How to reinstall Win98 from Resource CD

[cjkulow]

Hi All! Have formatted my hd, have startup boot disk, have Dell
Reinstallation CD, have product key, and after I startup with boot floppy,
choose "with CD ROM support," I see that the CD ROM drive is read. Have
Reinstall CD that came with my computer in CD drive, but when I'm at the e:\
prompt and type "setup" I get message "Bad command, or file not found." I
looked at the CD contents at a different computer and cannot find a setup.exe
file, or similar.
What am I missing? I've read several instructions on reinstalling WIN98 and
always get stuck at the same point when I am supposed to type "setup".
Thanks for any help! I am not DOS savvy - perhaps that's the problem. ck

 

[Bill Watt]

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:16:18 -0700, cjkulow
<cjkulow@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Hi All! Have formatted my hd, have startup boot disk, have Dell
>Reinstallation CD, have product key, and after I startup with boot floppy,
>choose "with CD ROM support," I see that the CD ROM drive is read. Have
>Reinstall CD that came with my computer in CD drive, but when I'm at the e:\
>prompt and type "setup" I get message "Bad command, or file not found." I
>looked at the CD contents at a different computer and cannot find a setup.exe
>file, or similar.
>What am I missing? I've read several instructions on reinstalling WIN98 and
>always get stuck at the same point when I am supposed to type "setup".
>Thanks for any help! I am not DOS savvy - perhaps that's the problem. ck

The Startup diskette may change the CD drive letter to one more than
normal. ie D: to E:. That's because it creates a Ram drive that
uses a drive letter. Diskettes made from www.bootdisk.com may change
the drive letter to R:.

Otherwise look on the CD for an install,exe or an *.inf file. If
there is an *.inf file right click it and select "install".

Regards,

Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

 

[Ben Myers]

"cjkulow" <cjkulow@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:54F74CFC-E5A9-48A4-B345-629E8C7B4E6D@microsoft.com...
> Hi All! Have formatted my hd, have startup boot disk, have Dell
> Reinstallation CD, have product key, and after I startup with boot floppy,
> choose "with CD ROM support," I see that the CD ROM drive is read. Have
> Reinstall CD that came with my computer in CD drive, but when I'm at the e:\
> prompt and type "setup" I get message "Bad command, or file not found." I
> looked at the CD contents at a different computer and cannot find a setup.exe
> file, or similar.
> What am I missing? I've read several instructions on reinstalling WIN98 and
> always get stuck at the same point when I am supposed to type "setup".
> Thanks for any help! I am not DOS savvy - perhaps that's the problem. ck

See
http://support.dell.com/support/top...rt/dsn/en/document?c=us&l=en&s=gen&dn=1034500

Ben

 

[dadiOH]

cjkulow wrote:
> Hi All! Have formatted my hd, have startup boot disk, have Dell
> Reinstallation CD,

Tried booting from the CD?


--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[Don Phillipson]

"cjkulow" <cjkulow@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:54F74CFC-E5A9-48A4-B345-629E8C7B4E6D@microsoft.com...

> Hi All! Have formatted my hd, have startup boot disk, have Dell
> Reinstallation CD, have product key, and after I startup with boot floppy,
> choose "with CD ROM support," I see that the CD ROM drive is read. Have
> Reinstall CD that came with my computer in CD drive, but when I'm at the
e:\
> prompt and type "setup" I get message "Bad command, or file not found." I
> looked at the CD contents at a different computer and cannot find a
setup.exe
> file, or similar. What am I missing?

1. We must use DOS conventions when installing
from a DOS prompt and using a standard MS Win98
installation CD. To verify that we are actually logged
to the CD drive, we can do DIR first, to read the (root)
directory of the CD.

2. Standard MS Win98 CDs have SETUP.EXE both
in the root directory and in \Win98. The Dell web site
may tell you whether Dell Reinstallation CDs are the
same or different. The DIR command may help too.
If Dell has any BATch files on the CD we can view
them, which may help.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

 

[Ron Badour]

Watch your monitor when you are booting with the startup floppy disk--it
will tell you what letter is assigned to the CDRom drive.

