[Adrian]

I am trying to set up Windows 98 on a lap top that has successfully run 98 in the past. The laptop only has a 2gb hardrive to give you an idea of its age. I have formatted the drive and used fdisk to partition it. However, whatever i try i cannot re-install windows. I have looked on past posts on this forum bit cannot find any answers.

What is stange is that it states the drive as fat16. What also has happened at some points during set up it states the file structures are wrong and trys to copy over what currently exists. It says something like profile two is a better match, then profile three, etc. Then when it trys to install it just freezes. I have left it alone to see if it was justs stuck but nothing happens no CD activity or hard drive activity. I have tried using option 1 which produces the above problems. Through option 2 from the DOS line I type set up and it attempts to set up and just freezes. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Ha-y-n]

are you booting off the cd only or do you have a floppy drive also? do you have a 98 startup disk?

edit: I must be smoking weed or something, I didn't notice that you already ran fdisk sorry about that. Disreguard my questions, I was going to have you do an fdisk, whoops! :laugh:
What type of laptop is it?

 

[ibrokeit]

Hello Adrian,

Windows 98 will run on either file system and includes a FAT16 to FAT32 conversion tool.

Did you fdisk your drive prior to or during installation? In other words, did you set up your OS on a drive that was previously partitioned and formatted?

MS has a 98 installation guide here. There are instructions for partitioining and formatting your disk during installation approximately half way down the page. You probably got it right. Just checking.

And is your dad running 98 standard or SE?

 

[Adrian]

I did it prior to installing Windows. I have tried with dividing the hard disk into two partitions as well as just using all the disk (as just one partition) to see if it made a difference, it didn't.

The laptop is old i cannot tell you the model as i bought it from a dealer in about 1999 so it didn't come with any documentation for any of the hardware inside. Its got a standard pentium (166 i think) and 128 mb of RAM only.

The only other thing i did was try and install XP on it before it told me I did not have enough memeory to do it. I wiped the hard drive with a hard drive killer and thought as it worked with 98 before i would use it again.

I have restored the factory defaults to see if that made a difference but it still sticks trying to setup.

 

[oshwyn5]

Precisely what hard drive wiper program did you use?
It is possible that the problem is related to partitioning and formatting it for XP install (way to small for anything but a very minimal install).

My recommendation is that you reread this tutorial
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...disk and format to prepare your drive[/color]

LINK: How to install Win98 on a computer with no operating system

I would suggest you repartition the drive , and reformat it and choose fat32 as format.
Then try a clean install.

 

[Ha-y-n]

yah just try running fdisk again and format the drive then reinstall.

good luck