Reinstalling a factory installed Windows 98

After unsuccessfully attempting to resolve my Explorer.exe problem, I am faced with reinstalling Windows 98 on my Gateway (preinstalled) system.

It tells me I need to FDisk and partition before I'm able to do this.

I have NO idea what that entails, or the consequences of such actions. Any ideas or clues from the gurus would be appreciated.

So what do ya say gang ? Give it to me straight ...... I can handle it.

Thanks

Elsie

 

http://www.cyberwalker.net/faqs/how-tos/reinstall-faq.html

Here is how to do it, just follow the instructions carefully, you will need a win98 Setup disk to do this, I hope it was supplied?

I wonder why they want to to fdisk it, I can uderstand why they want you to format it but why delete the partition, unless they are worried about virus contamination I suppose?

Did they supply you with a setup cd rom or anything like that, that automatically reloads the operating system when you boot the machine up?

Hope it helps anyway
Let us know
Regards
tel33

 

Elsie

Try this site http://home.pacbell.net/dbk4297/fdiskformat.html for detailed instructions.

 

Tel33,

What I have is the GATEWAY system disk that contains Win98 Win2000 files on it.

When it's in the CD Rom it prompts me to boot from hard drive, or CD Rom. If I boot to CD Rom to go through setup, it tells me I cannot until I FDisk and partition.

Thanks for your attention

Elsie

 

Ok I see now, some other companies supply disks that will do everything automatically for you, in your case its just the operating system files. No problem there.
Make sure you have access to a win98 disk with the format command on it, unless of course the disk will format the system after you fdisk it first.

You can find these disks online if you do not have them.

http://www.bootdisk.com/

Enjoy your fdisking then

Let us know your results.

Regards
tel33

 

Haven't seen anybody mention this so I thought I would. The consequenses are that you'll lose all data on the drive. So, if you have anything important on the drive that you don't have backed up you might want to try something else. I had a look at your other thread and if I understand correctly, you have access to the files via another computer? If so, you should grab any files you don't want to lose before doing this. There's one thing you can try before formatting. It's possible the win98 setup files are copied to your hard drive. If so, they'll most likely be located at c:\windows\options\cabs. You could use the other computer to see if they are there along with a setup file. If so, try this. Boot to a dos prompt and at the c: prompt type the following line.

cd windows\options\cabs

Note the space between cd and windows. It needs to be there. Then type setup. Windows setup should run and you can reinstall windows over the top of itself. If it works, you shouldn't lose any of your data and if your lucky it may fix your problem. Your programs should all work as before. At least the vast majority of them.

 

Its worth a try! Lets hope the cabs are on the hard drive already, if not she could easily put them on in dos as long as the cd rom drivers are installed as well, if not then she will have to install them with the win98 boot disk.

 

No the setup files are not on the hdd nor the GATEWAY factory disk.

I'm going to follow your advice and retrieve all the important data I need from the ailing puter before I proceed. I've already gone too far (for my comfort level) and this is obviously going to be the most important task before proceeding.

Thanks again and hope I didn't cause you all to "play hooky" from your regular professions while I whine, poke and prod for answers.

Computers STINK for the self esteem. ; )

Elsie

 

To bad. Thought we maybe could get lucky. Oh well. Let us know how it turns out for you.

 

Thanks much Zander and everyone else who assisted here.

I'm going to take a break from it all for a bit and listen to some Wagner. Then maybe contemplate my credit situation and scroll through Dell.

You're all the greatest.

Elsie

 

Nice to have credit eh!!! LOL Enjoy your music

 

Using Fdisk and Format

 

I've used the Gateway restore/recovery disks a few times. The ones I've worked on have been less than two years old so if yours is older, it might very well be quite different.

The ones I've done required putting the Restore or Recovery CD (I've already forgotten the exact nomenclature they use) in the CD drive when Windows is running. It does a few things, then tells you to remove that CD, put the Windows CD in and reboot.

At some point, it will give you several options, including reinstalling Windows over the exisiting installation or wiping the harddrive clean and reinstalling Windows.

After the Windows install, it will prompt you to put the Gateway disk back in and it will start automatically installing everything that was on the computer when it arrived from the factory.

I've found the Gateway disks pretty easy to use although they do like to have you do quite a bit of disk swapping.

 

Thanks Miz

I've decided to stop doing anything more to the puter for now. In order to reinstall Windows I have to FDisk and I won't do that until I've retrieved all the data from the ailing bunch of bytes.

At least I can "see" myself on the network to retrieve these files, right ?

I'm hitting the store today for more 250 mb Zip disks so I can install Zipdrive on the "slave" I'm currently working on and retrieve the files that way. There's ALOT on there that I do not want to lose forever, and I haven't done a "backup" in ages.

