[techtalk] Win 98 question....

[Conor Daly]

On Tue, May 08, 2001 at 06:22:02AM -0500 or so it is rumoured hereabouts, 
Kriselda Jarnsaxa thought:
> This evening, my hubby and I found ourselves needing to reformat the c drive
> on our "other" laptop.  Unfortunately, the laptop doesn't recognize the
> DVD-ROM drive and we don't have a "premade" Win98 boot disk at all.  We
> tried using the Win98 program from our desktop to make a boot disk, but it
> apparently didn't have drivers that let it recognize the DVD-ROM, so we
> still couldn't boot the CD or install Windows.
> 
> This computer is going to be for my hubby's use, and he's pretty insistant
> he wants to use Windows - especially after watching me go through weeks of
> installing and reinstalling Linux to see if I can ever get my monitor to
> stop freezing.  So Linux isn't an option for him.
> 
> I have two questions:
> 
> 1) Does anyone know of anywhere I could get a copy of a Win98 boot disk that
> would allow the computer to recognize the DVD-ROM?  I CANNOT contact the
> manufacturer as they have gone out of business.
> 
> 2) Failing that, IF I can get Linux installed on the box (since I know I can
> find boot disks for it *g*), can I, under Wine or Win4Lin use it as a base
> to launch the Windows98 startup from?I would obviously be installing it on a
> separate partition, but would such a gambit work?
> 
> If anyone has any other suggestions, I would be most grateful - I'm at a
> complete loss, here...

Here's a thought...

Have you already formatted c: ?  If so. you'll need to build the boot
floppy elsewhere.  Otherwise, do something like the following...

1.  Insert floppy (well, we knew that...)
2.  from a dos prompt, do a "sys a:"  That'll make a bootable floppy.
3.  Copy these files to a: (usually found in c:\windows\command)
    fdisk.exe
    format.com
    sys.com
    deltree.exe
    c:\config.sys
    c:\autoexec.bat
    any files mentioned in either of config.sys and autoexec.bat
4.  edit a:\config.sys and autoexec.bat to reflect the new drivers
    locations.

If you have dos drivers for the DVD, that should be sufficient to get you
going.  Of course, from reading your stuff above, it suggests that you
don't have drivers.  This is where plan b comes in.

######## Plan B ###########

1.  Make a boot floppy as in plan a above (ignore the config.sys and
    autoexec.bat bits).
2.  boot windows and copy the contents of $CDROM:\win98 to a directory on c: 
    (It's a directory something like that on the CDROM).  The usual
    directory on the HDD is c:\windows\options\cabs but that's not
    required.
3.  do a "deltree" on everything else on c: (instead of doing the format)
4.  boot from floppy and do a "sys c:"
5.  boot from HDD and cd to the setup directory you created earlier.
6.  run "setup" and everything should go from the HDD

So now you tell me you can't access the DVD from windows either...  can
you access it from linux?  If so, it's time for plan c...

######## Plan C ##########

1.  make plan a's boot floppy
2.  boot from the dos floppy and do a "format c:" followed by a "sys c:"
3.  get hold of a linux rescue floppy diskset.
4.  boot from the floppy and mount the windows CDROM.
5.  copy the contents of /mnt/cdrom/win98 to
    /mnt/dosc/windows/options/cabs
6.  boot from HDD and run "setup" 

Note that in all cases you need access to the DVD.  If you can't get
access but you have a network card, you could go with plan d... (he might
shut up soon but you never know... :-)

######## Plan D ##########

1.  make plan a's boot floppy (you're not going to get away with this you
    know! :-)
2.  boot from that and do a "format c:
3.  use you favourite distro's "fips.exe" to split the C: partition in
    two (If the HDD is big enough to have two permanent seperate drives,
    choose the sizes to suit yourself.  Otherwise, make the second partition
    big enough to hold the win98 directory from the CDROM).  Actually, you
    can do all that using dos fdisk if you prefer but don't forget to
    "format d:" so you have a FAT partition available when you boot linux
4.  Install linux in /dev/hda1 (Which will become the windows partition
    later.
5.  mount the Windows CDROM and copy the win98 directory to /dev/hda2 
    (or /dev/hda5 depending on whether you used fips or fdisk)
6.  use linux fdisk to change the partition type of /dev/hda1 to fat32
    ('b' in the "types" option in fdisk)
7.  boot from dos floppy, format c:, sys c:
8.  boot from HDD and run setup

####### Plan E ##########

Tell Hubby "Tough! you're gonna have to learn linux now!"  

:0)
    
Conor
-- 
Conor Daly <conor.daly at oceanfree.net>

Domestic Sysadmin :-)
---------------------
Faenor.cod.ie
 10:43pm  up 8 days,  1:33,  0 users,  load average: 0.08, 0.02, 0.01
Hobbiton.cod.ie
 10:46pm  up 8 days,  1:38,  1 user,  load average: 0.10, 0.06, 0.01