"Sara" wrote in message
...
Hi, I recently bought a refurbished Thinkpad. It came with
Win 98SE loaded, a COA but no CD of the operating system (I
knew that when I bought it). The COA sticker has the Win
98SE product key printed on it. There's no installation
folder on the hard drive.

I also run Win 98SE on my desktop. Can't find the Win98SE
upgrade CD, but I have a collection of diskettes/CD's all
the way from MS-DOS to Win 98. For the desktop I made a
boot diskette with CD drivers, then burned a recovery CD
with the CAB files etc. from the installation folder plus
some useful utilities, so I can reload 98SE. (I retrieved
the desktop's product key from the registry.)

Question #1: if I ever need to reinstall Win 98SE on the
laptop, can I use the CD I burned with the CAB files from
my desktop, and the product key on the laptop's COA?

Yes you can use that Windows 98SE installation CD, but no, just use the same
Product Key that came with the system from which you derived the CD. Provided
you have two licenses, it doesn't really matter how you manage to install the
system, and the COA's Product Key will likely not work for that CD.

I guess I'd have to create a new boot diskette for the laptop
to make sure I had the correct CD driver, right?

No, all Win98/98SE floppy startup disks are pretty much the same and usually
include any CD driver that might be needed. The problem with some laptops is
that you can't run a CD and a floppy at the same time. If you are in that
situation, then you should visit www.bootdisk.com and learn how to make a
bootable CD to replace the startup disk. You can even add the Windows 98SE
installation files to that same CD.


Question #2: The latest full operating system I have is
Windows 3.11. Thereafter I just have upgrade versions. If
one of these systems requires an OS reload, am I correct in
thinking that I would have to start by reloading Win 3.11,
then upgrading to Win 95, then Win 98, then Win 98SE?

No, you don't need to preinstall the eligible OS, you only need to show Setup
the eligible item (the earlier version) during installation. In your case, you'd
start Windows 98SE Setup, and at about the same time as it asks for the Product
Key, it will also note that you have an Upgrade CD and will ask for proof of
eligibility. Show it either a Win95 CD (any kind), or the Win98 CD (upgrade,
full, OEM, matters not.) Try not to use a floppy disk set, since it will want to
see several disks--messier and more time consuming.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP for Win9x