Upgrading to 98SE

My F-I-L has a computer that is running Win 98 and has a couple of things that will not run except on Win 98SE. He purchased a full-blown retail 98SE disc, not an upgrade disc, and wants to do the upgrade.

The person he talked to on the phone said he needed to unload Win 98 before reloading the 98SE. He told her that he didn't have the Win 98 CD as it was a pre-load when he bought it used. She said that it should be no problem as the disc he was buying was a full-blown retail, not OEM, copy.

Being bears of little brain, I don't know what to do and neither does he. I'd hate to uninstall 98 and find out we are in deep do-do.

Do we have to uninstall 98 befoer installing 98SE? If not, will the disc simply do the install when we put it in the CD drive?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

j

 

Do a 'new' install to a different windows directory.

 

I did mention that I am a bear of little brain so you likely won't be surprised by my asking what you mean by that. I have never done a Windows install at all -- ever.

 

Hello,

To receive good advice, I think it may be a good idea to do these:
- click_R My Computer icon on the desktop> Properties and write down what is written there.
- hit OK to close that and double click My Computer icon; write down also the name of objects you see there.
- then let us know about, please.
If you can make 2 snapshots, it's even better.

regards

Stefan

PS : I put 2 snapshoots of my PC

 

I guess my first question would be, does your F-I-L have any data that he doesn't want to lose? If so, does he have a way to save it (CD burner, second hard drive, etc).

It really is best to format the exisiting hard drive, then do the clean install of Win98SE. A fairly clear guide can be found here:

http://home.ptd.net/~don5408/win98/install/clean.html

Ignore the Aptiva specific stuff. I'd also ignore their boot disk methods, it's easier to download a Win98SE boot disk from here:

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Basically, boot the computer with your newly created floppy boot disk, format the C: drive, then go to the CD drive (Usually D: ) and type 'Setup' and press enter. The 98SE install will start & you can follow the prompts from there.

Any other questions, just ask.

 

<sigh>

best5,

I don't know how to take a snapshot. I tried a CTRL-print screen but to no avail.

Wavetar,

We bought an external hard drive case that plugs into the USB port but, unfortunately, that is one of the things that only runs under 98SE. He has another drive installed but it does not have the capacity. Maybe he is going to have to get a drive for backup and install it internally in place of this one. Upgrading the thing from one version to another shouldn't be this intense.

I'm gonna mention this as an aside but want to keep it out of this conversation. On top of this mess, he wants to transfer all of his data to a notebook he bought that has XP Home on it. We explored how to do that and tried it with USB and Ethernet cables but nothing came up. The instructions on the notebook on doing file transfer is not the best. They talk in terms of hubs, etc. but we only have the two computers so a direct cable interface should do it. In addition, there is NOTHING that is compatible for doing transfers any other way. The notebook has no a: drive; the desktop has no CD writer; the notebook has no serial port; etc, etc, ad nauseum. They both have USB and Ethernet connections but neither has produced results.

God, I long for the good ol' days of DOS.

 

His having an XP laptop is the answer to easily backing up the files he wants to retain on his win98 computer. On the XP Laptop - go to programs/accessories/communications/network wizard. Use the wizard to make a network on the laptop, then it will make a floppy to use on the win98 machine to install the network on it. Be sure and set it so that you can share files between computers. A direct cable connection between the two ethernet cards is all you need. I've been running that type network connection between my dell winxp and my gateway win98se computers for well over a year. Then you can just copy and paste between the two computers.

Assuming he definately has a full version Win98se disk, you are then ready to make the change. Definately do a clean install.
Be sure you have a win98 startup disk. If you don't have one, you can make one by right clicking on my computer/properties. (also - a win95 startup disk will work).
Follow the instructions Wavetar gave, and you should be in business.

 

His XP laptop doesn't have a floppy drive.

If he's considering getting a new larger hard drive in order to save his data, why not just make it the master drive & install Win98SE on that? All of his current data will remain exactly as it is on the secondary drive. Hard drives are cheap these days, I think it might be the way to go in your case.

 

wavetar,

Yeah, that floppy drive part was one of the things that stopped me from making the network when I tried it before. The instructions weren't that good either and one would assume that a manufacturer would know that their units lack this essential detail.

Can the "floppy" be a CD?

Also. Let me get this straight. If I install a clean hard drive in the unit and make the original drive a slave, I can install Win 98SE to the new drive and make it the primary boot drive? The original drive will be the ?: drive and the new drive will be the C: drive?

 

Exactly. The new drive will be the primary boot drive with Win98SE, the old drive will become the 'D:' drive, with all it's data intact.