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Did clean install and things did not go smoothly?
Recently I did a clean install of window 98 SE on my laptop. During
the end of the installing it, it asked for me to find and install a group of files for what I think was for the different hardware in the laptop. I.E. modem, infrared port, sound card and etcetera. And I only have 16 colors and can't make my screen larger in area so the adaptor is wrong for the laptop's screen. When I tried the path it gave or one I thought it should be it said it could not find the files. I just hit skip a bunch of times in frustration. I can boot but in device manager I have a number of yellow explanation marks after things. First off if I was booting with the Installation CD would that have been C drive and not the typical D drive and that may have been why it could not find the files it was asking for? And should the path have been the drive letter C and everything should have been found in the win98 folder there? Now when I go and try to update or install a new driver it just says that the best driver is already installed. And if I go to install and guess at another driver it says something like this driver is not recommended using it may be wrong. How can I find out what companies equipment and the model number is used in the laptop so I can go to the web and find the drivers I need. And could the win98 install CD have them already on it. And what path name would it be on D at the CD-ROM? When booting during installation from the CD is the CD always being booted from even after the restarts that take place during installation of 98 and would that make it the first drive in line so it is actually C and not D? Is there a Ram disk created at boot up with the CD that pushes all the drive letter down the line one? And the Ram disk is C? I have read here at the groups that a lot of people copy part or all of the CD to the hard drive in order to have it handy for installing new or reinstalling old files needed by the system. Since I have a booting hard drive at present what folder exactly should I copy to the hard drive and should they be copied to a folder or the top level of C? And then in the future if I am asked to insert the windows 98 installer CD is there just one path name I need to remember to use the copied folders from the CD on the C drive. Assuming I copy the stuff to the Top level of C. is it the win98 folder that is the only thing needed to be copied? So C:\win98 should always find the files it is asking for. Is windows smart enough to find drivers etcetera there or do I have to dig deeper in the path to some files? Is windows smart enough to know that the files are already copied to the C drive and just go get them in order to copy them to where they are needed within the system files? If I reinstall windows 98SE can it do it with what I copy to the hard drive? How would I start that? And is that ok or should I try a clean install running FDISK and Format first? During a reinstall over an existing OS is only the things missing or in the wrong place (deleted) copied new? Or is all the files recopied and is a bit of fragmenting happening which would slow things down a bit? |
#2
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Did clean install and things did not go smoothly?
"DJW" wrote in message
... Recently I did a clean install of window 98 SE on my laptop. . . . When I tried the path it gave or one I thought it should be it said it could not find the files. I just hit skip a bunch of times in frustration. I can boot but in device manager I have a number of yellow explanation marks after things. First off if I was booting with the Installation CD would that have been C drive and not the typical D drive and that may have been why it could not find the files it was asking for? And should the path have been the drive letter C and everything should have been found in the win98 folder there? If you boot from the installation CD it is (probably) drive D. It is never drive C: (assuming you have a hard drive and BIOS recognizes it OK.) Your Registry records full filepaths for installed drivers and other software. These Registry items can be edited and corrected. How can I find out what companies equipment and the model number is used in the laptop so I can go to the web and find the drivers I need. And could the win98 install CD have them already on it. And what path name would it be on D at the CD-ROM? 1. From the laptop manual or manufacturer's web site 2. Laptop installation CDs are usually customized because laptops have custom hardware (e.g. for video display). Some laptop installation CDs are OEM type, others are "restore" CDs to rewrite onto the hard drive whatever OS and software is preinstalled at the factory. 3. We cannot tell you the filepath to an unidentified driver. You need to identify (a) the device (hardware), (b) the driver (software) peculiar to this device. If you lack a manual Belarc diagnostics may identify 3(a) (www.belarc.com) and the manufacturer's web site should have 3(b) for free download. When booting during installation from the CD is the CD always being booted from even after the restarts that take place during installation of 98 and would that make it the first drive in line so it is actually C and not D? BIOS settings determine whether you boot from the hard drive or CD or floppy. After switching on, the first screen of text ought to tell you which key takes you to BIOS menu. In a normal Win98 PC the CD can never be drive C (and nor can the RAM drive if any.) If your instal routine uses a RAM drive commands in its AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS load the RAM drive software, i.e. the commands can be read in these two files. If I reinstall windows 98SE can it do it with what I copy to the hard drive? How would I start that? We cannot answer this because we do not know what type of system CD you have -- see #2 above. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) |
#3
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Did clean install and things did not go smoothly?
