Invalid command.com error: while installing Win98 or WinMe

[schach2001]

Hi Group,

Does anyone have experience or know if a malfunctioning CPU-fan could cause an "invalid command.com" error or a "setup (.cab) file" error while installing (Mr. Gates') OS'sss?

I've f-disked and formatted several times, used several boot disks, and even used Western Digital's Utility, but can not get an OS to install. Problems are occurring on an AMD K-6/III-450 MHz machine with a Western Digitial, 8 GB harddrive and a 40x CD-Rom Drive. 96M of SDRAM in a M5ALC mother board and a vodoo III video card. Sound is built onto the board and uses the ESS-Solo I driver...........When I can find it?!

Thank You and Best Regards!

 

[guidos]

Do you get the message no matter what disk you use to boot?
Have you tried booting from a CD (if your PC has that capability and you have a bootable CD), and if so, do you get the error then also? Do you have a Win95, 98, Me, etc. startup disk that you can boot from? Have you run scandisk on the HDD to check for errors...you might have bad blocks on it. As for the malfunctioning CPU fan, I can't imagine that would have anything to do with it being as command.com is on a disk (although strange things are afoot when dealing with Senor Gates' stuff).
Just sort of thinking out loud...let me know if any of this helps you or even makes sense for that matter...

 

[cdogg]

I had the same problem when trying to install Win98SE. What worked for me was re-formating the hard drive, then copying the Win98 folder on the cd to a temporary folder on the C: drive. Running setup.exe from the hard disk bypassed the "command.com" error in my case.

You'll have to boot from cd first, in order to get the dos prompt.

If you read setup.txt in the win98 folder, it gives more detail on how to copy the necessary files in DOS...