Win 95 to Win 98 to Win 98SE 2

[w7zr]

Upgrading a laptop that had factory installed Win95. Did not have the Win 95 disks. When upgrading to Win98 I was getting the SU0168 error that says there was an operating system installed that could not be upgraded by this version of setup. So performed all the ren of the setupx.* files as in MS kbQ225252. Well this worked and got 98 installed. Now the problem---I get the same error when trying to go from 98 to 98SE where the 98SE CD I have is a full version. Tried the same ren of files but that did not work. Any ideas?

 

[Kento]

If it's the full version you'll want to reformat then install. You'll need a startup disk, the windows cd, and the product key. You can make a startup disk on your pc in control panel--add/remove programs--startup disk tab. In fact make two just in case one is bad. Or get a couple here:

http://www.bootdisk.com

http://www.drd.dyndns.org/index2.html

These will help also.

http://www.computerhope.com/sfdisk3.htm

http://personal.picusnet.com/jtmurphy/fdisk.htm

http://personal.picusnet.com/jtmurphy/format.htm

http://www.hexff.com/win98_install.html

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/indexwin98.htm

Ignore the pop-up if there is one at the above link.

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/

 

[Kento]

Just noticed you said it's a laptop. Hope you can hook up both a cd-rom and a floppy drive at the same time or else you'll have a problem trying to reformat.

Anyone here remember how to do it on a laptop that has only a cd-rom drive?

 

[Kento]

Another note. After reformatting you'll lose your colors so you'll need to reinstall the video card driver to get them all back. You'll probably only have a max of 256 after the reformat.

 

[Grapegravy]

Kento, depends on if the BIOS has a boot on cd drive option, laptops can get very funny that way. W7zr, do you have an external floppy drive to hook up or are both internal and need to be switched?

 

[kadr]

In relation to this problem, is it possible to go from Win95 straight to Win98SE? I've been getting the same SU0168, but the file-switch that Microsoft recommends hasn't been doing it for me. I don't want to format my hard drive because I don't have a good way to backup any of my stuff. Is it not possible to go straight from 95 to 98SE? It is the full version of SE but the gist of error SU0168 is "get the Upgrade version". One would think that the full version would work just fine, right?

Any thoughts/comments would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BeenThereDoneThat]

w7zr:

Try renaming the file win.com in C:\windows to anything else like win.xxx and then try installing the W98se.

 

[ANFPS26]

The full version will not work. You have to have an upgrade version to upgrade. A full version requires a clean install. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[jmatt]

1 of these programs may help .

http://tweakhomepc.virtualave.net/dualboot/dualboots.html

 

[jmatt]

Here is some more help . Always keep in mind whilst you are playing around to have backups of your important stuff . Also , you can always go back to a good copy of the registry .

--------------------------------------------------------

Installing over 98, rename c:\windows\win.com to win.moc or win.1st or some similar extension,
then run setup again.
Win98SE was not meant to be an upgrade to Win98. It was sold as an upgrade to Win95 & Win 3.1.
It will actually return an error message when you try to use it as an upgrade to Win98 without
either renaming win.com or using the /NTLDR switch.
(E:\Win98\>setup /NTLDR)

------------------------------------------------------------


Go back to a good copy of the registry .

Toggle F8 ( when , verifying DMA pool message comes on ) or Press
Ctrl during bootup , depends on your computor .

Select , Command prompt only .

After the C prompt , type , scanreg /restore

Follow the prompts and select a registry dated prior to the problems .

This article describes how to restore a backup copy of the Windows 98
or Windows Millennium Edition (Me) registry
scanreg /restore

http://support.microsoft.com/suppor... restore&rnk=3&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=W98

Start the System Restore Tool from a Command Prompt in Windows XP (Q304449)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q304449

Restore Operation Failed (Q220878)
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q220878

--------------------------------------------

To improve on the 5 days MS have on registry backups , use the Cabrest system below & get 14 days .

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/regback1.html

For those that find the above site confusing , here is what to do .

Alter MaxBackupCopies from 5 to 14 in scanreg.ini ( as per instructions at above site )

Download the zipped copy of the Batch file from ,

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/downloads/cabrest.zip

Unzip , copy & paste cabrest onto the top of C: in Windows Explorer .

Delete zip file , or save it on floppy , if you want it for others or the future .

Print the instructions below & stick on your comp in front of you , so when you have to go back to a good copy of the registry , you don't need to search for them .

------------------------------------

Toggle F8 ( when , verifying DMA pool message comes on ) or Press Ctrl during bootup , depends on your computor .

Select , Command prompt only .

Type in cabrest & press Enter , keep answering y & you will see a table , which will allow you to select which CAB file to restore from .
So , for example , to restore from rb009 cab , you look at the table & see 09 corresponds to the letter j . You type j & Not the number .
Follow instructions .

Type win & press Enter to exit .

If after following the instructions to Restore , things arn't working , go to an earlier date & try again .

 

[savorfaire]

I tried to install win 98 se upgrade on a newly reformatted drive. it checks for previous version ( I have misplaced win 3.1 floppys). I recall a work-around where the installer bypasses the check for previous version. Can anyone refresh my memory?

tia

savorfaire