Installing Win98

superscaper

I need to install windows 98 on an old pc (don't have spare copy of XP and it doesn't have drivers available, ubuntu used to be installed but it also doesn't have all drivers I need so no need for anyone to suggest another OS).
It used to have 98 installed on it, and I get as far as formatting and then setup but then I get an error about LBA (logic block addressing). I'm pretty sure the BIOS is the same as it was when it came with 98 installed. If I agree to error (asking it to stop just goes back to beginning) it continues with disk scan but then starts finding bad clusters (I think at about 49%).

Now I've swapped hard drives to make sure from the 40 Gig that was in to an old 20 gig that was actually the original hdd for that pc. Anyway the exact same thing happens, even down to bad clusters at 49%. Considering both discs worked fine before, one under ubuntu and other as a backup disc I doubt they are physically trashed. One thing I noticed when I tried again this morning was that the formatting described the 20 gig hard drive as having about 39,000 MB free.

Step by step photos and error messages are on (easier than typing it out) http://www.flickr.com/photos/10273662@N03/sets/72157600920295622/

So any ideas what to try cos I'm stuck?

nej

Hazy memory, but I'm pretty sure Win98 had limits on disk size.

crox

If you've had other os's on the pc have you need to use fdisk to set the disk back to fat32?

esuhl

Windows 98 formats the hard drive as either FAT (aka FAT16) or FAT32. FAT16 has a maximum partition size of 2GB and FAT32 partitions can be up to 8GB, if I remember rightly.

You could try booting into DOS and running fdisk to set the partitions rather than letting the Windows 98 installer do this for you.

bat999

Hi
As crox says about FAT32 above.
The other possibility is that the previous Windows OS has set up a partition containing a MBR (master boot record) or a Linux OS has set up a GRUB in a partition.
When I had this problem myself I used the 'blank' option with DBAN to wipe the HDD completely.
Then I used GParted to format it.
DBAN:-http://dban.sourceforge.net/
GParted:-http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
(Both of these can be burned to CD-RW's and re-used. GParted is already on the Ubuntu LiveCD if you have it).
:cool:

superscaper

I thought I'd done that in the photos, just checked the disk info under fdisk and it says the primary partition is FAT32.
The current hard disk in at the moment has never had linux on there. Only xp. Also I thought the command fdisk /mbr created a new master boot record?

superscaper

I'd already tried dban on the other hard drive and it didn't work. Will try it again on this one.

superscaper

nej wrote: »

Hazy memory, but I'm pretty sure Win98 had limits on disk size.

As I said in the OP, the current hard drive in there is the original one for the pc that was bought with win98 on it.

Conor_3

OK...simple one..

IF YOU'RE NOT TOTALLY HAPPY ABOUT THE DRIVE, DO OPTIONS 1 to 3. If you're convinced it's OK, skip to 5.


1) Go into BIOS. Go to the Standard Settings page where the hard drive is listed. Select that and make sure it's set to use LBA.

2) Boot up using Win98 CD. Run FDISK. Can't remember the options but basically you want to delete all partitions, then create a new primary one and make it active.

3) Boot PC again with Win98 CD and this time do a format c:

4) Run setup. It should work.

5) If you get the same error, quit out of setup. Run the following command at the command prompt:

setup /is

The /is switch, tells setup to run without running Scandisk.


JUST AS AN ASIDE: There used to be an old trick we did so you didn't need the installation CD in the future:

1) Create a folder on the HDD, call it "Win98".

c:
md win98


2) Run Smartdrv to speed things up. Copy all the contents of the Win98 directory on the CD to the Win98 folder on the HDD:

d:
cd win98
smartdrv
copy *.* c:\win98

3) Run setup from the HDD:

c:
cd win98
setup

What this does is tell Windows 98 that the setup files are on the HDD in the c:\win98 folder. If you leave that folder there, whenever Win98 needs the installation CD for files in the future, such as adding hardware, it'll look on the HDD instead of asking for the CD.

HTH.

superscaper

Currently wiping with dban (about 2 hours). Will try conor's suggestion to the letter after to see what happens (pretty sure I'd already done that). Just strange it's the exact same problem on two different hard drives that had different things installed on them in the past. The setup /is may end up proving the best option.

ormus

the ultimate boot disk has lots of hdd utilities on it, for most popular hdd,s.
they will run a check on your hdd and inform you of any probs.
the UBD also has lots of formatting tools.
free off the net. google for it.