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Installing Win98 upgrade to system with corrupted registry

I have a system with W95 rev 1 that has a corrupted registry.  Instead of reformatting and reinstalling, I am wondering whether I can just buy a W98 upgrade and that will fix things.

Will something like this?  Does W98 install directly from the CD or do I need to have my machine up and running W95 first?
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bobinmad
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It is worth a shot, however, in my experience, you are much better off doing a complete format and install, I do this "window washing" on my PC every 3-4 months due to downloaded demos and testing apps.

If you boot with the 98 Upgrade CD, you will be asked if you want to do an upgrade or install - - try the upgrade, it is not a cumbersome process. If things do not run to your satisfaction, just blow it away and do a clean install.

IMHO

bobinmad
You will need to go into your bios and set your machine to boot to your CDrom first, that is if your bios supports that feature. If not you will have to boot with a boot floppy with CDROM support which you can download from bootdisk.com

Also if you are going to upgrade it will ask if you want to keep your WIn95 files say yes! This may allow it to rebuild your reg. You can delete the Win95 file later.

All Said Bobinmad has a good point you may be better off reformatting and doing a clean install, but you have nothing too lose
Good Luck
I agree a clean instal is the best. If you do not have a boot disk for win 98 you will as mentioned not be able to go to the cd-rom. Do not forget to save your favorites, data files and e-mail addresses.
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PuppetLord

Note that upgrading to win98 from a corrupted win95 reg could be very bad.. there's a good chance it won't work and/or will be FUBAR'd after awhile or just plain crash alot - which is worse than your current situation :)

One thing I always do is keep the cab files for win98 on my HD -- the cab files are the compressed win98 files in a folder on the CD named CABS (1 simple, efficient thing that MS actually DID).  From dos, you just create a \cabs folder on your local HD by using "mkdir cabs" -- then switch directories to your CABS folder on your cd-rom (should be D:\cabs) - then you copy all the files to your CABS folder on your HD.  The whole process should look like this:
C:\> mkdir cabs
right on the line below this line, it might be C:\cabs -- doesn't matter if it is or not -- I can't remember :)
C:\> D:
D:\> cd win98
D:\win98> copy *.* c:\cabs
that's roughly how to do it.. after you've copied the cabfiles to your HD, you should be able to go to your cab folder on your c drive and type setup to install win98

it's been a long, long time since I've done this and I'm sure I messed up somewhere -- but hopefully you can use this.

pup
tier6@hotmail.com
When you insert the Win98 upgrade from inside Windows then you should get a screen saying the disk contains a newer version of software then you are using, and then it ask if you want to install it.
try a re-install of win95, but select the "repair corrupted files" option.
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ASKER

I don't know what could be worse than the present situation.  It won't run Windows except in Safe mode.  I guess I hope that rayt333's suggestion is correct.  I'll let you know if he was correct.

I really have to wonder about an OS where people have to reintall everything several times a year to keep things running properly.
Out of curiosity did you try Regclean??

Also I normally have problems appear with 3d party software mainly shareware or free ware. I learned about 6 years ago, that installing a tape drive is a wonderful option. The first one is an HP travan tape drive. The tapes have never broken. I just bought one recently for another machine which is a 4 to 8 gigabyte unit, so that I can always add a cheap 8 gig drive to the system.

Before any installation of software, of any type, I back up my system. The tape backs up the system and makes a catalog. The only problem I had was that the catalog was not being made. I had a firmware fix throgh a download, to solve that minor problem.

The regclean should be under windows/system
Normall what happens with th corruption of files is shutting down the computor improperly, the installation of the programs normally scattered in pieces all over the disk, thus the need to do a scan disk and a defrag, and of course the regclean.
lancel
Humm, I don't think the upgrade disk will work as I stated above from Safe Mode since in safe mode there is no drivers loaded for the CD-Rom. The way I stated was for installing it from inside Windoze 95
Just another thing that i have learned how crappy the upgrade is...

IF you have downloaded IE5 prior to the upgrade do not do it...
(u'll get DNS errors on SSL pages...)
also you will have to format if you ever
want to "FIX" the upgrade with re-installing the upgrade 98

seems 98, 98se, ie5 download, and the win 98 update cd all have different versions of IE5.

from ms tech they are for different computers(dumbest answer i've ever heard) from my exp the FULL version of 98 or 98se is better if you can format.
I agree with SemperPhi. A comlete reformat works buch better with the SE version. I am sure some has mentioned above or possibly I lef a not on this sit,but I just do not have the patience to look. Anyway, please be sure to save all your data. What I do is have all my data files under on main folder for easy back up, then I back up my favorites and export my e-mail addresses.
I am sure some one has mentioned this but be sure you have a Win98 boot disk, this will allow you to access your cd-Rom drive.

Another thing and I am a believer in this, since it has saved me many hours, especially when one configures Microsoft developmental disks on a computer which may take two days, is to have for example, my favorite a HP Travan back up. It should be large enough th take another HD of the same size. I have an * gig drive, and this way I can easily purchase an expensive 8 gig drive and still be able to use the tape drive.

Another suggestion, is tape back up prior to an install of a program and the others on a weekly basis.
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evansj

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I am currently not able to get the darn machine to boot to DOS.  Once I sort that problem out, I will try your suggestion.  It looks like a winner.