[ThunderCracker]

I have a dead windows 98 machine running on a fat32 hard drive how do I go about reinstalling windows it only boots Dos

[Megabite]

What are you wanting to put on the old hard drive...what operating System?

[NozzaC]

If it's dead then how are you going to reinstall anything at all?

[ThunderCracker]

Originally Posted by Megabite

What are you wanting to put on the old hard drive...what operating System?

It does not matter XP or Linux

[DoubleHelix]

Describe "dead"?

[Squashman]

Originally Posted by ThunderCracker

It does not matter XP or Linux

As long as the computer is capable from booting from the CD/DVD drive you can pretty much install any OS on it. Windows or Linux. Just stick the install disc in the drive, reboot the computer, check the bios to make sure the CD drive is the first boot device and it should start the Installer on the disc.

[flavallee]

TC:

What's the specs of that computer?

Brand name, model name, model number

Processor type and speed

Amount of RAM

Size of hard drive

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Originally Posted by ThunderCracker

I have a dead windows 98 machine running on a fat32 hard drive how do I go about reinstalling windows it only boots Dos

My thoughts too. What do you mean by "dead"? Does that computer actually work?

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[ThunderCracker]

Originally Posted by flavallee

TC:

What's the specs of that computer?

Brand name, model name, model number

Processor type and speed

Amount of RAM

Size of hard drive

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My thoughts too. What do you mean by "dead"? Does that computer actually work?

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The Computer boots in Dos and trys to start windows when it does it reads a error in the configuration system and displays C:/ATAPI/ATAPI.CD/ATAPI.SYS

[ThunderCracker]

Originally Posted by Squashman

As long as the computer is capable from booting from the CD/DVD drive you can pretty much install any OS on it. Windows or Linux. Just stick the install disc in the drive, reboot the computer, check the bios to make sure the CD drive is the first boot device and it should start the Installer on the disc.

How would I go about burning the disk so that it installs on boot

[Officer Dibble]

What disk do you need to burn? Do you have an original Windows disk?

[flavallee]

TC:

If you can advise us what the specs are of that computer, we can advise you if it'll support and run XP properly.

An actually XP CD does all the work. The computer boots from it, then you use it to format the hard drive and install XP.

Here is a pictorial guide on how to install XP Home.

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[WaveRunner]

ThunderCracker:
I experienced similar problems with a dual boot situation involving XP. While others are concentrating on the "specs of the laptop", which can be applicable' I would just take note of error message and continue to load XP. Then when loaded go to Device Manager by right clicking My Computer then left click Manage. On the left side you will find Device Manager listed. Open it and find your CDROM and remove it. Then get out of this window and go to Control panel and Admin Tools. Find "add hardware" and let Windows find the CDROM. Follow the "pop ups" to install correct driver for your CDROM. Windows "should have it"!? BUT...(now we are back to specs)...some computer manufactures are limited in the support they get on their CDROMS from Microsoft. If Windows does not find it then you will have to go back to Device Manager and find the manufacturer and get on line to get the driver...provided it is less than 1.44mb or unless you have an operable USB or you can get on the internet with laptop. I have installed W XP on Pent ll with 128 mb RAM and it works fine for expirementing...when you load apps it runs SLOW. I am going to post this reply and then continue with some tricks and info on XP.

[WaveRunner]

