Need to install an operating system

grimbo

i have just been given a pc for my young son to use for educational games and cbeebies but there is no operating system on it, i was given a ubuntu cd but that doesn't seem to work, i updated my own pc from 98 to xp and have the genuine window 98 second edition cd that came with my pc, can i install it on the one i have been given or not or is there another one i can put on for free. As far as i know it's a pentium mmx cpu 166mhz with 2 gig hard drive, i had a look inside and know there are two lots of ram one with 64mb but don't know what the other is.

Also is it easy to do, i have never installed an operating system before.:eek: :eek:

Quincy_3

Just stick Win98se no probs apart from is it isnt legal malarky but no one will come knocking on your door if its for private use, also get http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php and stick that on 98se machine to find the missing drivers.

Insert win98se disc into cdrom drive.

Also with 98se its a bit of a hassle. first of all you need the win98 boot diskette http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml then insert boot disk when you have made one on a floppy, I would google that, then restart PC with boot disk inserted and then when all installed off Boot disk type format c:/s and that will make a format of the C: drive and then type restart when done, after a restart and yuo get A:\ now type CD \ or just \ where D is the drive letter of the cdrom drive now you should see \ now type setup.exe so it looks like \setup.exe and the install should start.

You may have to go into fdisk aswell.

DOS commands http://www.computerhope.com/msdos.htm

culpepper

it should be legal as you are only installing it to one pc anyway and it is your own original disc.
The ubuntu OS would not have let you run windows software in any case although it is a nice OS.
If you dont have any luck with that,you could get a Linux magazine as they usually have a Linux OS packaged with them they would be fine for browsing and there is a lot of free software out there you can download once you have it set up but as I said ,they dont run windows progs.

NicolaJH_2

The standard ubuntu install would probably require more computing power than you have. You can do a server install which installs the basic stuff (you can read about this on the ubuntu website in the documentation section). The main problem being is that it isn't that simple and the instructions given are far from foolproof.

If you can get hold of damm small linux that can run from a CD (and installed on the harddrive once you've tried it) and it might be worth a try as its designed for low spec systems.