Reinstalling 98 Stumped???

I am reinstalling 98se on my aunts computer. She acquired it from a friend so
I have formated the drive to start fresh. Here's the deal. From a startup
disk, I ran FDISK and deleted all the old partitions. I created one new
partition that is 8Mb in size. I restart. Format the new c:. restart from the
cd drive and install windows. It goes through the file coping process and
performs it's first restart and then it tells me invalid system disk error.
I've tried a few things to fix this error but the only way around it is to
boot off the floppy and start the whole process over. I've done the process
twice with the same result so now I'm wondering what I am doing wrong. This
is my first attempt to cleanup an old computer. Thanks for the help.

"Mathers" wrote in message
...

I am reinstalling 98se on my aunts computer. She acquired it from a friend
so
I have formated the drive to start fresh. Here's the deal. From a startup
disk, I ran FDISK and deleted all the old partitions. I created one new
partition that is 8Mb in size. I restart. Format the new c:. restart from
the
cd drive and install windows. It goes through the file coping process and
performs it's first restart and then it tells me invalid system disk
error.
I've tried a few things to fix this error but the only way around it is to
boot off the floppy and start the whole process over. I've done the
process
twice with the same result so now I'm wondering what I am doing wrong.
This

1. You are sure that your boot disk is OK?
You can download the correct one from www.bootdisk.com.
They vary for Win98 and 98SE and upgrade. You download
one EXE file and EXEcuting it writes the disk to a blank
in your floppy drive.
2. Try copying the whole of the CD's /Win98 folder to
the hard drive (which will speed up everything), then
reboot from the floppy and run X:\Win98\SETUP.EXE.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Determine what brand hard drive is in the PC, go to the maker's web site and
download their
diagnostic software. It runs from a floppy disk and will tell you the
health of the hard drive. That's where I would start.
--
Regards

Ron Badour, MS MVP Windows 98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo

"Mathers" wrote in message
...
I am reinstalling 98se on my aunts computer. She acquired it from a friend
so
I have formated the drive to start fresh. Here's the deal. From a startup
disk, I ran FDISK and deleted all the old partitions. I created one new
partition that is 8Mb in size. I restart. Format the new c:. restart from
the
cd drive and install windows. It goes through the file coping process and
performs it's first restart and then it tells me invalid system disk
error.
I've tried a few things to fix this error but the only way around it is to
boot off the floppy and start the whole process over. I've done the
process
twice with the same result so now I'm wondering what I am doing wrong.
This
is my first attempt to cleanup an old computer. Thanks for the help.

You can't install Windows into an 8Mb partition. Did you mean 8Gb? If not,
then you must create a much larger partition for Windows. If this is the
default size partition that FDISK is creating then the disk is faulty or
improperly installed.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Mathers" wrote in message
...
I am reinstalling 98se on my aunts computer. She acquired it from a friend
so
I have formated the drive to start fresh. Here's the deal. From a startup
disk, I ran FDISK and deleted all the old partitions. I created one new
partition that is 8Mb in size. I restart. Format the new c:. restart from
the
cd drive and install windows. It goes through the file coping process and
performs it's first restart and then it tells me invalid system disk
error.
I've tried a few things to fix this error but the only way around it is to
boot off the floppy and start the whole process over. I've done the
process
twice with the same result so now I'm wondering what I am doing wrong.
This
is my first attempt to cleanup an old computer. Thanks for the help.

I am also having problems, after successfully installing, partitioning and
formatting a new HD. When I attempt to reinstall Windows 98SE from my CD I
get the message "KERNEL: unable to initialize heap".

Does anyone have a clue as to how I can solve this problem?

Thanks,

Safety6


"Don Phillipson" wrote:

"Mathers" wrote in message
...

I am reinstalling 98se on my aunts computer. She acquired it from a friend
so
I have formated the drive to start fresh. Here's the deal. From a startup
disk, I ran FDISK and deleted all the old partitions. I created one new
partition that is 8Mb in size. I restart. Format the new c:. restart from
the
cd drive and install windows. It goes through the file coping process and
performs it's first restart and then it tells me invalid system disk
error.
I've tried a few things to fix this error but the only way around it is to
boot off the floppy and start the whole process over. I've done the
process
twice with the same result so now I'm wondering what I am doing wrong.
This

1. You are sure that your boot disk is OK?
You can download the correct one from www.bootdisk.com.
They vary for Win98 and 98SE and upgrade. You download
one EXE file and EXEcuting it writes the disk to a blank
in your floppy drive.
2. Try copying the whole of the CD's /Win98 folder to
the hard drive (which will speed up everything), then
reboot from the floppy and run X:\Win98\SETUP.EXE.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

I am also having problems, after successfully installing, partitioning and
formatting a new HD. When I attempt to reinstall Windows 98SE from my CD I
get the message "KERNEL: unable to initialize heap".

Do you have a clue as to how I can solve this problem?

Thanks,

Safety6

"Jeff Richards" wrote:

You can't install Windows into an 8Mb partition. Did you mean 8Gb? If not,
then you must create a much larger partition for Windows. If this is the
default size partition that FDISK is creating then the disk is faulty or
improperly installed.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Mathers" wrote in message
...
I am reinstalling 98se on my aunts computer. She acquired it from a friend
so
I have formated the drive to start fresh. Here's the deal. From a startup
disk, I ran FDISK and deleted all the old partitions. I created one new
partition that is 8Mb in size. I restart. Format the new c:. restart from
the
cd drive and install windows. It goes through the file coping process and
performs it's first restart and then it tells me invalid system disk
error.
I've tried a few things to fix this error but the only way around it is to
boot off the floppy and start the whole process over. I've done the
process
twice with the same result so now I'm wondering what I am doing wrong.
This
is my first attempt to cleanup an old computer. Thanks for the help.

