Lost in Limbo Between 98SE & XP

K_David · 06-11-2007, 08:51 PM

I've been trying to upgrade my OS from 98SE to XP Home and I've gotten stuck mid-upgrade. Okay... the very basics of my system are:

Dell Omniplex GX110 (P3)
128M RAM
100GB Maxtor as drive c:
old 4.5GB Fujitsu as drive d:

The system was running fine, but I decided I was tired of Kernel32 glitches and tried to upgrade to XP Home and ran into a problem mid-upgrade. It ran through the first part okay, but now it won't let me finish. When I reboot from the cd, it asks me if I want to continue the previous upgrade, and of course I tell it "Yes". It reads my system, then gives me a blue screen telling me that Setup is "Unable to veryify drive c:" I used the old 98 startup floppy to run fdisk, and the drive checks out fine... I did NOT run a surface scan, but all the rest tested clean.

I'd be happy to roll it back to the old OS if it would get the system up and running again... I need some of the software on there which my backup computer (the one I'm forced to use now) does not have.

I throw myself on the mercy of the mighty tech gurus here in hopes I may have someone tell me something other than "Try a can of gas and a match".

Thanks, all.

JoeGons · 06-12-2007, 03:40 PM

I have no Idea what is going on here but if that happened to me, I would not bet on a roll back.
A clean install of 98 or XP might be your only options.
I get the feeling you will need to Format in NTFS and start over.
If you want more than one partition, You'll need to do that first.

I found these.
I am sure you did all this but then again----

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316639/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348/en-us

This may help:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/upgrading_to_windows_xp.htm

J

Geekgirl · 06-12-2007, 09:39 PM

Quote:

This problem may occur for one of the following reasons:
• The motherboard of your computer may not be compatible with Windows XP.
• The BIOS of your computer may not be compatible with Windows XP.
• The hard disk you are installing to may be damaged.
• The Windows XP Setup CD may be damaged.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822796

andyenglish · 06-21-2007, 11:29 AM

K_David,
Your Dell should be able to handle the install, but there is really no other way to transition smoothly from 98SE to XP than through a complete reformat/repartition and a fresh install of the new OS. (the 2 OS's use different file allocation systems. I've seen all sorts of interesting problems when trying to transition "on the fly" between NTFS and FAT32. The last time I tried it, the install generated a 64KB disk-image in RAM called D: and put the slave HD at E:!)

Back up all your stuff and start fresh. Also, while you're in there, I would switch your HD's and make the biggie the slave and put your OS on the smaller one (depending on its speed). Most programs will allow you to install onto the secondary HD and that keeps all or most of your programs and data in a semi-quarantine from the OS (and even some malware).

It's too bad you're having to switch from 98SE. That is truly the best OS that MS has produced thusfar.

Good Luck!

-Andy

**Bartender** · 06-23-2007, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andyenglish

It's too bad you're having to switch from 98SE. That is truly the best OS that MS has produced thusfar

No way! W2K runs a 100X better for me. Besides, 98SE is falling too far behind. GIMP, free anti-virus programs, Adobe Photo Elements, etc. etc. don't work well in 98SE.

EDIT: No matter what you do with this PC, 128 RAM is pretty slim. Even a fairly lightweight Linux distro would run better on more RAM. 128 not enuf for XP

andyenglish · 06-26-2007, 04:27 PM

Bartender, I always forget about 2K. That is a good OS!
Please forgive my oversight.
-Andy

06-11-2007, 08:51 PM	#1 (permalink)
K_David Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 3 OS: 98	Lost in Limbo Between 98SE & XP I've been trying to upgrade my OS from 98SE to XP Home and I've gotten stuck mid-upgrade. Okay... the very basics of my system are: Dell Omniplex GX110 (P3) 128M RAM 100GB Maxtor as drive c: old 4.5GB Fujitsu as drive d: The system was running fine, but I decided I was tired of Kernel32 glitches and tried to upgrade to XP Home and ran into a problem mid-upgrade. It ran through the first part okay, but now it won't let me finish. When I reboot from the cd, it asks me if I want to continue the previous upgrade, and of course I tell it "Yes". It reads my system, then gives me a blue screen telling me that Setup is "Unable to veryify drive c:" I used the old 98 startup floppy to run fdisk, and the drive checks out fine... I did NOT run a surface scan, but all the rest tested clean. I'd be happy to roll it back to the old OS if it would get the system up and running again... I need some of the software on there which my backup computer (the one I'm forced to use now) does not have. I throw myself on the mercy of the mighty tech gurus here in hopes I may have someone tell me something other than "Try a can of gas and a match". Thanks, all.

06-12-2007, 03:40 PM	#2 (permalink)
JoeGons Registered User Join Date: May 2006 Location: Trinidad and Tobago Posts: 56 OS: xp Home AND 98 My System	Re: Lost in Limbo Between 98SE & XP I have no Idea what is going on here but if that happened to me, I would not bet on a roll back. A clean install of 98 or XP might be your only options. I get the feeling you will need to Format in NTFS and start over. If you want more than one partition, You'll need to do that first. I found these. I am sure you did all this but then again---- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316639/en-us http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341/en-us http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348/en-us This may help: http://www.theeldergeek.com/upgrading_to_windows_xp.htm J __________________ If we could do it alone we would not need each other.

06-21-2007, 11:29 AM	#4 (permalink)
andyenglish Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Albuquerque, NM Posts: 177 OS: Sinclair 1000, Workbench 1.3 (emul); IIe & Leopard; Win9x, ME, XPproSP2; WinCE2K3; GBA & DS.	Re: Lost in Limbo Between 98SE & XP K_David, Your Dell should be able to handle the install, but there is really no other way to transition smoothly from 98SE to XP than through a complete reformat/repartition and a fresh install of the new OS. (the 2 OS's use different file allocation systems. I've seen all sorts of interesting problems when trying to transition "on the fly" between NTFS and FAT32. The last time I tried it, the install generated a 64KB disk-image in RAM called D: and put the slave HD at E:!) Back up all your stuff and start fresh. Also, while you're in there, I would switch your HD's and make the biggie the slave and put your OS on the smaller one (depending on its speed). Most programs will allow you to install onto the secondary HD and that keeps all or most of your programs and data in a semi-quarantine from the OS (and even some malware). It's too bad you're having to switch from 98SE. That is truly the best OS that MS has produced thusfar. Good Luck! -Andy __________________ SMASH HEAD ON KEYBOARD TO CONTINUE...

06-26-2007, 04:27 PM	#6 (permalink)
andyenglish Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Albuquerque, NM Posts: 177 OS: Sinclair 1000, Workbench 1.3 (emul); IIe & Leopard; Win9x, ME, XPproSP2; WinCE2K3; GBA & DS.	Re: Lost in Limbo Between 98SE & XP Bartender, I always forget about 2K. That is a good OS! Please forgive my oversight. -Andy __________________ SMASH HEAD ON KEYBOARD TO CONTINUE...