DJW wrote:
Recently I did a clean install of window 98 SE on my laptop. During the end of the installing it, it asked for me to find and install a group of files for what I think was for the different hardware in the laptop. I.E. modem, infrared port, sound card and etcetera. And I only have 16 colors and can't make my screen larger in area so the adaptor is wrong for the laptop's screen. From that, I assume you used a standard W98 CD (hopefully SE), as the manufacturer's own one would have had the necessary drivers (and _usually_ would have loaded them with minimal intervention from you - possibly you'd have to select from a limited list a few times). I'll assume this for the rest of this post. When I tried the path it gave or one I thought it should be it said it could not find the files. I just hit skip a bunch of times in If by a clean install you mean to a blank hard disk, then the necessary files would indeed probably not be there. frustration. I can boot but in device manager I have a number of yellow explanation marks after things. To be expected - things it found as new devices, but didn't have drivers for. (see later.) First off if I was booting with the Installation CD would that have been C drive and not the typical D drive and that may have been why it could not find the files it was asking for? And should the path have been the drive letter C and everything should have been found in the win98 folder there? Now when I go and try to update or install a new As Don says, provided you have a hard drive and your BIOS recognises it, and the fact that you succeeded at all means this is so, then the CD would have been D (or E if you used a boot floppy that installed a RAM drive). driver it just says that the best driver is already installed. And if Yes, it tends to do that. Sometimes you have to mess around quite hard to tell it otherwise - removing the device it thinks it has is a start; usually, these days, the manufacturer's drivers that you will get from their website are actually an executable which will look after everything for you. I go to install and guess at another driver it says something like this driver is not recommended using it may be wrong. How can I find out what companies equipment and the model number is used in the laptop so I can go to the web and find the drivers I need. And could Laptops tend to use fairly customised hardwa I certainly wouldn't try to get the drivers from the individual hardware manufacturers. The laptop manufacturer's website will probably have all the drivers you need, though you might have to work quite hard to get all of them, especially for '98. (You'll need: graphics, sound, network if there is one, possibly motherboard if there is anything unusual about it, USB ports, ... if you're lucky, one or a few drivers will cover several or all of these.) the win98 install CD have them already on it. And what path name would Unlikely. it be on D at the CD-ROM? I _think_ all the drivers the W98 CD has on it are in the CAB files in \WIN98, but if it's asking you for drivers, then it's already looked in those. [] the Ram disk is C? I have read here at the groups that a lot of people copy part or all of the CD to the hard drive in order to have it handy for installing new or reinstalling old files needed by the system. Very good idea. (You only need the files in \WIN98 on the CD, and not even the subdirectories of that, just the files.) Since I have a booting hard drive at present what folder exactly should I copy to the hard drive and should they be copied to a folder or the top level of C? And then in the future if I am asked to insert The folder usually recommended to copy the files to is C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS, though no-one has ever been willing to explain to me why that particular structure. [] always find the files it is asking for. Is windows smart enough to find drivers etcetera there or do I have to dig deeper in the path to some files? Is windows smart enough to know that the files are already copied to the C drive and just go get them in order to copy them to where they are needed within the system files? In my experience, Windows is extremely thick when it comes to remembering where things are. I frequently have to - when installing something new - keep pointing it back at c:\W\O\C above, then back at the installation directory of whatever I'm installing, then back, then back ... and yes, I do know the trick (registry hack) for telling it where the W98 install "CD" is. It still forgets. And, the procedure for getting it to carry on after you've told it where the files are isn't exactly intuitive - it's something like when it says it can't find a particular file, you show it where it is (in a Windows 3.1 browse window; at least it shows what file[s] it is looking for, and you can tell when you've got to the right place because it finds them), then have to press OK on the "can't find" window, something like that. You get used to it and it becomes a matter of routine, but it is tedious, and frightening to the inexperienced who are watching. If I reinstall windows 98SE can it do it with what I copy to the hard drive? How would I start that? And is that ok or should I try a clean install running FDISK and Format first? During a reinstall over an existing OS is only the things missing or in the wrong place (deleted) copied new? Or is all the files recopied and is a bit of fragmenting happening which would slow things down a bit? Rather a lot of questions in one go. If you've not done much and it was a clean system before, then yes, go ahead and (make a boot floppy first if you haven't got one! And I'm assuming your laptop has both a built-in floppy and CD drive; we can get round it if not but it's a _bit_ more tedious) boot from the floppy and FDISK and format, then copy the files from the CD (using MD to Make Directories and CD to change to them), then put the CD away and run setup from the directory on the hard disc. (Personally I'd get 98lite and install using that, using the sleek shell for which you'd need a W95 CD or three files from a 95 system, but that's just my preference). To answer your later question, reinstalling over an existing system doesn't usually delete any actual files other than ones that are part of the install, but of course it will delete (or at least substantially rewrite) the registry and other system files, such that anything you had (all but the simplest software, anyway) that worked before probably won't work straight away afterwards. -- J. P. Gilliver | Tel. +44 1634 203298 Essex home for sale, £59,950: see http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/home/ |
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