tazpaige

i lost the cd but have product key. how can i back up w98 to a cd so i can reinstall if i lose my drive.

thanks
tazpaige

Geekgirl

Hello and Welcome to TSF

Basically what you need to do is clone/ghost the hard drive. This will allow you to go back to the image at a later date when things go wrong.
Here are 2 software programs that will allow you to do this. One that I use is Acronis True Image which is a very good program. There is also Norton Ghost

tazpaige

thanks for the reading.

while i would like to know how to burn/copy just the os system from this or another harddrive i think i will order the cd acronis true image 10. one question, please, how can i find out what files are for the windows 98 os or other window os systems and just what is needed to make it boot just like the cd that came with the computer.

thanks,
tazpaige

OldGrayGary

Hi tazpaige, Hi Geekgirl


tazpaige - Some major-brand Windows 98 computers have a copy of the Windows 98 installation ".cab" files right there on the hard drive. These are the same files as on their CD. You can simply search (using the 'Search' function of Windows Explorer) for ".cab" files - this will quickly show their location, if they are indeed present on the hard drive. Many vendors used to put these files in the following location: C:\Windows\Options\Cabs

If the system has a floppy drive, you could use a combination of a bootable diskette & a CD with the .cabs copied onto it to run a reinstall. It isn't actually necessary that the CD itself is bootable. Bootable Win98se diskettes are widely available at sites such as bootdisk.com.

Acronis or Norton can save much more than just Windows - since they can image the whole hard drive. They don't create bootable Windows CDs - for a system with a failed hard drive (or a new blank drive), you'd use the Acronis or Norton CD to boot into a recovery environment, and write the saved disk image onto the hard drive (the saved image would of course be on removeable media).

Best of luck
. . . Gary

tazpaige

thanks to all for the help. i will still try to burn the os system, will also e-bay the w98 disk and i am thinking about getting the copying/ghost acronis disk.

thanks,
tazpaige

DeadToad

taz,
I use XXCLONE to backup the entire hard drive.
It's FREE.
www.xxclone.com
Works great, no problems.
Good luck.

tazpaige

thanks for the help.

i will download the backup xxclone.

while reading the faq in xxclone i see that someone had backed up his drive and then was asked by the os to reinstall the software. i no longer have a office cd nor the product key and so cannot reinstall. any idea on how to get the key off my drive.

thanks,
tazpaige

OldGrayGary

Hi again

Assuming the Windows 98 installation is still working fine, you can use BelArc Advisor to list your current software licenses --- http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Some of the recent Office programs have Product Activation similiar to XP. If a certain amount of hardware change is detected, you may have to call Microsoft to re-activate. It doesn't take long, and shouldn't cost anything [so long as your current licenses are in good order]. I imagine a version of Office installed on a Win98/Me computer might be prior to the Product Activation rolled out by Micrsoft around 2001. If the computer is a Dell, much of their pre-bundled software is tied to the hardware - and cannot be transferred to other hardware, except for repair or upgrade - and in those situations, sometimes a call to Dell is required.

Best of luck
. . . Gary