Reinstall WIN 98 SE

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When I start the system using the WIN 98 Startup Disk, the CD Drive is not recognized. So If I were to format the C partition, I would not be able to reload the Operating System since the CD drive is not accessible. Could I copy the WIN 98 SE Installation Disk to the D partition and load it from there?

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Not only can you do that, but it’s propbably the best idea – you’ll always have the CD handy when Windows wants it. It’s also loads faster to install from the hard drive IME.

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Hi Mark,

Let me take this one step further – can I take a HD which has WIN 98 SE installed on it from one computer and put it into another computer? What I would like to do is copy the WIN98 SE disk onto the D partition of the GOOD computer. Then take the the HD from the GOOD computer and put it as the master on the BAD computer. The HD drive from the GOOD computer would have WIN98 SE installed on the C partition and a copy of the WIN 98 SE installation disk on the D partition. Could I then install WIN 98 to the “first” partition on the second HD in the BAD computer – and then make the second HD the Master drive so that the Operating System would work from it. ??

The BAD computer is infected with a virus which has corrupted most of the EXE files. When I try to run the WIN 98 SE installation disk, I get an error message that SETUP.EXE is not a valid win32 application. So I am hoping that the HD from the GOOD computer would allow me to run the SETUP.EXE and install WIN 98 to the first partition on the other hard drive.

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In concept, you can switch the drives and with a few minor burps be up and running. The hard drive contains the hardware configuration used by Windows, and you may have some oddball issues by taking a working Windows 98 installation and moving it lock, stock and barrel over to another computer. In NT/2000/XP you usually have to perform an “in-place upgrade” which means, basically, that you need to reinstall the operating system to correct the hardware changes and allow the OS to use the disk. Win 9x is much more forgiving about these things, so you can try – just be careful that you don’t trash a working installation.

Why not take the virus infected drive and simply format it?

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Why not take the virus infected drive and simply format it?

In the virus infected system, when I use the WIN98 Startup disk, the system does not recognize the CD drive and I have no way to reinstall WIN98. I thot the CMOS might be somehow affected so I took the battery out and then brought the BIOS back to default settings. That did not help. So I am between a rock and a hard spot. How can I reformat the C partition of the virus affected system and re-install WIN98 when the system will not detect the cd drive and thus does not load the cd drivers.

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Well, what I was thinking was to take that drive and install it in the good system, and format the virus into oblivion. Do you not have a startup/rescue disk set to boot and remove boot sector virii?

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Do you not have a startup/rescue disk set to boot and remove boot sector virii?

I presume you are talking about a Norton startup/rescue set – the problem is that I can not get any EXE files to “run”. I get an error message saying that the file is not a valid win32 application.

I have just copied the WIN98 SE installation disk to the D partition of the BAD hard drive. Could I format the C partition and then (assuming the EXE file will be executable) run the SETUP.EXE from the D drive through a DOS process?

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If you’re booting with a floppy, what’s on the hard drive shouldn’t matter. The rescue disks that come on floppy are self-contained – DOS is the operating system, and nothing on the hard drive is accessed when booting.

To answer your second question…..yes, if you format the C: partition and leave D: alone, you can install from the hard drive. Boot with a floppy!! You can download a pre-made image to create one at http://softwaretogo.osu.edu/upgrades/w98startup.html%5B/url%5D.

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Hey Mark,
I formatted the C partition and then ran SETUP.EXE from the D partition. After a few “hangups” finally got WIN 98 installed. System is not starting properly each time. Sometimes it just gets so far and hangs up and all I have is a blinking cursor on a black screen. I am running SCANDISK on the C partition as I write this.

One of the devices missing a driver is PCI MASS STORAGE CONTROLLER. How do I find a driver for it? What is it?

Thanks for your help.

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One of the devices missing a driver is PCI MASS STORAGE CONTROLLER.

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[/indent]Zoinks! Ruh-roh Raggy! (Sorry, my kids talked me into the Scooby movie)
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What is it?

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[/indent]It’s the piece of hardware in your computer’s guts that allows the hard drives to transfer the information they contain to the rest of the PC.
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How do I find a driver for it?

