XP back to 98se

Bought a used machine that had xp on it. The hard drive has been wiped. I like win 98 but It will not boot up with the win98 floppy so I cannot install win98, now what? I have used the western digital cd to format and put the hard drive back to fat. Is there a procedure out there somewhere?

 

southwind, welcome to the BBS. Have you checked the BIOS to see if it is set to boot from the floppy disk first?

 

Yes, I have.

 

southwind--
Here is the official MS procedure
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q221829/
(I see it starts with a floppy, so do not know if MS has done something different than you did.)
and here is an alternative
http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/software/windows/upgrade/inst98.htm
When you are successful, do not forget to go to Windows Update to get all the Critical Updates.

 

I cannot power up and get an A:\ prompt with the boot floppy inserted. I get a "no OS found" instead. Could it be that the master boot record on the hard drive was removed when they wiped the hard drive before sending the machine?

 

I see it as you not having a real DOS ( or Win98 ) boot floppy which is what you need right now. If you did it would not be looking for and OS or even the HD.

It appears to me ( from what I read into it ) is that the Floppy you are using is looking for something on the HD. Which ( if I am correct ) it should not be.

BillyBob

PS
An OEM machine may well be different. I do not know as I have always built my own.

BB

 

southwind--Possibly of help
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

 

southwind, from your last post it almost sounds like the floppy drive is not working and the computer is trying to start from the HD ( "no OS found "). Suggest popping the hood on the box and check that the ribbon cable and power cable to the floppy are hooked up (both drive and motherboard end for ribbon cable) if they are, detatch and reset them, also make sure the ribbon cable is the right way around in the floppy drive connecter, (usually red stripe to the outside) then try again to boot from the floppy.

 

Was FDISK tried.

 

I second Billy Bob. The floppy you are using may be defective. It may not have the DOS necessary.

 

Also there could be a problem with the BIOS not being set to boot from the Floppy FIRST.

And something that I forgot in my previous reply.

It has been so long since I have done anything that required a flopppy boot and my personal memory may have gone sour. but I believe that with the proper Floppy and BIOS settings the machine should boot to it even with no HD installed.

Again OEM machines may be different.

BillyBob

 

true indeed

even if this is the case, you should still be able to boot OK from a Win98 startup floppy, the process doesn't depend upon the HDD's MBR.

Could you pls. let us know the make and model of the computer? - "no OS found" sounds horribly like an OEM message... but it might be from the way the WD tools left the HDD, if there's a hardware problem with the floppy drive as JohnB suggests, and the computer defaults to trying to boot from C: because it can't read from A: (might the floppy drive just have really dirty heads perhaps?)

Microsoft formats (DOS through Win98, perhaps later versions too) leave messages more like "Non-system disk or Disk Error" or "Invalid system disk, replace and press any key" on non-bootable disks (whether hard or floppy)

If you have another machine to hand, you might try the Win98 floppy in that to see whether it's OK. If we know for sure that the floppy is OK it narrows things down.

==

There may be a second, separate problem involved putting a HDD back to Win98 after it has had XP on it; this may have been circumvented by using the WD tools to put the filing system back to FAT, but there again maybe not. If you hit this problem you won't be able to FDISK. This can be sorted with DEBUG (probably other ways also!)

BUT! - you have to able to boot OK from a Win98 startup floppy first.


best wishes, HJ