Reinstall W98 over itself

[EchhoLi]

Thanks for the help!

Is there a good reference, website, post...whatever is availble on a good "how to" reinstall W98 over itself?

Are there any directories that need renaming?
Would C:\Windows and C:\Programs be likely candidates?

Would the installation over itself be to C:\win98?

[BipolarBill]

All you need to do is start Setup in Windows or use a Startup floppy to boot the PC and reinstall to C:\Windows. If your current version is badly messed up, you may want to rename the current Windows folder and then install to Windows. In this case I also run this command beforehand:

C:\DEL *.*

to rid myself of the loose files on C:

BTW - Welcome to SysOpt!

[Win2kMan]

Window will not let you install over itself if it's the same version.
you must first rename the current windows.exe file to windows.old located in the c:\windows folder.

cheers

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by Win2kMan
rename the current windows.exe file to windows.old located in the c:\windows folder.I think you mean the WIN.COM file.

[EchhoLi]

Oh, oh!!

BipolarBill,

Can you explain further:
"If your current version is badly messed up, you may want to rename the current Windows folder and then install to Windows"

Does this mean rename C:\Windows and then install to C:\win98? If you can be specific, would certainly appreciate it. Plenty confused already!

What happens if you rename C:\Programs? Any benefits to that action?

[BipolarBill]

I would leave C:\Program Files alone. If you're running Office, I would delete the Office folder there after installing Windows and before running Office setup.

I mean rename the Windows folder to, say Windoze. When you run setup afterward, setup will find C:\Windoze and ask if that's where you want to install it. You say no and specify C:\Windows. Leave the Windoze folder there for restoring any data you may have forgotten to back up. After a week or so, delete the Windoze folder. Never install to C:\Win98. That's the name of the folder on the CD with the setup files in it.

First try reinstalling without renaming.

[aferrari]

If your windows98 can start normally, you can
reinstall windows from the installation CD, just run
install.exe.
if you cant start in the graphical mode, i recommend
to rename windows directory to, for example OldWin,
rename "My Documents" too, and delete the files
"bootlog.txt", "bootlog.prv", "scandisk.log",
"WINDOWSWinInit.ini", "Detlog.txt", from the root dir of
drive C:
and then do a "clean" install, its the better choice.