Can't boot 98 from HD or CD

Although I use XP on my main computer, I have an older one running 98SE. I recently had to reformat the the HD. I attempted to re-install the operating system, but it only goes so far and then I get an error message saying setup can't continue because there is already an operating system on the drive. When I press F1 for "further information" it says to remove the floppy disc from the drive a insert the CD rom, although I was not using a floppy, just the CD.

If I try and boot from the HD. (C) All i get is the following:

The following file is missing or corrupted: C\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
There is an error on your CONFIG.SYS file, on line 1

The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE
There is an error on your CONFIG.SYS on line2

The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\VIDE-CDD.SYS
There is an error in your CONFIG.SYS on line 4

The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\COUNTRY.SYS
There is an error in your CONFIG.SYS file 0n line 5.

Warning: The HMA is not available. Additional low memmory (below 640k) will be use instead

I can get into the BIOS alright, but I don't know if any changes there could possibly help this problem. If so what?

I don't know what else to try.

 

"error message saying setup can't continue because there is already an operating system on the drive "

The above message results when you use an OEM Win98 CD to repair or reinstall windows. It was meant to be used on an empty drive. But there is a workaround for this, just rename one file using this dos command.
ren c:\windows\win.com win.old (if done correctly, nothing seems to happen)
Then install windows.

 

Can't boot 98 from HD or CD Reply to Thread

Thank you for your advice, I did as you suggested but it returned "bad pathway" or "cannot find pathway" or something similar. ( I didn't make a note and can't remember now.) As I am using the same monitor for this computer and the one I am working on, I can't check which it was at the present time, as I can only be on one machine or the other.
jayjay

 

Try ren c:\windows win.com win.old. Marks command is almost correct but you need to leave the backslash out between windows and win.com.

 

Can't boot 98 from HD or CD Reply to Thread

Well, just reading the replies again, I can see why my efforts to follow your instructions didn't work. I booted to command prompt and entered
ren c:\windows win.com win.old there.

Re-reading instructions, this was obviously not going to work, but I don't know any way of accessing any files to change.

The problem is of my own making. I was going to let a young relative borrow the 98 computer for a while as she needed one for a school project. She asked if I could put XP in for her as that is what she is used to using at school. Well, I had my XP disc here from my regular computer, and I thought it would be alright to put that in. It appeared to install fine, until right at the end, then I got an error message and the XP installation aborted. (presumably I should not have tried to put my XP on a second computer, but I thought it would be o.k. as the programme was mine, legally bought and paid for.)

Unfortunately, the XP installation had gone far enough to wipe many of the 98 files from the system so it would not now boot up from C drive. This is why I was attempting to reinstall the original 98SE, with little success.

I cannot get into Windows (of any flavour) to do anything. The only thing I can get into is the BIOS. I tried to use the discs I got with the system originally to restore "factory settings" but that also needs the the files which are now missing.

It has been suggested that I take the hard-drive out of the old computer, insert it into my regular one and reformat the hard drive. I don't want to do that as my regular one is still under guarantee and if I open it up and start messing about inside, I will void the guarantee.

There has to be a way around this problem as although the 98SE computer is old, it is actually a very nice computer.

 

Your installation of your personal license XP would have only been good for 30days, activation of it may nullify your license.
You do need to format the drive. Boot the computer with a boot floppy, don't got one?
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
Then download the file for 98SE OEM, put a floppy into the drive, and doubleclick the file. Do not copy the file to the floppy and expect it to work.
Boot the computer with it, when the A:\> appears, first do this command.
dir c:
This should give you a listing of files, or report the presence of none. If it says the drive cannot be read, your drive may have been converted to a NTFS file system. 98 will not work with a NTFS file system.
Use this command to start the format.
format c:

BTW, instead of using a boot floppy, you can use the XP CD to format the drive. However it will not format a drive (or partition) larger that 32 gb using the FAT32 file system that 98 requires.

You are going to need to install the motherboard drivers as the very first hardware drivers after windows is up and running.

If the drive is not read by the 'dir c:' command, you'll need to delete the NTFS partition and create a FAT32 partition; more on this if needed.

 

Can't boot 98 from HD or CD Reply to Thread

I have still not sorted this problem> I followed your instructions (as above)
with the following outcome:

After downloading the bootdisk you suggested, I used it to start the computer and to format the disc. This went o.k.
I then ran the 98SE disc and chose "set-up" Set up checked my system and found a "bad cluster at the end of the hard drive" I clicked for more information and got a suggestion that I should quit set-up and check the BIOS to see if the LBA (logical block addressing) was set correctly before continuing. (or words to that effect)

I did this but nowhere in BIOS could I find any mention of LBA. Can you tell me where I find it and what the corrrect settings for it should be?

I also attempted to boot from my XP disc, but got a message that file NTLD (at least I think that's what it was ) was missing. Suggestion: copy this file from another computer running XP to this one. How do I possibly do that?

Thanks in advance for any help you are able to offer.

Jay

 

I suggest you find and dowload the HDD manufacturer's utilities. The utilities will tell you if the BIOS settings are not correct.

*Make sure the drive's data cables have a good connection by pulling out and reseating the connector (also at the motherboard end).*

Run the surface scan/test. That will confirm if there may be bad sectors present.

Use the utilities to repartition and format the drive.

If the utilities say there are bad sectors and you still cannot install Windows, put the drive into another computer as slave or secondary master and run scandisk/chkdsk on it from Windows there (set to "Automatically fix errors" and "Thorough ") or do it immediately you have installed Windows and run it again regularly to ensure the drive's surface is not starting to break down (it's time for a new drive if it continues to get worse).

Matt
Edit: It sounds very similar to a problem I had where the partitioning/formatting information was slightly wrong. Partitioning with the HDD utilities fixed it.