need help clean install no os seems to want to go on

Lenny

HI, tried to install w98, disk is so scratched it won't go on at all
so I got my hands on win xp, and w2k....
only thing is, these won't boot from the cd roms, just get invalid system disk..
if i use the bootdisk and get to the cd drive.. i get can not be run in dos mode..
anmy ideas??

Chalk

xp should boot from the cd.
have you enabled the boot from cd in the bios [just to make sure]
otherwise are they origianl discs?
a copy might not have the correct boot information on the disc

SantaHoe

When you get to DOS mode, don't run setup.exe or whatever is in the root of the cd... instead, go to the \i386\ folder and run winnt.exe
You might want to get smartdrive setup to load from the boot floppy as the installer will crawl without it... but you can forego this if you're willing to leave the install going for a few hours

Lenny

whats this smart drive thing
I was trying to go into the i386 folder new there was something in there about going about it but just couldn't do it..

SantaHoe

Smart drive is a dos disk caching program from days of yore... it reserves an area of memory as a buffer for reads/writes to and from the harddrive and the result is faster copying of files, and since the windows installer spends a good while copying files - you get a faster install.
If you have it on the floppy, you can just load it from the command prompt or autoexec.bat
The installer CD will load up a disk cache TSR of some sort if you boot off it, but if you're running from the \i386\ folder - you'll need to load one manually or give the installer about another hour or more to copy the files due to its absence.
If you can access your '98 CD at all, it's on that... or you should be able to get a floppy boot image online with smartdrv present.

SantaHoe

Lenny wrote:

I was trying to go into the i386 folder new there was something in there about going about it but just couldn't do it..

From the root of the CD in DOS...
cd i386 <enter>
winnt <enter>
...installer starts.

Lenny

right so I'll wack the w98 cd in for a second
load smart drive, which folder is it in on that?
then remove the cd and put back in the w2k disk?

Lenny

choose to go without the smart drive.. getting a few set up unable to copy following files...
this is annoying me now.

SantaHoe

Bad CD methinks.

Lenny

well I skipped a few files, rebooted the pc and it had the files copied to install..
I have another w2k install files cd somewere
and am also getting a loan of another one to try later
thanks for your help SH
another quick question, where abouts is the smart drive located on the w98 cd?

Capt'n Midnight

smartdrv.exe should be in c:\win98

if not then you may have to extract from one of the cab files
The command is a bit like the following (can't remember exact syntax)
extract /a d:\win98\base04.cab smartdrv.*

SantaHoe

It'll be just sitting on the '98 CD in :\win98\ ... fingers crossed your CD won't be that scratched

Lenny

Thanks for the help lads, really appreacate it
never in my whole life have I had a problem installing fresh from a clean drive