You have confused things somewhat by jumping into the middle of an existing
thread, but I will assume this is a new problem.

Why are you re-installing Windows? Are you quite sure that you have found
and fixed whatever problem prompted you to do the re-installation?

What (exactly) is the procedure you are going through to do the re-install,
and where (exactly) in this procedure does the error message appear?

How far back in the process did you start? For instance, did you remove the
disk partitioning and create new partitions, did you re-format the primary
partition, did you delete the previous Windows version, or are you just
re-installing over the top of the existing installation?
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Safety6" wrote in message
...
I am also having problems, after successfully installing, partitioning and
formatting a new HD. When I attempt to reinstall Windows 98SE from my CD I
get the message "KERNEL: unable to initialize heap".

Do you have a clue as to how I can solve this problem?

Sorry for the confusion.

I replaced a failed HD and am reinstalling the Windows 98SE software. I
have successfully partitioned and formatted the new HD and I began the
software installation process using the Windows 98 SE bootdisk, which came
with my computer. With the Windows 98SE CD in my drive, I entered "setup".
The installation appeared to procede as one would expect. Messages on the
screen indicated it was running some checks on the system, then the message
"KERNEL: unable to initialize heap". And, the installation stopped.

Hope this adequately explains the sequence of events.

Can you help?

Thanks,

Safety6

"Jeff Richards" wrote:

You have confused things somewhat by jumping into the middle of an existing
thread, but I will assume this is a new problem.

Why are you re-installing Windows? Are you quite sure that you have found
and fixed whatever problem prompted you to do the re-installation?

What (exactly) is the procedure you are going through to do the re-install,
and where (exactly) in this procedure does the error message appear?

How far back in the process did you start? For instance, did you remove the
disk partitioning and create new partitions, did you re-format the primary
partition, did you delete the previous Windows version, or are you just
re-installing over the top of the existing installation?
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Safety6" wrote in message
...
I am also having problems, after successfully installing, partitioning and
formatting a new HD. When I attempt to reinstall Windows 98SE from my CD I
get the message "KERNEL: unable to initialize heap".

Do you have a clue as to how I can solve this problem?

That's a very good description, but I can't offer any specific advice! I
would guess the error is occurring as the system tries to start Windows for
the first time, which might be the 'mini-windows' that is used for the
installation procedure. However, I can't see any standard error messages
that are similar.

The heap is an area of memory. It is initialized by reserving a memory
region of suitable size, but I don't know what sort of checks might be
carried out to prove the operation succeeded, or just what would cause it to
fail. How much memory is installed in this machine?

Why did the drive fail? Is it possible it took some other components with
it? Try some system diagnostics, such as
http://www.tufftest.com/tt01-lite.htm
or RAM diagnostic like
http://www.simmtester.com/PAGE/products/doc/docinfo.asp
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6270_11-5173257.html
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Safety6" wrote in message
...
Sorry for the confusion.

I replaced a failed HD and am reinstalling the Windows 98SE software. I
have successfully partitioned and formatted the new HD and I began the
software installation process using the Windows 98 SE bootdisk, which came
with my computer. With the Windows 98SE CD in my drive, I entered "setup".
The installation appeared to procede as one would expect. Messages on the
screen indicated it was running some checks on the system, then the
message
"KERNEL: unable to initialize heap". And, the installation stopped.

Hope this adequately explains the sequence of events.

Can you help?

Thanks,

Safety6

"Jeff Richards" wrote:

You have confused things somewhat by jumping into the middle of an
existing
thread, but I will assume this is a new problem.

Why are you re-installing Windows? Are you quite sure that you have
found
and fixed whatever problem prompted you to do the re-installation?

What (exactly) is the procedure you are going through to do the
re-install,
and where (exactly) in this procedure does the error message appear?

How far back in the process did you start? For instance, did you remove
the
disk partitioning and create new partitions, did you re-format the
primary
partition, did you delete the previous Windows version, or are you just
re-installing over the top of the existing installation?
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Safety6" wrote in message
...
I am also having problems, after successfully installing, partitioning
and
formatting a new HD. When I attempt to reinstall Windows 98SE from my
CD I
get the message "KERNEL: unable to initialize heap".

Do you have a clue as to how I can solve this problem?

I followed your suggestions and I was able to get a bit further then before
but still having problems. After copying win98 to c:\windows I ran the setup
as explained. It went through the setup process and at the first restart it
gave me the same invalid system disk error. Once the machine restarted, I
ejected the floppy from the a: drive and that's when I received the invalid
error. I put in the floppy and it began to boot followed by a series of
errors telling me that my "himen.sys" file is corrupt, etc.. I understood it
to say that all the system files associated with win98 were corrupt. About 15
files total. And that's as far as I can get. Any suggestions?

"Don Phillipson" wrote:

"Mathers" wrote in message
...

I am reinstalling 98se on my aunts computer. She acquired it from a friend
so
I have formated the drive to start fresh. Here's the deal. From a startup
disk, I ran FDISK and deleted all the old partitions. I created one new
partition that is 8Mb in size. I restart. Format the new c:. restart from
the
cd drive and install windows. It goes through the file coping process and
performs it's first restart and then it tells me invalid system disk
error.
I've tried a few things to fix this error but the only way around it is to
boot off the floppy and start the whole process over. I've done the
process
twice with the same result so now I'm wondering what I am doing wrong.
This

1. You are sure that your boot disk is OK?
You can download the correct one from www.bootdisk.com.
They vary for Win98 and 98SE and upgrade. You download
one EXE file and EXEcuting it writes the disk to a blank
in your floppy drive.
2. Try copying the whole of the CD's /Win98 folder to
the hard drive (which will speed up everything), then
reboot from the floppy and run X:\Win98\SETUP.EXE.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)