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[Naked Snake]

Ok so I got this ancient PC that my friend asked me if I could "fix", his Windows installation was all fucked up and hangs on startup, so a format was due... BUT for some unknown reason that's driving me totally insane, the system is refusing to start from the floppy drive, when I insert a StartUp disk it doesn't recognize it as a bootable system disk, and there's no option to boot from CD ROM in the BIOS.

I can install his HDD in my PC, and copy over the Windows 98 installation files from CD to his HDD... Now all I need is a way to boot into DOS from his HDD so I can install Windows... Is there a way I can just copy a bunch of files to his root directory to make it bootable? In other words, make his HDD act as a "StartUp Disk" of sorts, you know COMMAND.COM, IO.SYS, , CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and the like... Where can I get those files from and what do I have to do exactly?

Thanks a bunch.

 

[xsarien]

format x: /s

Your best bet is to type that from a DOS prompt from a boot disk.

(Replace "x" with whatever letter your computer assigns his HDD.)

 

[Cauliflower of Love]

1)I would take his HDD pop it into your machine and install 98 there.
or
2)Switch out the floppys.
or
3)Get andimage of a brand new installed 98 and copy it to his HDD.

 

[Naked Snake]

1)I would take his HDD pop it into your machine and install 98 there.

That's a terrible idea, because Windows installations are always specific to the hardware.

I'll try the format /x idea (how did I not think of that?!), if that fails, I'll swap the floppy drives (good idea).

 

[Cauliflower of Love]

That's a terrible idea, because Windows installations are always specific to the hardware.

I'll try the format /x idea (how did I not think of that?!), if that fails, I'll swap the floppy drives (good idea).

I've done it countless times(with 95/98/2000). Windows(earlier versions) readjusts iteself to the hardware, you'll just have to go through a few driver changes. I know XP isn't like that, but XP is the devil.

 

[pestul]

Another vote for 'format :x /s'

 

[gblues]

Did you even bother to check the BIOS settings to make sure that the A: is first in the boot sequence?

Nathan

 

[Naked Snake]

Did you even bother to check the BIOS settings to make sure that the A: is first in the boot sequence?

Nathan

Yes I did.

 

[gblues]

Ah, good. Here's what I recommend, then:

1. Put the HD in your computer (I suggest disconnecting/removing your existing HD to prevent an accident)
2. Boot YOUR computer with the win9x boot disk, and use "format x: /s" to format the HD
3. Reconnect your HD and slave the other HD to it and boot back into XP
4. Create a WINDOWS folder on the other HD, and inside it create a OPTIONS folder, and inside that folder create a CABS folder.
5. Copy the contents of the WIN98 folder on the 98 install CD into the WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS folder you just created.
6. Move the HD back to its original computer, boot to a C:\ prompt and go to the WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS folder and type "setup"
7. When you're installing Windows, it will try to install to some shit like C:\WINDOWS.000. Force it to install into C:\WINDOWS.

Doing it this way will make it so that whenever Win98 needs the CD (which is depressingly common), it will just pull the files off the HD instead of prompting for the CD-ROM. And since the *.cab files are in the C:\WINDOWS hierarchy, they're probably not going to get deleted accidentally.

Nathan

 

[Phoenix]

Yeah, the best way is to put the drive in your machine format it and copy the files from the CD onto that drive. Then put the drive back into the original machine and just install from there.

 

[Hitokage]

Word of note: The system files used in making a boot disk are not the same as the files put on a bootable windows partition. format c: /s from a boot disk will not give you what you want without some work.

 

[gblues]

Meh, true. But really all you have to do is copy himem.sys from the floppy to the hard drive, then create a 1-line config.sys to load it.

Nathan

 

[Hitokage]

msdos.sys is also different.

 

[gblues]

Not different enough to matter. It'll get overwritten with the correct file when Win98 is installed. The one on the boot disk is good enough to get to a C:\ prompt with HIMEM.SYS loaded, which is enough to start Windows Setup.

Nathan

 

[Hitokage]

Not different enough to matter. It'll get overwritten with the correct file when Win98 is installed. The one on the boot disk is good enough to get to a C:\ prompt with HIMEM.SYS loaded, which is enough to start Windows Setup.

Nathan

Actually, it is, but it's true that it doesn't matter after doing a proper win98 setup... only when you're copying in the contents of your partition manually and trying to get it bootable, which I've done before.

 

[Naked Snake]

What line do I need to put in config.sys?