Trying to upgrade Windows 98SE to XP, but no luck

I have an old Gateway computer with Windows 98SE on it and recently got Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2 Upgrade and have been trying for two days solid to install the XP program, but with no luck.

I get many error messages saying "An error occurred copying file oembios.bin to C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\1386\oembios.bi_" with the file name changing each time to ones like oembios.sig, oemig50.exe, ole2disp.dll, ole2nls.dll ole32.dll, etc. culminating in a message that file ohci1394.sys is corrupted and that the setup failed.

Does this ring any bells with anyone on the forum? Would be grateful for any ideas!

 

could be your pc is infected.
I am not a big fan of OS upgrades. If you can do a clean install. You can still use your upgrade cd. XP upgrade will ask to see your win 98 cd at the near very beginng.
you will also need to upgrade your ram to 128 meg, 256 is more realistic
also min requirements for a processor is pent 2 500mhz. I would not recommend under pent 3 600 mhz.

 

Also could indicate a smudged or fingerprint or cat hair on the disk. give it a good cleaning and see what happens....

 

My computer

My computer has 384 MB RAM and a Pentium III processor and a 10 GB internal hard drive and a 150 GB external hard drive.

I suppose what I could do, as viking recommends, is copy everything from the internal hard drive to the external hard drive, then format my 10 GB internal hard drive and start from scratch, and finally do a clean install of XP. I have the instructions all printed-out from the XP install disc, and I think I could follow them without too much trouble. I also have the original Windows 98SE installation disc supplied with the computer

Following Bmoore1129, I've looked at the XP disc, and there are a couple of small scratches on it. The scratches are segments of a circle with the same center as the disc, but with a smaller radius (I forget the geometry term!), about midway between the center and the outer radius of the disc. I hope my CD drive didn't cause them. I've polished the disc with one of those microfiber cloths that come with plastic lens eyeglasses these days.

 

it also depends if the cd is a "burnt" copy or retail / oem

the scratches also depends on what side, usually , heavily used cd's have these and should not be much concern. I think what Bmoore1129 means is actual finger prints , jam , crud...stuff like that on the cd. Just in case clean the bottom of the cd with non amonia glass cleaner or plain soap and water , drying with a towel.
I think you will be better off doing a clean install. a few notes on clean install
make a folder called "back up " or what ever
back up internet explorer favs to it
back up your address book to this folder
back up your pop3 account settings
backup quicken, ms money...any others
backup email. OE , your store folder or files ending in .dbx
outlook create a pst file of all your folders including your contacts
you may not have room on a 10 gig HD to copy the whole thing to your new install since xp creates a 3 gig foot print .

 

Should be fine as long as the internal drive is used for the OS only and the big external drive is used for user data.

At the top of the XP section, there is a sticky Moving Windows XP default folders Rev1 on how to move the Documents and Settings folder and the folders contained within it to a data only drive/partition.

Regards - Charles

 

I did not know he had an external drive. If it were me I would take the larger drive out of the external and pop it into the pc for the main drive. With 10 gig it will not take long to fill up. I have 2 320 gig sata HDs that are almost full now.

 

This is an edit to my post above - post #6.

The above should read "on how to move the My Documents folder and the folders within ".

Regards - Charles

 

Hi viking,

The point of an OS only partition, or in this case, drive, is that it won't fill up or so slowly, it doesn't matter.

Regards - Charles

 

I am thinking about the program files and my documents.
I have seen ppl do this sort of thing before. They edit the registry to move my docs to another HD same for my programs. I do not know if they do it for the WOW effect or what. It always comes back to bite them in the butt. It is so much easier and Hard drives are sooo cheap, to just get that larger HD and be done with it.

 

Hi viking,

Yes, true, the poster can get a larger HD - but may not want or doesn't want to open the box, etc. So the point I was making for this particular thread was about staying in the 10 gig space.

I and others around here do create OS only partitions, not for space considerations, but for the following reasons:

If you drive image as I do - then only the OS is imaged. User data files should be backed up using regular data backup techniques.

If a repair/re install of the OS is called for, especially if the HD becomes inaccessable in whole or part, then data is not disturbed. I've seen enough posts now to know how lax people are about backing up their stuff.

You mention programs installed to another partition. I don't recommend that because they woud have to be reinstalled in any case if the is OS re installed.

What I do recommend is moving the My Documents folder and sub folders, including Favorites, to a data partition because of the user data contained in them. The reference I gave is a guide to do that.

Regards - Charles

 

Most ppl today , would soon use up the 10 gig space for programs. As far as back ups. I just ghost my whole hd to another hd. I like the easy way.

 

Result of formatting internal hard drive and trying XP upgrade

Well, last night I copied everything on my internal hard drive to the big external hard drive, and then when the internal drive was empty, I tried to install XP, but almost immediately got the same error message, "The file ohci1394.sys is corrupted. Press any key to continue." Then, "Setup failed. "

Now that I look back, I wonder if Windows 98SE had to be on the internal drive for the XP Upgrade to work (it has to "upgrade" from something).

I also see references on the Internet that say it is possible that various kinds of "malware" disguise themselves in files, and one of the files is ohci1394.sys!

I can't find any file named ohci1394.sys anywhere on this computer. Is it a hidden file?

 

could be what boomer stated

is this a burnt or retail version of xp ?

 

The disc was purchased by my brother over eBay, and certainly looks like a real Microsoft product. It came in a folder, with its Product Key sticker intact, and as my brother has said over-and-over, it is an "Upgrade" version. He thinks it being an "upgrade" means that it could not have accompanied an OEM computer, because an OEM would have Windows XP already loaded on it, and would not have had an earlier Windows version loaded with an "upgrade" disc to accompany it.

 

First I would like to say that if it has a regular cd jacket and there is a sticky attached to it with a typed cd key. The cd key is more than likely black listed with microsoft.
Up grade would be perfect, I always buy the upgrade version it is cheaper.
MS upgrades if installed on a formatted HD with no OS, will always then prompt you for a previous version of an OS that has an upgrade path to the OS you are installing, so in your example you would insert a windows 98 cd ( or whatever, xp actually lists all the os's with upgrade paths). XP looks at the cd for a few, then asks for the upgrade xp cd again.
could be your cd is a forged copy that might be corrupted.

 

A thought just occured to me. Where you originally trying to install XP onto the usb drive ? That will not work, you will get all the way to the end of the GUI part of the xp install and then when the pc reboots xp will not load and finsh. The HAL knows if it is being installed on a usb drive. I was told that everytime you plug into the usb bus it re-initailizes and that is not good if xp is doing a page to memory.

 

XP loading trouble

Sorry to be late with this reply - didn't see page 2 at the bottom of the screen on this discussion until this morning. I am very grateful for the time you are all taking with my problem.

I did not try to load the XP upgrade via the USB-connected external hard drive, I tried to load via the CD drive on the computer.

I have the Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition "for PCs without Windows" disk which was supplied with this computer when I bought it six years ago, and was ready to put it into the CD drive when the XP upload program would ask for it, but I got the error message and setup failed disappointments first.

The orange label with the Product Key is certainly authentic to my eye. It is printed, not typed, and if it isn't the real thing I'd be surprised.

 

yup,,, that sounds like an authentic COA,,, so the cd has the hollogram across the whole cd ?