re: Windows 98SE Boot
Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 8:06 am
Windows 98 Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Richard Harris
(258 messages posted)
First you should detemrine whether the hardware is good. Second you should determine
what is inside the PC (98, NT, 2000, XP, etc).
To do that I suggest that you get a bootable CD, one that contains its own operating
system, and that will permit you to examine the PC. In terms of general bootable
CD, there are dozens of LINUX-based CDs available free at:
http://www.livecdlist.com/
These are also called "live" CDs, because they run the operating system and programs
directly form the CD, without installing anything on the hard drive. In that sense
they are safe to use. In contrast, the Windows 98 CD is also bootable, but not live.
Once booted it will install 98.
One of the easiest live CDs to use is KNOPPIX. It has a windows-like desktop interface
and many programs, in addition to the operating system. KNOPPIX comes as a CD image
or as a DVD image. The DVD contains more programs, but both use the same operating
system. I have run computers using KNOPPIX alone, and it is pretty good for common
PC tasks, including internet (via cable modem), word processing and spreadsheets
(contains Open Office), viewing pictures, writing CDs, etc. And, while KNOPPIX defaults
all internal hard drives to read-only, that is easy to change, in case you wish to
write to the drive.
Link to KNOPPIX:
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
Info about KNOPPIX and how to use it:
http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Main_Page
Note that for a Win98 vinatge PC you might do better with version 4 of KNOPPIX, or
maybe even version 3. It mostly depends on the amount of RAM.
Another bootable CD that might be useful include the Ultimate Boot CD:
http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/
This is a collection of mostly DOS-based programs and DOS floppy disk image, bundled
into one CD. It contains several hardware detection and testing progams, and even
some antivirus programs. The hardware detecion programs are under "system information"
tools.
One word of caution, the UBCD includes tools to permanently erase files, remove and
create partitions, etc. Avoid those, until you are sure that you want to start from
scratch. For example, if the PC had been converted to NT/2000/XP, it might have
NTFS fomatted partitions. Win98 can not read those, and the win98 CD will probably
refuse to do an install. In such a case, removing the partitions and creating FAT32
partitions would be the right thing to do for win98.
Good luck.
On Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 10:45 am, Jeri wrote:
>I purchased a used Gateway Computer with AMD Athlon & Windows 98SE . Upon attempting
>to check the system out I can only get as far as the Gateway Logo screen. The system
>then sends me to a screen which has the following on it:
>Missing or Corrupt File, WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
>Attempt to repair by starting windows setup, using "original" setup CDROM. Well,
>hence the problem, I am not the original owner. It seems to me that the prior owner
>just removed their copy of the software, am I correct in assuming this? Can I
just
>install the copy I have from my children's computer? I can get into the BIOS screen,
>which provides me with the following: Total Memory:384MB,BIOS Version 0AASNP05,
Processor
>Speed 750Mhz, Cache 256K, then some info about BANK, 0,DIMM,SDRAM, NON ECC. However,
>I cannot get the darn thing to accept any other Windows CD. Any help would be greatly
>appreciated.
- Written in response to:
- Windows 98SE Boot (Jeri: Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 10:45 am)
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