want to 'upgrade' from XP to 98

[CharmedOne]

we've got a Dell Inspiron notebook. it's got XP Pro on it, but it came new with Windows ME.

we'd like to install Windows 98 for two reasons, one is that it goes like a dog (with XP) kind of like an overweight Pug with an inherent breathing problem.

the other is because the other half wants to play a specific game on it. and to network said game in a LAN he needs Windows 98.

now he could say all these things himself but he's busy right now and he's hollering out what we need to do and how to ask for advice.

so... how does one uninstall Windows XP Pro? can you use a boot disk and just format it?

[sagit]

you will NEED use to use win98 bootdisk to fdisk (removing all partitions and create new ones, to accommodate removal of ntfs and creation of fat32), format and install off win98 cd.

[CharmedOne]

thanks for your quick advice :)

i'll let him know as soon as he's out of the shower :D

[CharmedOne]

okay, booted with the win98SE bootdisk.

ran fdisk. didn't do much.

so i did 'format c:'.

it wiped the HDD.

then i rebooted, tried 'fdisk' again. nothing happened. it says it's already right and that it's fat32 anyway.

i had hoped that rebooting with the boot disk would load the CD drivers to install Win 98 off the CD. but no dice.

it's sitting there doing not much.

should i use a OEM Win 98 SE bootdisk or the Win 98 SE Custom bootdisk?

i downloaded it from http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

any suggestions? a webpage with a blow by blow account of what to do? we use PC's a lot around here, but we're not technical geeks by any stretch of the imagination.

[CharmedOne]

dodgie boot disk or some kind of hardware stuff up?

when i choose START WITH CD ROM SUPPORT it doesn't.

[Lurgen]

That's because the drivers on the older CD-ROM boot disks don't support DVD drives. Booting straight from the Win98SE boot CD might help, but I doubt it. Better option is to address the original problem - wanting to run a specific game and performance issues. Memory is most likely causing your performance problem. If you have 64 meg, upgrade it, XP runs fine on most hardware if it has 256 meg or more.

Networking on 98 doesn't offer anything that XP doesn't. If it requires the IPX protocol, install it on XP. XP offers compatability mode (right click on the .exe, choose properties and take a look at the Compatibility tab) which solves most problems with games not working.

Installing 98 on newer machines is pretty hit and miss in my experience. Getting DVD ROM drives to work can be tough since DOS mode drivers are almost unheard of for them and 98 drivers aren't being written any more. If you absolutely insist on regressing, WinME might be your only real option. Bear in mind though that ME is shit. Absolute shit. OS/2 might be a better OS, hehehe.

[Drakin]

If your networking 98 machines couldnt you take a ghost of the OS and copy it to the laptop, theres no way its going to boot perfectly but you might be able to get it up in safe mode and address the drivers individually, you would need the original drivers disk that came with the laptop though.

Possibly even just burning a disk of the windows and root dir's might get it up and staggering..

[Reprobate]

i've done some checking, and apparently the Dell Inspiron 2500 (it's my notebook by the way) is notorious for being a royal pain in the ass for formatting and reinstalling Windows, due to the CD-ROM driver.

it originally had Win ME on it, but i put XP Pro on it... why? well it was almost two years ago and something went wrong with ME, and XP Pro was sitting right there on the desk ;) it's only got 64 meg of ram, but it managed. just.

it doesn't have a DVD drive. hell, it ain't even a CD Burner.

i'm not a huge gamer. only occasionally will i get into an old favourite game. one being Red Alert 2. which after much headbutting and searching a while back, i discovered that it can't be played on a network with XP. and Westwood ain't making a patch to fix the problem.

but we did have the game playing on a network with a 98 box in the network, we wondered why the old Pavillion was the only one that could host a game.

so the plan is to put 98 on the Dell, and get the HP Pavillion (mentioned in a thread a few weeks back, i managed unlock the secret of how to remove the HDD) back and running (again with Win 98).

thanks for the feedback, i'm thinking of trying the ME boot disk and THEN trying to install 98.

wish me luck :D

[sagit]

charmedone: fdisk is not an automated program. would you like some instruction on how to use it?

edit: from what has been said, i'd say you still have the disk in ntfs format. basically, you need to delete all the partitions and recreate them (option #3 - delete, option #1 - create). both menu options have submenu options. also after creating the partition again, you may need to use #2 so that the partition is active.

[CharmedOne]

charmedone: fdisk is not an automated program. would you like some instruction on how to use it?

yes please.

[sagit]

k. boot from win98 bootdisk and run fdisk (i find its best to have fdisk.exe, format.exe/com and sys.com on the bootdisk).

- choose option #4 (display) to see what you have. take a note of how many partitions and what sort they are. you'll probably only have one and its description is "Non-DOS partition". note the highlighted number. thats the partition number.

- press the Esc key (goes back to main menu) and choose option #3 (delete). choose sub-option #4 (Delete Non-DOS partition). there are 3 prompts: partition number, volume label and "are you sure". enter these correctly and you should see an empty list, in which case press Esc to return to main menu. You may be automatically be returned to main menu (cant remember - i'm in internet cafe).

- do #4 again to check that there are no remaining partitions and escape to main menu.

- choose #1 in main menu, #1 (Create primary partition) in submenu and wait for it to ask if you want to use all for partition. select yes (or just press enter). it'll partition whole space for use.

- When done, you'll need to press Esc once or twice to get out. leave floppy disk in drive and reboot (which is necessary to write partition info to disk). At reboot, you'll be able to format disk and use sys.com to transfer system. reboot again off cd only now and do install from cd.

if you cant boot from cd, then ensure you can get to setup.exe from this condition and run setup off cd manually.

[Peach]

Do a google for 98bot10a.exe - expands to a reliable 98 boot disk with CD drivers and format/fdisk etc.