Hi again
Your next assignment:
[first disconnect any network cables, disable wireless, disconnect printers, cameras, PDAs, external modems, -- just leave mouse, keyboard, & monitor attached -- and make sure that any Bios Protection Antivirus in the Bios Setup screens is set to disabled while installing/reinstalling Windows - then re-enable it after]
1) Boot into Safe Mode
2) Use Windows Explorer & browse to the location you found .cab files in. [Might be in C:\Windows\Options\Cabs, or something similiar... if you go to the "Tools" item on your Explorer toolbar, you can choose "Find - Files or Folders" and search your entire hard drive for "*.cab" files]
3) If the full set of Win98 .cabs are in there, you should see .cab files with names like these: BASE4.cab-BASE6.cab, CATALOG3.cab, DRIVER11.cab-DRIVER20.cab, MINI.cab, NET7.cab-NET10.cab, PRECOPY1.cab-PRECOPY2.cab, Win9821.cab-Win9874.cab [in other words, about 175mb of .cab files] -
- if you don't have the full set, you're going to need to borrow a matching-version CD for your repair [you'll still keep your original product key in use, you'll just be using the borrowed CD as a repair tool].
4) If you have the .cab files, from the Startup menu that you've been choosing Safe Mode from, instead choose "Command Prompt only".
5) From the command prompt, type "cd \Windows" without the quotes.
6) From the command prompt, type "rename win.com win.old" without the quotes.
7) From the command prompt, type "cd \Windows\Options\Cabs" [or whatever other location your full set of Win98 .cab files resides in] without the quotes.
8) From the command prompt, type "Setup" without the quotes.
9) Windows 98 Setup should start. During Setup, Windows will ask where you want to install the system files, and will offer a location such as "C:\Windows.000"... DO NOT install to that location. Instead, choose the option "Other" and type in "C:\Windows" (or whatever location your original Windows folder lives in) -- this will allow you to do an "over-the-top", which should preserve all your personal files and programs in-place. If all goes well.
10. Don't reconnect to the Internet until you have your firewall, antivirus, and antispyware programs running.
You'll have to catch up on Windows Updates - if anyone you know has the "Windows Security Update CD - February 2004" disk around, you can use that right away, and save a LOT of time -- otherwise you'll be spending several hours catching up on all the patches since 1999 (when Win98se came out). I believe there is a link here in the Win98 forum to another CD that a friend with broadband could download for you, that contains even more of the updates -- Ah here it is, it's called the "Unofficial Service Pack 2.1a" at Major Geeks
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4131.html
I'll assume you are using dial-up to connect to the Internet? Otherwise the Knoppix disk should have allowed you to go online via your Ethernet cable. I believe Knoppix also has dial-up modem tools included in it's wide variety of tools, I just haven't had to try them yet - they might require a bit of time to get started with (especially if you've never setup a modem in Linux).
Best of luck
. . . Gary
[should you have trouble during any of this that you suspect might be due to malware infection, you might have to pull the hard drive & clean it using another computer -- an external USB housing is the easiest way]