Win98 clean install w/o BIOS acess

[spasserium]

I have a variation on this problem. I have a licensed copy of Win98SE, but I can't access the bios to change the boot sequence. Complicating an already bad situation, I'm using a Dell Latitude laptop that has only one hot-swap drive. So, I can have the CDROM or the floppy drive, but not both at the same time.

I would greatly appreciate your expert advice.

Mark

 

[jrbarnett]

Mark,

The windows 98 setup CD is bootable. That is, if you put your laptop's CD drive in and put the CD in the drive, then you should be able to boot from it and choose "Setup" from the startup menu.

Secondly, why can't you access the BIOS setup? It is normally accessed by some keypress when the memory test is on, such as F2 or Ctrl Alt enter, the message is displayed onscreen. Sometimes the message is hidden under a manufacturer's logo, but normally pressing escape will clear this.

John

 

[spasserium]

John,

I don't know why I can't. When I turn on the computer, windows begins to load, but then I get a message "this file is too big to load" and then the c command prompt. While windows is trying to load (only for about 2-3 seconds), I repeatedly press the F1 (setup) key, but nothing happens.

Does this make sense to you?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[MattWray]

Can you get to the C prompt with the CD in? With 98 you can change directory to the CD drive and run setup.exe. That should put you into Win98 setup....

Thanks,

Matt Wray
MCSE, MCSA, MCP, CCNA

http://www.sss-steel.com

 

[spasserium]

Thanks Matt, but the cdrom drive is not recognized at the c prompt using the cd command. The only drives to which I have access are a (floppy) and c.

Mark

 

[edfair]

Will the w98 boot disk get access to the hard drive without problem and allow you to fdisk and format it? If so, do it, then transfer all the floppy files across to the hard drive in parallel locations, then change the bat files on the HD to reflect the new locations with respect to C:.

Pull the floppy and insert CD. Boot to HD and you should have access to the CD.



Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[spasserium]

Thanks Ed. Actually, I don't need the w98 boot disk to get a c prompt to access fdisk and format. Windows tries to load and can't; I get a message "file too big to load" and then I'm given a c prompt.

I think I basically understand what your suggesting, but could you go into more detail (especially the part after the HD is re-formatted)?

Many thanks,

Mark

 

[edfair]

Proposing booting off a 98 boot disk. "Sys c:" the boot stuff over, then copy everything else over to the c: root directory. Take the floppy disk out (not the drive yet) and see if it will boot off the hard drive with an indication that CD support is available. If so, shut down, swap drives and reboot to C: with CD support. Should give you CD support. Rename config.sys and autoexec.bat to something else like .old and go to the CD and run setup.
Alternative is to copy the install stuff to the hard drive and install from there.


Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[jrbarnett]

Mark,

Have you tried hitting F8 as the "Starting Windows 98" message appears, then switching on the confirm option. You can then find out which line in autoexec.bat/config.sys is causing the problem, or in loading the registry?

John

 

[2cxc]

I need to do a clean install i have the same problem and can't get into dos but when i can i want to do a clean install i did it once before but can't remember the command i think it ended in /f or maybe it was /n ? what would it be?

thanks

 

[2cxc]

when I hold down the F8 I get a black screen that has some rem - registry values that i did and says this program must be run under win32

What does that mean?

 

[wolluf]

2cxc - I'd suggest you start a new thread and explain your problem more clearly (I can't make much sense of what you've written).

 

[wolluf]

sorry - just seen your other post.

 

[StormcrowGrey]

Does your Dell Latitude have the Cable to link the CD Rom to the parrallel port like mine does? That way I got both the A drive and the CD rom available. Just wondering.

 

[spasserium]

Many thanks to all who responded.

It turns out that I have a bad motherboard (some of you suspected bad hardware).

I don't think it's worth the trouble to try to find and install a new one.

Thanks again.