WIN98 Install

I want to upgrade an old computer that has WIN95 to make the USB ports functional.
I have a WIN98 CD that starts to install and quits because I already have a version of Windows installed. It says I need to get the upgrade version. Is there a way to use the CD I have? I have 2 forms of full backup, so I can take a few losses.

 

You may get better results formatting and doing a fresh install of 98. Are you able to find the motherboard and other necessary drivers that will function with 98 on that PC? Do you have at least 32MB of memory? How about 2GB of hard drive space? If 95 is running fine and you just want USB support read this Windows 95 USB Guide.

 

The version of 95 does not support USB. I have 64MB of memory and a 20GB hard drive with full 2GB in the C partition.
How can I do a fresh install without wiping out the whole C parition first?
I am concerned that a fresh install might not recognize the D, E, and F partitions where I have all the backups. Don't have a way to burn CD's or DVD's.

 

As long as you only format C: and install 98 to that partition your data should not be lost. Win98's FAT32 can read FAT16 used by Win95. Once 98 is install you can use Microsoft's FAT16 to FAT32 converter that is included with 98 to convert the other partitions to FAT32 without the loss of data.

FAT16 to FAT32

A Quick Guide to FAT32 Conversion

I use this WinME bootdisk from Radifed for formatting and fdisk. Just format a floppy then install this to it (self-extracting).

http://radified.com/Files/bootmec.exe

 

You can upgrade using the disk you have by deleting or renaming win.com in your windows folder (probably better to rename it, just in case). Then install windows using the 98 disk you have. Should do the trick.

 

Does it make a difference as to what CDs we have or what ?

I have upgraded 95>98>98SE>XP Pro and have not formated the HD or renamed anything.

But I believe that it does require that you have 95B to allow the overtop upgrade to 98.

One thing that I have done is to always boot from a power off state directly to a DOS boot disk with CDROM support. And then run setup from the Files on the CD. Or the HD if I had copied them there.

Just do need to watch carefully to make sure the the new install goes into the existing Windows folder.

BillyBob

 

You should be able to upgrade either win95A or B to Win98.

 

I couldn't find a win.com file anywhere.

 

It has to be there. The computer wouldn't boot to windows without it. I had a look and it's not hidden on either of the two 98 systems I have here. However, it may be hidden on 95. Don't know for sure. Do you have windows set to show hidden files and folders? Have you tried the using "find" to locate it?

I don't remember the exact route on 95 to make sure hidden files and folders are shown but it should be something like, in any explorer window or folder, click tools>folder options and look through the list of things there. If folder options isn't there, check the view menu for it.

 

Folder Options is set to show all files. FIND does not find it. FIND can't find any .com files. There quite a few of WIN files, but no .com.

 

It sounds like you have windows set to hide known file extensions. Look in the same place where you set it to show hidden files. There should be a line in there that says something like hide extensions for known file types. If it's there, uncheck it and then see if it shows up amongst the win files. Otherwise, you could try renaming it from a command prompt.

Open a command prompt and type the following lines and hit enter after each one.

cd\
cd windows
ren win.com win.old

If you don't get an error message, that should do it. Once you do this and you restart the computer, you won't be able to boot back into windows without renaming the file back though, so don't do it until you're ready. Also, have a floppy bootdisk on hand (can be a 95 or 98 bootdisk) so you can rename the file back if for some reason you should have to. You should be able to rename it back by booting to a command prompt (press F8 while the computers booting and choose command prompt only) but I'd have a bootdisk on hand just in case.

 

OK, I found it. Is this procedure going to be any different than when I booted from the WIN98 CD and WIN95 did not start. It gave me the option to overwrite the existing operating system, but during process it wouldn't install. Told me to get an upgrade disk.

 

With win.com deleted it shouldn't tell you to get an upgrade. Boot from the 98 CD and start the install from there. Just make sure when you install it, you install it to the windows folder that win95 is installed too.

 

cd\ works fine.
cd windows comes up INVALID DIRECTORY.
cd C:\windows works
ren win.com win.old comes up FILE NOT FOUND
I find win.com in the WINDOWS Folder.

 

If you can find it in windows explorer you can just rename it there. Then reboot and install windows. Perhaps it can't find it at the command prompt because it's hidden?

 

I just went into the WINDOWS folder and renamed the file. The install went just fine. The only loss was a few shortcut connections. Thank you, you are great!!!
Should I change the D and E partitions to FAT32? I have PARTITION MAGIC and DRIVE COPY.

 

Good! Glad to hear things went well for you.

As for the FAT32 thing, are those drives currently formatted to FAT16? If so, I'd much prefer FAT32 over FAT16. It'll save space on the drive and give you support for larger file sizes. That said, I'll leave it up to you as to what you should do there. I've used Partition Magic a lot over the years and never had a problem with it but there's always a chance of something going wrong. If you do convert them, first backup any files you don't want to lose that are on the drives you want to convert. My guess is things will work fine but... better safe than sorry.