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saivon

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95 over 98?

I lent my computer to a friend, and they installed windows 98 over my windows 95. They did not keep the setup infoormation for 95. So now when I want to put 95 back on it says "Do not install windows 95 over 98....neither O/s will be usable" There must be a way- without formatting my hard drive. If I do it cant I install 95 from pure dos. Thanks in advance
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liebrand
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You can use the uninstall process if you need to remove Windows 98 from your system and revert to the previous version of Windows. Before making a decision to uninstall, there are some important things to consider. Please read the notes below.

Open the Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box at the Install/Uninstall tab.

Important
Do not uninstall Windows 98 if you compressed your hard disks after setting up Windows 98, or after you have upgraded your compression.
If you did not choose the option of saving your MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95 system files during the installation of Windows 98, you cannot restore your previous operating system after you install Windows 98.
Notes
You can open the Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box by clicking Start, pointing to Settings, clicking Control Panel, and then double-clicking Add/Remove Programs.
If you converted your hard drive to the FAT32 file system after installing Windows 98, you cannot uninstall Windows 98. However, if you had FAT32 before installing Windows 98, you can uninstall without a problem.
You can uninstall only once for each Windows 98 upgrade.
If you uninstall Windows 98, any programs you installed while running Windows 98 must be reinstalled. You may also have to reconfigure your swap file.
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ajmcgarry

First thing to do is to check if the uninstall information is still there.
It is optional when installing 98 over 95.
To do this go to Add/Remove Progams in Control Panel, and look for Windows 98 uninstall information.
If you have this then get back to me.
Oops, next time I'll read the question properly. Sorry!
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sorgie
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Boot to a command-line prompt.

Enter 'RENAME C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM NOTWIN.COM'.

Reboot, and try to install Win95.
The install-program won't find 'WIN.COM', and won't generate that error-message.
to Otta: I really wouldn't install win95 like you say it because of the fact that win95 doesn't replace all drivers.  You'll end up with a very unstable system.
Just curious, but why do you not want to keep 98?
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ASKER

Why dont I want 98? Well first, I dont have a disk for 98 at the moment so its a pain for me to update drivers and such. The othe reason is that win95 is more stable for MIDI. Looks like i'll just have to kepp 98 then......
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ASKER

Thanks to all for advice......
> win95 doesn't replace all drivers. You'll end up with a very unstable system.

Upon *NOT* finding the 'WIN.COM' command, Windows *WILL* do a "fresh" install.  Try it.  I've been-there-done-that.
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ASKER

Otta.....So it totally safe to do your thing huh? I think I will try it. Thnx.