In the meantime, it doesn't appear I'll be able to fix this problem, but I will post an update as soon as I get to the bottom of what caused it in the first place.

Thanks for all your help !

Elsie

 

UPDATE

After months of working AROUND this problem on a slave computer, I've decided to take another crack at it. I have all the data I need saved off the computer onto another now, and today began the task of fdisking and formatting.

I got nowhere with either.

The message that comes up after putting the CD Recovery Disk into the CDRom is that my hard drive is not partitioned to use Fat16 or Fat32 files. That I must FDisk and install my CD Drivers manually (through reading config.sys file).

I did all it told me to do and nothing has changed. Something's not happening with my system, and I'm quite sure I have a power problem as it intermittently refuses to power up for more than one minute.

Right now it's been on for 3 days straight w/o a problem, but there's still NO Explorer.exe so Windows is inaccessible.

I have a bootup floppy and the CD Recovery Disk. So far it doesn't seem to be helping me get to a point of reinstalling Windows however. There's got to be a way around this.

Some clues which may be causing the problem

My config sys file says :


DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
REM [Header]
REM == PISETUP Begin Delete ==
REM == PISETUP End Delete ==

REM [CD-ROM Drive]

REM [Miscellaneous]

REM [Display]


----------

Whereas one of my slaves says NOTHING in the config.sys file and my other slave says :


Device=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE
FILES=60
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\setver.exe
DOS=High,umb
[COMMON]
rem ---------------------- MTM ATAPI CD-ROM ----------------------
DEVICE=C:\MTM\MTMCDAI.SYS /D:MTMIDE01
rem ---------------------- MTM ATAPI CD-ROM ----------------------


Don't know if that could give anyone a clue for why my Explorer.exe won't boot up with Windows.

Elsie

 

First you must delete the partition.

To Delete:

Boot with a 98Se boot floppy, type in Fdisk and press Enter. Type a Y that you want large disk support.

At FDISK OPTIONS press 3 to delete a partition. Then at DELETE DOS PARTITION OR LOGICAL DOS DRIVE options press 1 to delete Primary Partition.

At DELETE PRIMARY DOS PARTITION Press Enter as 1 should already be entered as the partition to be deleted.
Type Y that you want to and enter in the volume name, if there is one. You will see the name at the top of the screen.

When done press ESC to back out where the fdisk first began [where you pressed 3 or FDISK OPTIONS]

To Create:

at FDISK Option select "1" enter
at Create DOS Partition or logical DOS Drive select "1" enter
Verifying drive integrity, **%
press "Y" enter at do you wish to use the maximum available size for Primary DOS Partition
and make the partition active (Y/N)..? press Y then Enter
Verifying drive integrity, **%
you then get a message to RESTART your system for changes to take effect
YOU MUST REBOOT AFTER FDISK.

 

At DELETE PRIMARY DOS PARTITION Press Enter as 1 should already be entered as the partition to be deleted.

Mark:

This seems to be where the computer hangs up. I can't see it crunching after this step and it just sits there at the DELETE PRIMARY DOS PARTITION choice with the 1 highlighted. I've let it sit like that for 20 minutes and nothing further is happening.

This has been my recurring problem FDisking, am I'm not sure if I'm just not giving it enough time, or if the computer stops responding at this stage. Like I said, I can't see the computer crunching, it just seems to be frozen.

Thanks for any insight.

Elsie

 

Updated info :

I contacted Gateway about this problem, despite my warranty being outdated by 3 years. This machine was purchased directly from Gateway in August of 2000.

They advised I download a utility called GWSCAN that scans my hard drive. Guess what ?

It says

Error: No drives found

So their suggestion is not going to help either, but I'm as baffled as ever. How can I have NO hard drive when the system boots up and files can be seen on the network from other computers, but isn't able to run (due to no Explorer.exe loading) ?

The more I get into this troubleshooting of the troubled computer, the more troubling the problem appears to be. If not troubling, BAFFLING as all get out.

How can it possibly say NO DRIVES FOUND when it's obvious I HAVE a hard drive ? Egads !

Elsie

 

Elsie
Click on my email link below and i will send you a step by step detailed instructions on how to reformat and install win98
These instructions came from this board from many different helpers and I colated them into one instruction sheet. For me it made it more simple than having two or three people giving different instructions at different times. Can be very confusing. Most is the same as what is in this thread but it is sometimes easier to have a complete set of instructions laid out in front of you. (I have found this board and all who help are invaluble)
Stitch

 

Get Delpart. It is small enough to fit on the boot floppy. It is a sure fire partition deleter.
Then use Fdisk to create.