Installing 98SE

[andsome]

On my old computer I reinstalled Windows 98SE several times with no bother. I formatted the hard drive 'C'. Then typed C:\ Setup.exe. This always worked. I am having bother however with a friends computer. I have tried every possible version of the above, leaving spaces, typing in upper case, lower case etc, and keep getting'Bad command parameter'. Any suggestions please?

[r4may]

Some older system need CD drivers on the boot device so Try :-

After formatting the hard drive 'C' there is nothing on the hard drive.

Boot using a BOOT floopy with CD drivers and this should make the win98 CD on drive D:

Then type D:setup <ENTER>

This should then install win98 on the C: drive.

You will then have to reload all the relevent Hardware drivers from their original discs/cd's to get all the hardware to work.

Bst of luck

R4

[andsome]

There is a Windows 98SE floppy disc in the A drive. I started up and formatted from this. I have left the floppy in and inserted the CD. I have tried A:\ setup.exe, C:\ setup.exe. I have tried E:\ setup.exe, but the E will not show up on the screen. I will close down now, and see what answers there are tomorrow.

[Boris]

andsome,

Have you read this ?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q221829/

[catgate]

Have you by any chance destroyed the DOS partition on C: during the reformatting?

If it is the "rescue" floppy you have in A:drive you must remember that it creates a temp. RAM drive and calls that C:, temporarily moving "real" C to D

[r4may]

There is a Windows 98SE floopy disc in the A drive. I started up and formatted from this. I have left the floppy in and inserted the CD. I have tried A:\ setup.exe, C:\ setup.exe. I have tried E:\ setup.exe, but the E will not show up on the screen. I will close down now, and see what answers there are tomorrow.

Not all Boot floppies have the CD drivers on

I would have expected the CD to be Drive E:

When booting from the floppy does it give the option to include CD drivers ?

Drive D: is normally the 'RamDrive' for the help section.

further on in the boot sequence it should inform you the the CD drive is drive E:

if you do DIR E: it will read the CD and you will see Setup.exe

type E: ENTER

setup ENTER (ENTER might be RTN on some keyboards)

Info Boot floppy

Autoexec.bat with have the line LH %ramd%:\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:%CDROM%

Config.sys with have the line device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001

somewhere in the file

Hope this helps R4

[andsome]

andsome,

Have you read this ?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q221829/

There was no partition, it is not a large enougfh hard drive to warrent this. I did the format correctly and then did exactly as suggested, where it said x:\setup. I tried C:\setup, c:\setup, C:\ setup, (with a space), c:\setup.exe, and every varient including Capital C, small C, spces, no spaces, but the damned this would not work. On my old computers, I always used C:\ Setup.exe

[-pops-]

Have you used fdisk and format or just format. Can't remember the difference/importance of these (memory's going) but this may help http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q255867/

[catgate]

The command you give it, i.e. C:\setup, tells the machine the address of the programme you want to run. If you have formatted C: there will be no setup.exe there for it to run. So you must tell it "X:\setup", where X is the drive whereupon resideth Setup.exe.

Or am I talking rubbish again?

[andsome]

Have you used fdisk and format or just format. Can't remember the difference/importance of these (memory's going) but this may help http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q255867/

As I did on my old computers I used format, not f disk. Regarding Catgates point, I also tried D:\steup, E:\setup, all to no avail. I have left scandisk running at present.

[catgate]

I can't get round the business of formatting C: and expecting there to be system files left "alive" on C: that would do anything.

How about putting a rescue disk in A: and and typing "sys C:" as a prelude to then giving it the command X:\ setup (X= CD)

[r4may]

Are you seeing your CD Drives:- ?

The following may help :-

1. Insert the Windows 98 Startup disk in the floppy disk drive, and then restart your computer.

2. When the Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed, choose the Start computer with CD-ROM support

option, and then press ENTER.

