Any concerns for Win98 1st Ed upgraded to Win98SE?

My OS is Win98 1st Edition. I'm considering upgrading to Win98 SE but wonder what sorts of things might be or will be bad in this change.

Will:
- some Windows updates I've done recently be lost or have to be done all over again?
- some apps not work after upgrading to Win98 SE?
- the upgrade force me to accept files older than current ones I have now, or will the upgrade ask me if I want to keep newer files instead of installing older ones from the upgrade CD?
- various hardware drivers be changed or lost?
- an old IE be installed over the current one I have? [I have IE 6 but almost never use it because of its flaws and slowness. I favor and use only Firefox.]
- the nice freeware 98Lite strip out all of IE when my OS is Win98SE? [When I had Win98 1st Edition in another computer, I had used 98Lite in 1999 to completely strip out IE. I know 98Lite works nicely with Win98 but wonder if it will also strip out IE when the OS is Win98SE.]

Anything else to be cautious or wary about?

Any other concerns or worries one should have by doing this sort of Win98 1st Ed to Win98 SE upgrade?


[Incidentally, to help you help me, two weeks ago I installed Win98 1st Edition as OS in an older (built in 2000) IBM computer which had been wiped. Because of some recent app installation problem I had or perhaps some Windows update problem that occurred (I can't recall exactly what the problem was now), I was forced to re-install Win98 1st Edition. All seems OK now.]


Thanks,

Stan

 

Hi Stan,
I've only tried it once, maybe twice. It should work, but will depend on the integrity of 98FE system to begin with, especially the registry.
You will be asked whether or not to keep a backup of the old system files. You can choose to keep them for a while then delete them later if the system is working OK.
98Lite might be alright for a freshly installed system. On an upgrade I think it would be playing with fire.
The advantage of SE over FE would be the integration of the "patches" for FE so that it works more smoothly. It won't resuscitate a very sick system, at least where the registry is concerned.
If you do not have a backup system, now's the time to work out a good one. Find all the files you want to save (My Documents and any other places where files are saved), the favourites folder, drivers or their updates (the Windows\Inf folder is an index of the drivers, a copy could help identify hardware) . Make export files of your email and address book. Burn a copy of them onto a CD. If the upgrade does not work you can install SE to another folder, delete the old Windows folder and reinstall the programs or just format and start fresh. Hopefully the system will withstand the changes. Unless you never install or uninstall programs or update any files, there will come a time when the system needs to be "rejuvenated ". Also, your harddrive could fail at any time, so you need to be prepared.
If the upgrade "falls over" you will just need to chalk it up to experience.

Matt

 

I didn't get far

In my initial two attempts yesterday to upgrade Win98FE to Win98SE I didn't get far.

The CD I found was marked Win98SE upgrade. It's the kind that's supposed to make Win98FE into Win98SE.
I thought I might need my Win98FE start-up diskette. That didn't help. [I put that diskette in and switched from C:\ to R:\ (which was the CD drive when this start-up diskette is used). I read what was on the upgrade CD but couldn't run setup for some reason. I tried to copy all on the disk to a hard drive directory I created (C:\Win98SE) but only a few things were copied. Were only a few copied because the computer was trying to put *all* files and folders into some temporary swap? Should I try again and only copy a few at a time? There were lots of CAB files or folders as I recall.]

I then put in the CD, turned off the computer, and then restarted but that didn't help either. I just got the usual Win98 start menu in DOS.

Is there some problem or trick in doing this upgrade? What's the procedure? I have no instructions, just the disk and its 25 character key code (which is different from the one I have for my Win98FE CD). [In this first attempt to upgrade, I was never asked for the key code.]


Thanks

 

If you want the setup files on the Hard Drive you do not need to copy the full CD. The only files you need to copy are the ones in the Win98SE ( I believe that is the name ) on the CD.

They are also better also if copied to a drive other than C: Lets say D:\Win98SE.

It also helps to have the setup files on a drive other than C: because then the system can find and use them better if needed. Also having the setup files on the HD they do not get mis-placed if the CDROM letter should for some reason get changed. And it makes no difference what the Startup disk assigns it.

Then boot to the floppy ( from a power off state ) then type
D:\Win98SE\Setup and then just make sure that the upgrade does go into the existing Windows directory. ( normally C:\Windows.)

