Loading WIn98 Blues

If this is the first time you are loading 95/98 on this particular pc you may have a conflict with the hardware. I have experienced this in the past. It's a simple thing to overlook. If this is the case I would remove all but the essential cards/modems etc. and try a minimum configuration to load the O/S. If it loads and functions then add one card at a time and see how it goes. It might not be a bad idea to run scandisk on the drive. 95/95 can sometimes be a pain. It could also be something as simple as an adapter that changes 9pin serial mouse connections to ps2.
Good luck.

I hope that you place the .cab files in their own directory. I generally make a win98 sub and place all the install files there and install from there.

I would also suggest that you don't use the \s with the format command. Windows places that info during the install.

Tracey,
Are you able to get into Safe Mode? If so, then go to msconfig (Start>Run>msconfig) and do a selective bootup and uncheck everything. Reboot and if Win98 finishes loading then go back to msconfig and recheck each option one by one until you can pinpoint what's causing Win98 from booting up.
Also, when computer hangs is there an error message? If it's a Windows protection error message then the culprit may be smartdrv.exe. Rem out any references to smartdrv.exe in your autoexec.batand config.sys. And rename smartdrv.exe (in Windows or Windows/system folders, don't remember which) to something like smartdrv.bak. Then reboot.
Another option is to do a step-by-step bootup and only load one driver each time.
Any questions, feel free to email me.
Hope this helps!
Jeff

Looks like hardware but first:
Since you just formated the HardDrive (HD) just do it again without the /s switch. to capy the files to the HD without booting to a floppy you can enable boot to CD-ROM in the bios and then boot to your win98 CD and go into C: and copy all the files.
Next make sure you use win98 SE as the first edition is not so good.
If you have a via chipset you will have to download a driver for the PCI steering root tabel the driver is called "4 in 1" you can get it at www.driversguide.com. you should only install the 4in1 if you know for sure that you have a via chipset otherwise you may damage your computer, you can determine if you have a via chipset by opening up the box and look for a big chip that says VIA.
Alsomake sure that all fans work fine.
Check and make sure all devices work good, start by remving all devices and then start win98, if you dont have the problem any more add one device at a time and restart to see if the problem comes back.

If you have the CD why are you copying the cab files to the hard drive to install, i usually do it once the install is complete.
You should remove any non-nessescary devices before installing to see if that helps.
Someone here said that it could be the startup files calling smart drive, WIN98 does not need an autoexec.bat nor a config.sys file, and the default install leaves these files empty.
And checking the hard drive for errors would be a good option as well.

Running setup from the hard drive ensures Windows will find the cab files without asking for the CD again.
Likely cause of the hangup is a resource conflict (IRQ likely) for the new devises allocated during the initial installation routine and not yet "loaded" until the first re-boot.
Check the Bios to see if you can make the system allocate an IRQ for the video adapter.
If you can get into Windows in safe mode (F8 when "starting Windows 9X"), remove the devices for the sound, network adapter, and modem so that Windows will have to detect them again and assign resources again.
It may be neccessary to physically remove the cards so that Windows can boot and then add them back one at a time to find the guilty devise.
Some ISA devices can be re-assigned new resources. You can reserve resources in the device manager to try to force Windows to assign different resources and leave the conflicting ones alone (some sound or video problems can be avoided).