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[/indent]It should be part of a standard Windows installation, so the fact that it’s not there is very curious. You may be able to find it on the Windows CD-ROM; if you have an Intel processor, check their website and search for the chipset ID utility. Using it you will be able to locate the correct driver. AMD processors commonly use a VIA chipset, whose driver comes packaged as a 4 in 1 unified driver that works with all VIA chipsets.

Get the software, but make sure you check that drive thoroughly using Scandisk.

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Hi Mark,

The processor is an AMD – I went to the VIA site and downloaded and installed the 4 in 1 Driver set. However, I still have a listing for MASS STORAGE CONTROLLER with a yellow exclamation point in my Device Manager listing. The motherboard is a ASUS A7V. Any suggestions?? Oh yes, I did run SCANDISK on all partitions and all seem came back OK.

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I should ask, though – do you have a SCSI card or something else installed? You may be installing drivers that aren’t helping, since I didn’t ask this previously. If it’s not the IDE/ATAPI controller that you are seeing the problem with then it’s something separate. If you can post a screen shot, that would be very helpful – press ALT+Print Screen and then paste into a grpahics program, or Word – whatever will allow you to paste a graphic.

An Asus, eh? At least it’s using the KT-266 chipset. I’m not going to vent about my Asus experience here. Try this, in order.

• Extract the VIA drivers into a directory that you can find again. You will need them uncompressed (Not in the EXE or ZIP that you downloaded) for the next step.
• From Device Manager, remove the IDE controller and drives. Wipe them, make them disappear. Be warned that sometimes this will force the computer to lock up but chances are high that this won’t happen. Reboot. When the computer starts, if it can’t find the driver and prompts for it, point it at the location you saved the 4-in-1 driver files to.
• If it boots without a complaint, check the Device Manager to see if it reinstated the “Mass Storage Controller” with an exclamation point. If it did, double click on the entry, check the driver tab, and click “Reinstall Driver”. Browse to the place where the IDE driver is located (the 4-in1 when extracted will show several subdirectories). If this happens you’ll need to reboot.[/list]Let us know hey? I’m very curious to see how this works out – just remember, if you get frustrated with the blasted machine, wal;k away for a half hour. Trust me! Reboot your brain when you start thinking about using the system as a jack-stand.

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Hey Mark,

SCSI – yes there is a SCSI installed – a CDRW is hooked to it. It seems to be working just fine. How does that affect things?

RE EXTRACT VIA – I used WINZIP to Extract the 4 in 1 zipped file and all I get was an EXE file – no folders or directories???

What would you like a screen shot of?? The device manager listing??

The yellow exclamation is next to a listing as follows : PCI MASS STORAGE CONTROLLER

By the way, when I turn the system on – it gets to a point and hangs and all I get is a blinking cursor. When I hit the reset button, it offers to start up in SAFE MODE but I select NORMAL MODE – it runs the SCAN DISK and starts OK. If I leave the system “set” for awhile, it seems to shut off – I get a black screen with a blinking cursor. Sometimes when I hit CTRL – ALT and DEL, It wakes back up. More often it does not. Then I have to hit the RESET button again.

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The SCSI controller is probably what you’re seeing the message regarding the PCI MASS STORAGE CONTROLLER about. I got to thinking and realized that IDE drives aren’t identified the same way. That means you need to go find a driver for the SCSI card. It may be working now but you’re missing out on a lot without proper drivers.

Forget the VIA 4-in-1 in regards to that unless the SCSI drivers don’t make it go away – and the screen shot I was referring to was indeed the device manager listing.

For your startup problem, does it only happen on a restart? What happens if you shut down all the way, power off, and then cold start the system? Same thing? I’ve seen this before, and it’s a tricky one to fix but it can be done. Start by eliminating possibilities. Use MSCONFIG to disable your startup items temporarily and see if the problem persists. If it does, it’s probably a system-level hardware driver causing it, if it doesn’t, you know to look for one of those things in your startup group. What “point” does it get to?

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Problem solved – Hi Mark, sorry for the delay in responding to your input on SCSI. It was the Mass Storage Controller for the SCSI card. I finally got a driver to download from WINDOWS UPDATE – It is a PROMISE driver. Anyhoo, the computer now starts properly and I have no more yellow exclamation points in Device Manager. Thanks again for all your help.

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Excellent news! You may want to visit the Promise website and download a copy of the driver for safe keeping.

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