3. If CD-ROM support is provided by the generic drivers on the Startup disk, you receive one of

the following messages, where X is the drive letter that is assigned to your CD-ROM drive:

Drive X: = Driver MSCD001 Drive X: = Driver OEMCD001

NOTE: If your CD-ROM drive is not available after you boot from the Windows 98 Startup disk,

install the CD-ROM drivers that are included with your CD-ROM drive. For information about how

to obtain and install the most current driver for your CD-ROM drive, view the documentation that

is included with your device, or contact your hardware manufacturer.

4. Insert the Windows 98 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive, type the following command at a command prompt,

and then press ENTER

X:\setup where X is the drive letter that is assigned to your CD-ROM drive.

5. When you receive the following message, press ENTER, and then follow the instructions on the screen

to complete the Setup procedure:

Please wait while the Setup initializes. Setup is now going to perform a routine check on your system.

To continue press Enter.

[andsome]

Thanks folks for all the help. I have had to go out this afternoon. When I left, the scan had only reached 62%. I am printing the replies and will have another look tomorrow morning.

[rong]

This is from the book. If I remember right it never worked without the floppy boot disk. This is the origional 98,

scan.rtf

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

One additional info to all the good advice already given. If you specify the /is program switch on setup, it will skip the scandisk before the install. Since you have already done that, it seems quite unnecessary. Again, the 'X' in the example below is the CD-ROM drive.

X:\setup /is

There is no space between the backslash and setup, but there is a space before the /is program switch.

I have re-installed Win98 many times at the time, and I have always found it very useful to run Batch98 on the existing system before wiping the HD. Batch98 collects all existing driver info, and setup will use these info during the installation. It is much quicker, as Win98 setup had a very poor ability to identify installed devices.

Too late for you now, but perhaps another time...

P.S. Batch98 can be found on the Win98 install CD-ROM, or downloaded from http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;169539

See BATCH98.DOC on how to use Batch98.

[andsome]

Thanks again folks. From all the replies it seems that in using C:\setup and other variants of this I have done the correct thing. I have installed 98SE several times before without any bother, on more than one computer. His scan was completely clear. NOW he tells me that lately the CD drive has been playing up from time to time. Without making any alterations it has stopped auto running, and on the odd occasion has needed several attempts to make it work. I wish he had told me this earlier. I think that probably the drive is just not working now and this is probably why setup will not enter. I will have another look this morning, and if I don't get a result he will have to have the CD drive checked. I have no intention of fumbling about inside.

EDIT. I will of course try Pat's suggestion as well.

[-pops-]

You can't afford to have faulty equipment when you're doing installations. Intermittently faulty equipment is even worse.

[andsome]

You can't afford to have faulty equipment when you're doing installations. Intermittently faulty equipment is even worse.

I just wish he had told me first.

[catgate]

You can't afford to have faulty equipment when you're doing installations. Intermittently faulty equipment is even worse.

I just wish he had told me first.

I'm rather glad he didn't because had he done so the "gem" about Batch98 from Pat would not have come to light. So thanks all round, to andsome's friend, andsome and Pat!!!

[andsome]

Eventually this morning it installed perfectly. I installed his drivers and everything appeared to be fine. When installing his BB modem, I was asked to insert the system disk again, why I just don't know. The Cd drive would not give up the modem CD. We removed it eventually by restarting the computer. I then ran the modem software again and uninstalled to be on the safe side, intending to have another go at installing it afterwards. On restart I was told that a windows file was corrupt. I ran sfc, and it replaced one file. On restarting again, another message came up that a file was corrupt, exactly the same file as before. I left the system disk running doing an over installation. If this does not work he will have to get the man in, there is something radically wrong with the damned thing. I think the CD drive is working when it wants to.

[rong]

Replace the drive, very easy to do, especially for someone with the brain the size of a planet

[andsome]

I have never fiddled about inside my own computers, there is no way that I going to try it on someone else's

[rong]

Even easer I think it's the CD drive needs replacing

[Alan2273]

Read this andsome and you will see how easy it is to change a cd drive.

http://www.aa.psu.edu/helpdesk/tutorials/cddrive.html

[andsome]

Thanks a lot folks, I am sure that you are all correct, but there is no way that I'm messing about inside someone else's computer.