Win XP installed.... Need to change back to Win 98! Help!

Hello everyone!

While trying to be helpful, my son took my old compaq laptop to school and installed Win XP..... it runs like a dog now... takes forever to open or close anything! I researched that the specs for my system barely qualify for XP. I want my Windows 98 back!

I only use the old laptop when I go on long trips and (I don't travel often) so I have only just discovered the problem. I am going to asia on Monday and was counting on it for email and internet only.

Could some one please tell me how to do this in simple terms or direct me to a good resource? I don't know if Win 98 is still inside it anymore or not but I do have a Win 98 CD. I just don't know much about formating or even if it is needed. I do know all of the things that I must do once I get 98 se back from my reading on this forum.... thanks MajorGeeks eversomuch!

Oh, I just saw that besides my local disk (C I also have a "system_save" (D, in addition to an floppy(A and CD(E. My HD was replaced in 2000 and perhaps the tech made the D drive. It can't be anything that I need now.... Sorry but I don't understand partitions if this is one.

Cheers,
travelite

 

Sorry, for:

I guess you cant use parenthesis without getting a . It should read

Oh, I just saw that besides my local disk C, I also have a "system_save" D, in addition to an floppy A and CD, E drives. My HD was replaced in 2000 and perhaps the tech made the D drive. It can't be anything that I need now.... Sorry but I don't understand partitions if this is one.

travelite

 

if you can, install your win 98 se cd and boot to cd......go thought the setup and it will ask you if you want to format or not....make sure you DO... then just follow the rest of the setup process

 

Thank you for replying pohl! I just want to be clear. Should I format/reformat? There is nothing that I need on the laptop.

I am afraid of choosing wrong answers during the process.

Thanks again,
travelite

 

Help! I've tried to boot to the CD but XP loads.... taking almost 5 min. Computer is off, insert cd, turn computer on. Am I doing it wrong?

travelite

 

Make sure that the cd drive is boot enabled, go into your bios and set it to be a boot device BEFORE your hard disk drive. You should then be able to boot to the cd!

 

Could you tell me how to do that please? Is this something that I will need to change back?
Thank you,
travelite

 

When you first turn the system on press F1 at the Initial screen. Your BIOS Menu screen will come up, go to the boot section of the menu, select CD-ROM as your first boot device. C: as your second, and if you have a floppy make it the 3rd boot device.

 

Thank you Shadow_Puter_Dude. Have checked BIOS. The loading order was:

A:floppy
D:which is the System_Backup which was from when my HD was replaced.
C:

I did not see an E drive listed. This is now my CD drive. How can I fix this?

The windows 98 disc runs when I boot the computer and I do get an odd black screen with a white line at the bottom for a short time, but then XP loads.

travelite

 

You need to select the Menu Item for the drive you want to change, when you press the spacebar it should cycle through the drive choices.

 

I changed the BIOS to read the CD first but XP still continues to load even though the 98cd is in the drive when I restart the laptop.

Do you have any other suggestions? I am getting pretty flustered but am grateful for the help!

travelite

 

OK, if it is loading XP, that means you do not have a bootable CD. You will need to boot from floppy and then load 98. If you don't have a 98 Boot Floppy download it from here Windows 98SE Startup Disk

Save it to your Desktop, Insert blank floppy in drive, Double-Click File, Follow Prompts.

Change your first boot drive back to A: Floppy, boot the computer with the Floppy in the drive.

 

Thanks again! Have the floppy..... now, please tell me the procedure to get from the floppy to the cd. I would want to wipe my HD correct? I am worried about responding incorrectly to a prompt.

travelite

 

The floppy ran. I chose minimal boot. Now I have an A:\ prompt

travelite

 

what do i do next? please help!

travelite

 

Major Attitude, brought up a valid point.

If the file system is NTFS, then we need to prepare the drive for Win98.

Do you know the maker of your C drive?

 

no, sorry. it is a Compaq 1920.

 

ok! i got it to read the cd drive! i needed to enter E:\setup.exe .... no one mentioned the .exe part and i did not know better.

now it says:

thank you, shadow-computer-dude and major attitude for all of your help thus far but, i need more.....

and yes, i would murder my son if he were not 750mi away!

travelite

 

gawd! i really messed up that quote! i'm getting tired and have so much to do. it should end:

travelite

 

We need to repartition your HD.

Please read the How to Repartition the Extended Partition and the Logical Drives of this Microsoft Article.

If this fails it is because our Hard Drive has a NTFS partition. You will need to find out what brand of hard drive you have.

 

did some research. i hope that this helps someone help me!

Compaq Presario 1920 Notebook PC - Product Specifications

Info on Compaq Presario HD's in general

after reading the above could there be some other reason that the system is incredibly slow. there is really nothing on it but XP!

thanks for your time!

travelite

 

thank you for the link shadow_computer_dude! i will try the contents of that article if i have to.

i skulked around my laptop and was able to determine that i have 2 partitions.

C drive file system is NTFS
3.91GB with 2.11 free space

D drive file system is FAT 32
2.14GB

Intel Pentium II
298 Mhz

64 Mb Memory
6.16 Mb Available Memory
235 MB Virtual Memory
30 MB Available Memory

i suspect that it is the memory part that keeps the XP soooo sloooow.
can someone confirm this for me? if so i will try to do the fdisk thing.

yes, i did read major attitudes article but i think that my situation is a bit different.

thanks for all of the help so far!

travelite

 

Your going to have to repartition the drive, Win98 can not read nor utilize a NTFS partition. Also you will want to Partition the drive a a Single FAT32 partiton.

 

"i suspect that it is the memory part that keeps the XP soooo sloooow."

Yes, partly the memory, and partly the processor.

And, yes, you'll need to "do the fdisk thing." you'll want to delete both partitions on the computer. One will be a primary partition, and the other will be an extended dos partition. (NTFS might show up as an extended DOS partition though, so they may both be under there.

Then, you'll want to follow the directions in shadow's link:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;255867#XSLTH3144121122120121120120

You'll want a FAT32 partition using up all the space on the drive.

After you do all that, then you'll go back to e:Setup.exe