win98 startup

I have an old Amstrad Laptop. No cd drive or usb port, but have floppy drive.
Haven't used it for some years but want to check if any useful info on it before scrapping it. However it won't start up even in safe mode...
Have win98 startup disk but have forgotten how to use it!!
Any tips welcome.
__________________
xocal

 

From memory, you put it in and let it run (has to have the BIOS set to boot from A. If it isn't working, the floppy may be corrupted. They don't last forever. You could make another if you can get hold of another computer with W98 and a floppy drive. It may not boot from this anyway - see this site for more info:
http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy29.htm
Another option is to connect the laptop to another computer and pull off any data you want.

 

If you need it you can download a fresh version here.

www.bootdisk.com

 

Another option is to connect the laptop to another computer and pull off any data you want.[/QUOTE]


I have managed to get to the C:\ prompt and using "Dir" can see the directory that I want to save! Now you suggest connecting to another computer! Unfortunately there are no usb ports, but have a serial port!
is it simply a matter of using a serial cable? and if so what safeguards should I take??
Also, is there a command that I can use at the C:\ prompt which will start the laptop??

 

No Ethernet port?

 

Yes you can use the serial port if you have a suitable cable it is not a normal serial cable.

The original program is aprt of DOS so it predates even Windows and was called interlink. Suprisingly the cable is an interlink cable.

How you connect depends upon the version of Windows on the target pc.

The connection was renamed by W98 to Direct Cable Connection

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298446

You can use the following cables

Serial null modem cable

Laplink cable

Interlink cable

Fully wired (all 25 pins) parallel cable - this is fastest.

 

No! ancient mariner Amstrad Alt-386SX!
Thanks

 

Thanks for your efforts.

OK so I have a parallel cable as described, and I have looked at the DCC connection method and note that it must be installed on both computers?
which I can't do with the Laptop, as can't get it to startup!!
It's so annoying, in that it seems to start up, gets past the Win 98 startup screen to a C:\windows\smartdrv.exe /x, can't find the mouse, then shows
Incorrect Dos version
Incorrect Dos version
Incorrect Dos version
C:\>

Unfortunately I don't have a mouse which fits the serial port. and don't know how to bypass this error.
If I enter "Dir" after the C:\ prompt I can see the hard drive contents but don't know how to access them. And nothing shows up on the PC I have cable connected to, using win98 same as Laptop!
Any thoughts

 

DOS syntax is

dir <dirname> or

cd <dirname>

for text files you may be able to read them with

edit <filename> (include the extension)

But unless you can establish a method of retrieval it doesn't help much.

 

Having got to DOS, could s/he not copy the files s/he wants onto floppies, if they're not too big?

 

Sorry I'm in the middle of things, but 'installed' just means the exe file is copied (via floppy will do ) from the working pc to the other one. Dos alone will achieve this and I understand you can get to Dos.

 

Am willing to give it a try if you can tell me how to do it!
the file is only 741,376 Bytes.
Have tried to run it in Dos but am told " this program must be run under Microsoft Windows!!
Is there a command I can use to complete opening Win98??

 

Put a blank floppy in the drive and go to the directory containing the file

copy filename.ext a: <Enter>

If you had said you had a floppy drive on the target PC we could have sorted this hours ago.

 

If you mean on the problem computer, s/he said so in his/her first post.

 

I mean on the machine which will be receiving the file.

 

I'm a bit confused then. S/he doesn't seem to have said that there is a floppy drive on that machine.

 

Does booting from the startup floppy, typing C: <enter key>, typing win <enter>, do anything?

 

The facts have become a bit cofused here so let's recap.

You have an old laptop that used to run on W98 - or was it upgraded to W98 at some point didn't 386 chips come before W98?

The laptop has a working floppy - please confirm.

You have no other pc with a floppy drive - please confirm.

When you try to boot the laptop W98 starts but does not finish boot. Your description sounds like a memory issue since the W98 boot process is different from W95 in that it creates a temporary drive in memory.

If you do not have another pc with floppy drive do you not have a friend or relative with one? If so could you not copy your file to a floppy and then to your friend's and then to a memory stick and finally to your other pc?

 

Thanks for that, but get message "You started this computer with a version of MS Dos incompatible with this version of windows. Insert a startup diskette matching this version of windows and restart"

My problem is that there was no startup diskette inserted when starting up!!
so have probably "sys C:" from the wrong startup diskette at some stage, so, as I have succeeded in saving the files as per previous post, am now on the point of dumping it in the bin!!
It is a basic Windows 98 system.

 

Thanks for that, but get message "You started this computer with a version of MS Dos incompatible with this version of windows. Insert a startup diskette matching this version of windows and restart"

My problem is that there was no startup diskette inserted when starting up!!
so have probably "sys C:" from the wrong startup diskette at some stage, so, as I have succeeded in saving the files as per previous post, am now on the point of dumping it in the bin!!
It is a basic Windows 98 system.

Thanks to all!!

 

Sorry for the confusion, but put up the previous posts before reading this mornings posts from the Army men Sergeant and Sergeant major.
Thanks to all!!
Hopefully others who read these posts will learn as much from them as I have.

 

xocal - I should have made it clearer. When I said copy filename.ext a: I simply meant you should type the full filename and its three character extension, not the actual letters .ext. Sorry I confused you, but at least you now have the file you wanted.

Be careful using it if, as you say, it is an exe file. exe files are intended for use in a specific version of Windows, in this case 98, and are unlikely to work, and could cause problems in other versions, such as XP or Vista.

 

I'm guessing it's not actually an .exe file, as it is unlikely that any .exe files would still be useful. We might have an unheard-of situation where a glitch actually worked in someone's favour! :celebrate