows already exists.
clover

by f3rg13

I shouldn't need to buy anything. The PC originally had Win 98 on it.
I have since done an FDISK and format of the hard drive. Still, when I try to load Win98 I get a message that diagnostic files were loaded onto aRAM drive. When I try to use those diagnostic tools the system goes into random orbit ....

Thanks for the reply.

by spg

You have to reformat the hard drive to get Win98 to install. For some reason there is problems when "upgrading" from Solaris 8 to Win98. To save the tax info copy the folder it is in to a floppy. Then reformat the hard drive and run win 98 install.

by f3rg13

I have already tried reformatting the hard drive. I can't get Solaris 8 to load nor can I get Win 98 to load. And yes I tried FDISK and reformatting before trying either Win98 or Solaris 8.

Thanks for the reply.

by g s

The guy with the spare drive idea I believe has a fast and easy answer if you are trying to get info off of the previous drive. You could even take one out of another computer that already has 98 on it stick it it make sure it boots to that drive and let windows do its p&p magic.

Good Luck

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