As mentioned in the MPW98.disks.general, I just replaced the HD in my
old 98 machine. However, in spite of formatting it with the /s swtich,
XCOPYing everything, and doing sys D: for good measure, I couldn't get
the comptuer to boot.

Not having a CD for this OEM install, I went to c:\windows\options
\cabs and ran setup.exe
It acted like I used an answer file and ran MUCH faster than I
expected. Once it was finished, it asked me for a product key. I had
anticipated this and extracted it before this ever began. I entered
it, and was taken to my desktop. I haven't hooked anything but the
keyboard, moue, and monitor up nor have I screwed in the drives yet,
but everything looks like it's running fine. One thing I noticed is
that it no longer says "Dell" on the bootup screen, but instead has a
standard win98 bootup screen. Is there any way to bring that back by
extracting a file from my old HD? It's a minor thing, but I thought it
was nice to have the OEM one to remind me it's NOT a retail product
key when somebody asks me if I have one.

For that matter, what format is this custom boot screen and can I
customize it myself? First priority is to get the old one that the
computer came with back up, then worry about further customizations. I
didn't expect this, but surprisingly I haven't ahd to revert to
running setup the entire time I"ve owned this system.

I don't udnerstand why the step of running setup was necessary, I was
able to make a working virtual PC virtual hard drive that booted just
fine using the exact same procedure only mapping networked drives
instead of copying real drive letters.