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alyssasj

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Installing Windows 98 after fdisk and format

I have formatted the hard disk and now cannot install windows 98 from the disk. Invalid drive specification. Please help.
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dbrunton
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Did you format using the following command

format  c:  /s

I presume you are booting from the CDROM and tryiing to install from that.
Hi alyssaj,
In addition to dbrunton's comment you may need to reboot the computer for it to see that a hard drive has been added, before trying to install win98.

dragontooth

This is just my way of doing a reload on windows 98, 98SE, 95B or 95A.

Step one boot the computer to a clean system and remove all partitions.  (If you want to keep the data on the D: drive just leave that partition alone.

Partition the C drive.
Format the C drive (Format c:/s)
Create a directory on the C drive for windows\options\cabs
Copy all data from the source CD to c:\windows\options\cabs  (CD drive \win98\*.* to c:\windows\options\cabs)
Run your setup from the c:\windows\options\cabs\setup.exe directory.  This removes errors accessing the CD and also removes the need to have your setup CD in the future.
Hi alyssaj,
In addition to all the comments make sure of this, if you have more than one partition table you need to set an active partition..

Regards,
Rodwell R. Braddick
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Scott_V

If you are trying to install from the CD and you've formatted your hard drive you need to do one of two things...

One, boot off the windows 98 SE floppy in order to load the CD-ROM drivers, or everytime you try to access d:\  You'll get "invalid drive specification"

or

Two, Boot off the windows 98 SE CD-ROM disk.  You may have to edit some settings in your BIOS to allow "Boot from CD"...

If your CD is not bootable for some reason, and you don't have a boot disk, you'll have to download and install DOS cd-rom drivers...  You can get a copy of a semi-universal one here...

http://download.com.com/3302-2100-901550.html
(yes the dual .com is correct)

I also found a link to the oakcdrom.sys driver but you'll have to register at the website to download it...  Free though, and a great driver resource..

http://www.cdrom-drivers.com/drivers/74/74060.htm

You will also need MSCDEX.EXE.  You can get that here...

http://www.techadvice.com/tech/M/MSCDEX.htm

Copy both files to a floppy and copy them to your C:\ using the command

copy a:\*.* c:\*.*

If you can get MS-DOS editor (edit.com) on the floppy disk, that'll help, but its not necessary...  You can do the following from a C:\>

Type: "echo DEVICE=C:\OAKCDROM.SYS /D MSCD0001 >> config.sys"

then type: "echo C:\MSCDEX.EXE /D MSCD0001 >> autoexec.bat"

(the other option is to create config.sys and autoexec.bat on a computer that is running windows, but all 4 files on the floppy (autoexec.bat,config.sys,oakcdrom.sys,mscdex.exe) and then do the copy *.* as above.  Reboot, and your cd-rom should be loaded up)

Any problems with this, please just ask.  Good luck

-Scott



Or get a bootdisk from http://www.bootdisk.com/
Yeah, you could do that, but wheres the ADVENTURE?  ;)

(Nice link BTW)

-Scott
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PashaMod

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