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Re loading of Windows98SE

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14 replies

by papagrande0

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I had loaded win98SE from the Win98 CD and now when putting new hardware am often asked for the Win98 CD. I believe that if I had first copied the WIN98 folder to my hard drive and loaded the O.S. from there itself, then it would not have been necessary to produce the CD on such occasions.
Can I now reload WIN98SE over the existing one and would that do the trick?

14 replies

by dmiles

No,Just re-installing over the current installation will not be the solution

You will need to copy the contents of the cd on to the hard driveby creating another directory to install the files in

by papagrande0

Perhaps I did not phrase my question explicitly enough. I know I will have to copy the WIN98 CD contents to my HD and then do the installation using that folder. Will my installing the O.S. again over the older identical installation cause any problems such as duplicate files, etc. and will that new installation save me the problem of not having to produce the WIN 98 CD every now and then?
Would appreciate your help.
Jeff

by Former member

Specifically, you just need to copy the contents of the "cabs" directory to your hard drive & anytime you're prompted for the Win98 CD, just point to this new location.

by papagrande0

I've tried this before but the computer still insists that i go to my E drive which is the CDROM drive from which I installed the OS.
Jeff

by rabbit_runner

1. copy the Win98 folder from the cd to the hard drive.
2. the new folder should be the same name (Win98)
3. edit the registry at this key....
HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\setup
There will be an entry SourcePath. Edit that to C:\win98

This will take care of your problem.

by rabbit_runner

Hi, If you re-install Win98 over-top of itself, you should not have any problems. What will happen, is that the installation will replace any 'system' files. You will keep all of your current settings, device drivers, programs, user preferences, etc. It will use the current 'registry'.

If there are any errors or problems with the registry, it will not correct those. A re-install on top of the current Win98, will simply replace the dll's and system files with ones from the CAB files forthe installation. If you have applied any security patches or critical updates, these may be over-written. In this case, you would need to re-apply the patch, or update.

An install on-top of a current installation is usually a 'safe' thing to do. This may correct the problem you are having. However, if it does not correct your problem, you can still always do a clean re-install. But this will be done after you have installed over the current Windows 98 installation.

by rabbit_runner

If your main concern is to make certain that...
when you install new devices and Windows asks for your CD, you do not need to re-install. If you follow the steps listed just above, this will cause Windows to look for the installation files in the location you set. The place that Windows looks for the CAB files is in.....
HKLM / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Setup
Then the value of "SourcePath" is where windows looks for the installation files.

Once you have copied the Win98 folder to your hard drive, simply edit this registry key to point to the location of that folder. This will always cause windows to find the files in that location. It will no longer ask for the CD.

I hope that this will help you. Best of Luck

by papagrande0

Thanks a million for this simple, elegant, brilliant solution, re. editing of the Source Path entry which I've implemented and happy to report worked superbly. This closes my question.

by guy west

The standard way of accomplishing this is to create a c:\windows\options\cabs in DOS and copy the contents of the Win98 folder on the Win98 CD to this folder. Then in the future when asked for the Win98 CD just point to the c:\windows\options\cabs path.

by papagrande0

Answer No.3 from Michael Robert re. editing the registry key, is a simple, elegant, brilliant solution to my problem. I've accepted it and implemented it and it works superbly. Thanks a million to Tech. Republic's facility. This question can now be closed.

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