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP 1997 - 2007


"cjkulow" <cjkulow@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:54F74CFC-E5A9-48A4-B345-629E8C7B4E6D@microsoft.com...
> Hi All! Have formatted my hd, have startup boot disk, have Dell
> Reinstallation CD, have product key, and after I startup with boot floppy,
> choose "with CD ROM support," I see that the CD ROM drive is read. Have
> Reinstall CD that came with my computer in CD drive, but when I'm at the
> e:\
> prompt and type "setup" I get message "Bad command, or file not found." I
> looked at the CD contents at a different computer and cannot find a
> setup.exe
> file, or similar.
> What am I missing? I've read several instructions on reinstalling WIN98
> and
> always get stuck at the same point when I am supposed to type "setup".
> Thanks for any help! I am not DOS savvy - perhaps that's the problem. ck

 

[cjkulow]

Ben - thank you so much for the link to the article!!!! I figured out how to
boot to the CD and then I followed the article's instructions!!!! much
obliged for all of you who help others like me... carola

"Ben Myers" wrote:

> "cjkulow" <cjkulow@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:54F74CFC-E5A9-48A4-B345-629E8C7B4E6D@microsoft.com...
> > Hi All! Have formatted my hd, have startup boot disk, have Dell
> > Reinstallation CD, have product key, and after I startup with boot floppy,
> > choose "with CD ROM support," I see that the CD ROM drive is read. Have
> > Reinstall CD that came with my computer in CD drive, but when I'm at the e:\
> > prompt and type "setup" I get message "Bad command, or file not found." I
> > looked at the CD contents at a different computer and cannot find a setup.exe
> > file, or similar.
> > What am I missing? I've read several instructions on reinstalling WIN98 and
> > always get stuck at the same point when I am supposed to type "setup".
> > Thanks for any help! I am not DOS savvy - perhaps that's the problem. ck
>
> See
> http://support.dell.com/support/top...rt/dsn/en/document?c=us&l=en&s=gen&dn=1034500
>
> Ben
>

 

[cjkulow]

Hey! Booting to the CD was the magical wand!!! Someone else gave me the link
to a support article through which I figured out how to access the BIOS
setting. THANKS!!!!

"dadiOH" wrote:

> cjkulow wrote:
> > Hi All! Have formatted my hd, have startup boot disk, have Dell
> > Reinstallation CD,
>
> Tried booting from the CD?
>
>
> --
>
> dadiOH
> ____________________________
>
> dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
> ....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
> LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
> Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
>
>
>
>

 

[cjkulow]

THANK YOU ALL !!! THANKS TO YOU I ACCESSED THE BIOS AND BOOTED TO THE CD
DRIVE. Thanks to all of you who spend time on their computers to help
others!! carola

"cjkulow" wrote:

> Hi All! Have formatted my hd, have startup boot disk, have Dell
> Reinstallation CD, have product key, and after I startup with boot floppy,
> choose "with CD ROM support," I see that the CD ROM drive is read. Have
> Reinstall CD that came with my computer in CD drive, but when I'm at the e:\
> prompt and type "setup" I get message "Bad command, or file not found." I
> looked at the CD contents at a different computer and cannot find a setup.exe
> file, or similar.
> What am I missing? I've read several instructions on reinstalling WIN98 and
> always get stuck at the same point when I am supposed to type "setup".
> Thanks for any help! I am not DOS savvy - perhaps that's the problem. ck

 

[Buffalo]

cjkulow wrote:
> THANK YOU ALL !!! THANKS TO YOU I ACCESSED THE BIOS AND BOOTED TO
> THE CD DRIVE. Thanks to all of you who spend time on their computers
> to help others!! carola

Glad it worked. After you get it set up, you'll probably want it to either
boot off the HDD or a Floppy Drive first.