apprentice25 :
I have a ten year old computer with windows 95. I would like to install Windows 98.
This is the problem. On this computer it is not possible to change
the BIOS in order to boot from the CD.
I have heard that I can download a floppy with the necessary files.
I do not know the steps however.
I would appreciate it if someone could explain to me the necessary
steps to install windows 98
Thansk
www.bootdisk.com
Download a startup disk creator choose the first link at bootdisk.com, [DOS/Windows9X/Me/NT/2K/XP Excellent Bootdisks], download the floppy creator for either Win98SE OEM, or WinME OEM, do not choose the download with No Ramdrive, you'll need the Ramdrive, either 98SE or ME will work, the download is a floppy disk creator, create the floppy disk and boot the machine with the floppy disk.
Watch the process as it begins to startup as it nears the end which will be when you see a flashing A:\> prompt it will tell you the CDROM letter it has recognized its usually the E:\> drive if theres only 1 CDROM drive in the machine, remember that drive letter you will need it later in the booting.
The flashing A:\> prompt is where you'll input commands
first type fdisk and press enter
The purpose of entering fdisk is to delete the present partitions on the HDD and create a new primary DOS partition for installing Win98, now this process is really a simple step by step procedure to get through and after repartitioning the HDD the new partition will have to be formatted and continue on with the Win98 installation.
I do not mind at all typing all this out for you and walking you through it, however I do not want to go through all this for nothing, I need to know I have your attention to continue on? Ryan
Or you can continue on and educate yourself on how to use FDISK and what it does, link provided below.
http://members.aol.com/don5408/drivespace/fdisk.html
Then after using FDISK to delete the existing partitions, and creating a new Primary DOS partition, and restarting the machine taking you back to the A:\> prompt type FORMAT C: and press Enter, it formats the new partition and when it completes takes you back to the A:\> then type CD press Enter, then type E:\ [If E was the CDROM drive letter I mentioned earlier] and press Enter, then type setup and press Enter, and the Win98 setup begins.
Actually this could be a nice learning experience for you, you're installing from scratch so any screwup is fixable.
If the partition is already FAT32 then you could just format it, however if the copy of Win95 previously on the machine was the first release it did not support FAT32 95B & 95C did however, but FDISK will tell you what FAT table and how the HDD is setup.
If you get in trouble you can always PM.