Windows 98 wont load

That way you will get an auto generated response every time someone answers and most likely someone in your time zone will be able to offer some help.

But to your question Yes Windows 98 most likely will try to reinstall itself but you should keep most of your data intact as Windows should only overwrite its existing area of the disk. Now that's the theory but it might not quite work that way and maybe Windows will even accept your user name and Product Key and just get on with itself though I personally wouldn't trust it.

To be safe if you haven't backed up all your important data you can remove the HDD and place it in another computer running Windows and transfer all your data across to another HDD or partition on a different HDD it will still be there but Windows isn't running. The easiest way to perform this data transfer is to place the HDD on the secondary IDE channel and then on the Master side of it as well. If the BIOS doesn't auto detect any HDD then you'll have to go into the BIOS and change the drive listed but it is a simple thing to do and at least you'll keep all of your important data. Remember to not only backup documents but also all your e-mail and address book as well as your favorites list that way you'll be able to recover with the minimum amount of time lost.

Col