Ok...back! I skipped a step above. After Removing Hardware (above) then click on Install New Hardware and THEN W XP looks for the hardware and driver...proceed per above.
AND as for the computer message you get (mentioned above)...ATAPI is a generic driver for CDROMs that is loaded into RAMdrive memory (virtual memory in RAM) during the boot-up phase. When XP comes to the reboot message and you reboot either manually or by default with the timer during the INSTALL Phase... ATAPI is gone from RAM. This process is necessary to transfer control of the computer and commands to the hardrive. Initially control is between the RAMdrive and CDROM...then after the reboot phase of installation control is transfered to hardrive and CDROM. In your case ATAPI is gone and XP can't find a driver for the CDROM. So XP is suppose to look at its drivers files and install to the hard drive. This is why posters were asking for the "specs" (mentioned in above posts)...some manufactures not supported. Also RAM may be too small...work around this by changing order of devices in BIOS by putting CDROM first or second and hardrive last. So some tricks on XP...
I went to BlackVipers site mentioned above for XP install. A good site. But it failed to mention a few things. Window Operating systems are "picky". They dominate the master boot record and always go to the first primary partition on the hardrive. XP will install on either FAT32 or NTFS. NTFS can access FAT32 but not the other way around so stay with FAT32 for now. Also during Install of XP you can use the ESC key to back up a level when deciding which partiton to install on...OR if you can't find the partition you want. Microsoft fails to notify us of that ( but maybe in the manual?). You should do a clean install on a recently formatted harddrive. If you have access to boot disks for other Windows (MSDOS) you can use it to Scandisk or Chkdsk. This will check for errors. You can use the fdisk to check staus of hardrive and partitions by using the fdsk command in old MSDOS bootdisks. You can even partition hardrive with it and format in only FAT32. Best wishes and good luck! -WR

[ThunderCracker]

Originally Posted by WaveRunner

ThunderCracker:
I experienced similar problems with a dual boot situation involving XP. While others are concentrating on the "specs of the laptop", which can be applicable' I would just take note of error message and continue to load XP. Then when loaded go to Device Manager by right clicking My Computer then left click Manage. On the left side you will find Device Manager listed. Open it and find your CDROM and remove it. Then get out of this window and go to Control panel and Admin Tools. Find "add hardware" and let Windows find the CDROM. Follow the "pop ups" to install correct driver for your CDROM. Windows "should have it"!? BUT...(now we are back to specs)...some computer manufactures are limited in the support they get on their CDROMS from Microsoft. If Windows does not find it then you will have to go back to Device Manager and find the manufacturer and get on line to get the driver...provided it is less than 1.44mb or unless you have an operable USB or you can get on the internet with laptop. I have installed W XP on Pent ll with 128 mb RAM and it works fine for expirementing...when you load apps it runs SLOW. I am going to post this reply and then continue with some tricks and info on XP.

It does not load the windows does not boot I have to boot from dos

[WaveRunner]

First apologies for not reading and understanding entire problem. Next, I tried ot re-edit some of my comments but can't seem to do this? So I wanted to say I was wrong on ATAPI statement above. ATAPI is a protocol encoder/decoder allowing devices that have SCSI connedtions to talk back and forth in a "standardized" computer language. Check Wikipedia? Nest lets get your problem solved...

First you will need the Startup disk for Win 98 that should have come with your 98 OS and computer. If you don't have one get one at www.bootdisk.com . I would get the Custom not the OEM version. ? Put on 3.5 " floppy. We really only need a few commands anyway. Put into computer and and TURN on so it boots from A drive. You will then need to choose option #1 Start with CDROM support. Then the screen willl show a few things happening and the last entry will be MSCDEX.exe and this is the generic driveer for your CDROM. Next put a DVD or W98 install disk into CDROM and type at A prompt the following... "dir D:" without the apostrophes (" "). If you used your own start up disk for drive A and RAMDRIVE was installed it will push the CDROM drive letter back one to say ..."drive E" ?

You should geet a list of directories on the movie DVD or a list of about 3 directories on the W98 install disk and about 6-8 files...can't remember. If the above happens it is not a hardware issue and the computer is usable. Become familiar with the "fdisk command" form this foreum or others. Alsoyou cna format the C drive with the startup disk using the format command and if you need help I can help later... or you can post a ne thread or search archives for other threads. Check out www.radified .com for info on WinXP. I would use FAT 32 for old laptops because it is faster. Also partion had drive for WXP into a prtition under 7900 MB because it will use even a smaller cluster size for storage for XP files saving you space. Make the rest of hard drive an extended partition with a drrive letter assign. Alsway keep your OS associated with drive C.

Should you fix computer let us and others know. If you don't hear from me by June 1st (work is starting up for me) then report this thread to monitor and have him or you change both the title and put this thread so the expets can see it. Best wishes --WR PS: Window has their Hardware Compliance Library so you can check out issues with OS's and laptop issues. I would go with WXP and get Live CD's of Linux Gloria and Ubuntu 9.10 . Live CD's allow you to work from CDROM drive rather than install. You can test if you like without the hassles of installing.