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Reinstalling Windows

You can't:

 

Before we start, most of the procedures below involve the use of DOS Commands, if you have no experience of these then see DOS Advice before proceeding.

 

PC or Laptop ???

Laptop/Notebook

If you have a laptop and did not receive a Windows95 CD, then it is likely that the Windows CAB files (Windows setup files) will be on your laptop hard drive.

Use Start, Find, Files & Folders, (Named:= *.cab, Lookin:=C), Find Now

 

For Both laptop or PC

BEFORE you Re-install Windows

Take notes of the device names in you Device Manager Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manger tab. Click the + by each device heading to view the device name under that heading. E.g:

Note here that on clicking on the + by Sound, video & game controllers, that the main sound device is a YAMAHA OPL3-Sax Sound System. The MPU entry is for the MIDI devices and there is a Gameport Joystick on the sound controller (card). The VideoCap C210 is there because a Video Controller namely a TeleConferencing Device (Video,TV, VideoMail...etc) is installed on this PC.

Take notes on ALL the devices you have - WHY ????

If you re-install Windows completely, then Window or you, will have to re-establish the devices. If for some reason Windows cannot detect some of the original devices - at least YOU know what you are looking for. Relying on your memory could result in hours of wasted time.

 

Re-installation - PC or Laptop

You may be able to re-install Windows from Windows or from DOS without having to delete win.com or the old Windows folder (necessary deletions to get a new re-installation)., however if you receive a message saying that you cannot install Windows because the system already exists or you cannot upgrade using the Windows CD you have, then try to bypass the upgrade :

Bypass Upgrade Check

When wanting to do a clean install of Win98 yet bypass the check for an older version of Windows.

Boot your system from a boot diskette (Windows 95/98 startup disk, or DOS bootable diskette). Create a file in the root directory of your boot partition named “ntldr” (no quotes). The file can’t be a zero-byte file, so edit it and put rem on a single line with no spaces in front of it.  This should bypass the check for previous version of Windows by fooling the system into thinking that NT is installed.

If the above does not work then you MUST delete either win.com or the old Windows folder.

If you can reinstall over the existing Win95/98 system, then the Setup program will check for installed components and not install over elements that already exist - this will in effect leave any corrupted program/device files in place.

If you Windows system is corrupted, then you have to reinstall a new windows.

Shut down Windows to 'Re-start in DOS Mode'

 

If you have a laptop WITH the cabs files installed then in DOS:

(Note if you just use the DEL command to delete the contents of the Windows Folder, then the Folder name ('Windows' will remain and a re-installation will result in installation to Windows.000, the same as just delete win.com, in the first option). Remove the Windows folder name by: using cd.. to go up one level, then rd windows to remove the name .

 

If you have a PC or a Laptop with no cab files then:

Edit your Autoexec.bat file and take out the 'Rem by Windows Setup' from your CD Rom Command if that line exists

Eg:

rem - By Windows Setup - C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:IDECD000 (Note here: IDECD , or MSCD, if you have an IDE CDRom - most people have.)

To:

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:IDECD000

If this entry does not exist, then you can still initialise the CDRom by:

Windows 98:

Windows 95:

 

(See Below for explanations of these techniques)

 

 

Windows boot up from CDRom

Delete win.com in the Windows folder ( a new Windows can be set up as Window.000 without any problems later on), or if you want the Windows folder to have the original Windows name then use DELTREE (usually in your Windows/Command folder), to delete the old Windows Folder (& subfolders). e.g. Deltree c:\windows.

(Note if you just use the DEL command to delete the contents of the Windows Folder, then the Folder name 'Windows' will remain and a re-installation will result in installation to Windows.000, the same as just deleting win.com, in the first option), so you must remove the Windows folder name by: using cd.. to go up one level, then rd windows to remove the name .

Getting ready to re-install

In your computer's BIOS (Setup) you may be able to get the PC to boot up first to the CDRom drive, the best way to reinstall Windows 98.

First get into the SETUP, on most PCs (some are different) by pressing the Delete key on startup.

In the majory of setup screens, go to the BIOS Feature Setup, look for 'Boot Sequence' and change this to CDRom,C,A

For a few BIOS Setups you may have to use other Menus to find and change the Boot Sequence.

In older BIOS Setups you don't have the CDRom boot up option - in this case

For Windows 95, you will have to reinstall the CDRom driver from your diskette, next restart the PC with no disk and change to your CD Drive (usually D if you have only one hard drive that is not partitioned). E.g: D: <enter>. Put the Win95 CD in the CDRom drive and type SETUP <enter>.

For Windows 98: Re-start the PC with a Win98 Startup Disk (if you haven't got one, get a friend to make you one from their Windows98 PC - it only takes a minute or two). Choose CDRom Support and an 'Oak Technology' CDRom driver will be installed. Change to your CDRom Drive, usually D: <Enter>. Type in Setup <Enter>.