Window 98/XP/DOS problem

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A little history. My sons CPU a PIII 877mghz CPU with WIN98 on experienced some son-induced problems. I had a WinXP disk from my personal CPU. I installed it on my sons CPU hoping that would solve the problem. It didn't. I bought a new HD(thinking that was the problem) Installed it along with WINXP. That didnt fix the problem.

I took his CPU into the local repair shop. They fixed it up so everything is working great. Except for one small problem....the dam windows XP authentication expired after 30 days. I dont feel like paying almost $200 for Windows XP Home edition. I would pay $100...not $200. Why is XP twice as much as Vista?

Anyhow..on to my current issue. My sons original HD which is still on his system has WIN98 installl program on it on a separate partition. It came packaged this way when I had it made. So, i try to run the setup.exe from the WIN98 directory and it tells me WIN98 cannot be installed while the current version of windows is running and to reboot in MS-DOS mode.

So, i make a MS-DOS boot disk but when i reboot my CPU gives me an I/O error, replace disk and press any key.

Question 1: how can i get around this I/O error.
Question 2: If i get around this I/O error and into DOS. will it see my 2 hard drives and let me have access to them?
Question 3: Is there another way i can install WIN98 from my Hard drive?
Question 4: If 1-3 fail...where can i get Windows XP for around $100.

I thought about buying Windows Vista for $100.00 but I dont have a DVD drive and would rather stick with XP or even 98..if i can get either to work.
 
Not Sure

I believe my default bios setup is A then C... whenever i have a floppy in the drive it tries to access it first. But for some reason my boot disk doesn't work on my home CPU. It does work on my work cpu though.

Not sure what version of 98 I have. I am at work now, will post specifics once i get home. Whatever version it is, I've never had any problems with it that weren't operator induced.
 
Dual boot

You seem to have a dual boot system now.I'm not too familiar with it except
Something about getting an option on an normal boot with
No disks in any drives.
I think you use F8 but see what other replys you get.
 
ironmlh said:
I dont feel like paying almost $200 for Windows XP Home edition. I would pay $100...not $200. Why is XP twice as much as Vista?

You can find XP Home for a lot less than $200.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...tory=1149&Description=windows+xp+home&Ntk=all

You probably have to repartition/format the drive to install Windows 98. If you don't have any data to save, this is somewhat simple. Using the startup disk, run the command fdisk and delete any non-DOS partitions using the fdisk keyboard-based menu. Create a new partition. Restart the computer and boot into your DOS diskette again. Enter the command format C: and complete the format process. Now run setup and your Windows 98 install should begin without errors.
 
Floppy's are extremely flaky. The I/O error could be cause by a bad floppy image, bad floppy disk, or bad floppy drive.

If your PC fails WGA, you can get a conversion kit form Microsoft via the "How to get genuine" links for $150. They give you a valid key, a program to change your key, and then they mail you a valid install CD.
That would be a better option then buying an OEM copy and having to wipe out your current install.

Yikes, XP on a P3 877mhz....and probably 64MB RAM.;)
 
thanks

THanks for the tips...OEM sounds painfulI dont want to wipe out the current install. But then for $80 in savings i just might.

This is only my sons CPU, he doesnt need alot of power. And it does have a pretty decent NVidia Graphics card and 512 Ram....not 64.

It runs (when it runs) everything he needs.
 
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