Don's Home Technology PC - Windows Reference Clean Install Contact

Clean Win 98 install:
First make sure that you have backed up everything, including Favorites, e-mail addresses and messages, The best way is to burn them to a CDR, or copy to a network share, then have a look in the device manager and note the make and model of Graphics card, sound card, Network card,modem plus anything special that you have installed, create a small text file and include it with the backup, dont forget to record account details of your ISP dialup, it may be worth downloading the latest drivers for the graphics and sound while you still can, otherwise you will need to have the install disks when you finish the re-install of the OS

Windriver Backup
This free utility will extract your current windows drivers and back them up to a folder
it will also restore them after a rebuild, it can be downloaded from;


1. Create a boot disk with drivers for your CD ROM
2. Boot with it
3. type FDISK /MBR hit enter 
(this destroys the master boot record and re-creates it. You should not see anything on the screen.)
4. type FORMAT C: /U /S hit enter 
(this will format your hard drive and "SYS" it. This means install the system files needed to boot up. When it's done you may enter a name for this drive if you wish.)
Reboot the computer with the boot disk.
Type C: hit enter
Type MD CABS hit enter
Type X: hit enter 
(where "X" is the drive letter for your CD-ROM make sure your Win98 CD is in the CD-ROM drive!)
Type CD WIN98 hit enter
Type COPY *.* C:\CABS hit enter 
(what you've done is, you've made a folder called "cabs" on your hard drive, then copied all the files needed from your Win98 CD-ROM to that folder. This way you will install from your hard drive. Then, in the future if Win98 needs any files, it will automatically get them from there. Also I've found that some people have a problem getting their CD-ROM to be recognized by Win98. If that were to happen during the Win98 installation, you wouldn't be able to finish the install. This method avoids this problem.)
Reboot the computer without the boot disk. NOTE: If you're using an upgrade CD to do the install, skip step 10, and start the install while you're booted off the bootdisk, this way you will have CD-ROM support when Windows wants proof. At that point simply put your Win9x CD in, point to it in the browser, then put your install CD back in. Remember to remove the boot disk before the next reboot!
Type CD CABS hit enter
Type SETUP hit enter 
(here you go! just follow the on-screen instructions and (hopefully *grin*) you will successfully install Win98!)

Source: http://www.putergeek.com/win98_install/index.shtml

See:
www.bootdisk.com/

www.netpathway.com/~kramer/reinstall.html
www.onecomputerguy.com/install/floppies.htm
www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=2740
www.utilidades-utiles.com/Download-System-Utilities-DriverGuide-Toolkit.html
support.microsoft.com/
forums.tech-arena.com/archive/index.php/
www.activewin.com/reviews/software/utils/s/sysm35b/index.shtml

www.members.shaw.ca/pccruiser/articles/erbynum.htm  Error Codes (e.g. error 59)

last updated 2 Dec 2004