I can 100% vouch for the fact that this works because this XP Pro machine I am on right now started out as a copy of the one in another machine with WinSE which started with Win95 ) and has not been formated yet. But when it was installed in this machine it was not allowed to boot directly to the HD the first time. I booted to the Flloppy and re-installed 98SE. Then later upgraded to XP Pro.

Booting to the HD to re-install/Upgrade Windows does not work well. Too much extra/interfering stuff may be loaded. And/or files may/do not get overwritten properly.

One thing that may play a big part in how I can do things is that fact that I built all three machines myself. The oldest one started out with DOS-Win3.1. It now has 98SE on it.

BillyBob

 

Will try this later, but a question

Thanks BillyBob for the advice and help. I'll try this out probably later today when at home.

I luckily made a D:\ logical partition when I set up my Win98FE computer. So I should have the computer read the upgrade CD, copy only the setup file(s) to D:\ (how many files might that be, perhaps just ' setup.exe ' ?) , and then run that setup.exe? When I run the setup.exe, the setup.exe will look for the upgrade CD and the other files on it. Is that right on how this will work?

Also, why do I need to use my Win98 startup diskette to get to D:\ ? Couldn't I, after doing the copying from upgrade CD to D:\ , turn off the computer and just start it up again and from the usual Win98 startup menu (which appears in DOS), pick the option that says "command prompt only" (or whatever it says- it might be #3)? Then from the C:\ I get in DOS, I could just switch to D:\ and run the setup.exe. Right?


Thanks

 

There are Approximately 100 file in the Win98(SE) folder on the HD.

The reason for using the startup disk is to BE SURE the machine is clean and nothing gets loaded that may inferfere with the proper overwriting of files..

Also there is a possibility that there may be something is loading from the Autoexec.bat/config,sys on the machine that might interfere.

I have always done it this way and I have never had a problem.

95 over 3.1. 98FE over 95. 98SE over 98FE. XP Pro over 98SE. I believe that I did use the CD for XP though.

BillyBob

 

You will need to copy whole contents of win98 folder (174 Mb on mine) that includes all those .cab files that you saw.

If you use the DOS system on the C:\ drive, Setup will not be able to overwrite the files that are in use. The startup floppy makes a "Virtual RAM Drive" and runs without using files from the HDD. It could work, but it would be better to ensure that all the basic files are rewritten by using DOS from the startup floppy. I always use the startup floppy for reinstalling Windows, otherwise you may wonder why the new system will not work (or works well). I'm sure BillyBob agrees [Edit: Posted before me BillyBob and it looks like you do].

Matt

 

Well said mattman

I sure do agree.

Bob

 

Some thing is very wrong with the upgrade disc

Matt and BillyBob: I think some thing is not quite right with the upgrade disc I have. It's not an officially Microsoft made one but rather a copy made by some company which I was told had the license to upgrade numbers of Win98FE computers-- this company apparently made a number of these upgrade CDs. [This company did print up a label for the disc and there is a 25 character key code on the label.] [Besides the key code printed on the label, the only other info on the disc is:
"DesignExpress Eval. To order, call 800........... (which is blacked out)
Windows 98 Upgrade
7 July 2000 "

Using the upgrade disc, I just could not copy anything in the Win98 folder on the disc. This was the case both in my first attempt to do this in DOS and today in Windows. [When I tried in my Win98FE, the CD was read but I could not copy anything to D:\Win98SE. The CD drive was acting oddly with no spin sound but the light blinked slowly and each blink occurred over a second or two interval or over erratic intervals. Now and then I'd get strange, never-before-seen-by-me boxes appearing saying something was wrong and that the computer didn't have some authority to work with this disc. I was never asked for any 25 character key code. Perhaps something on the disc looked for something on my computer and didn't find it-- I don't know.]

So I suppose I'll just have to stay with Win98FE.


Thanks again for your interest in trying to help me.


Stan :-/

 

That creates a whole different ball game. One which I myself must forfeit.

BillyBob

 

If it was meant for some specialized OEM system, then you were defeated before you started. See if there is information on the root drive (a txt or doc file) about it's intention.
It seems it was not meant for your system anyway.

Matt

 

No record to examine

I looked but found nothing in C:\ that would tell us what the disc was designed for.


Stan