win 98

[mjack]

I have a question. I am wondering what is the best way to reformat win 98 computer. Dell computer. My cousin does not have his recovery cd or windows 98 cd. None of the cds that came with his computer. What is the best way to get his computer back up and running. He gets alot of errors while booting up. He also can't get on the Internet. Thinking he has a virus.
Also alot of drivers with a !.
He also wants to upgrade to xp. Can he do that and what about the drivers. Xp should recongize them right?

 

[Rockn]

If you want to reinstall Win98 you need a Windows 98 installation CD...PERIOD.

If you want to go to XP oyu need to make sure you have enough memory and hard drive space otherwise it will run like crap. Being that it had Win98 on it previously I would guess that it might not be up to running XP.

 

[flavallee]

To format the hard drive and start from scratch, a "full" version(not an "upgrade" version) Windows 98SE CD and a Windows 98 startup disk are needed. Then it's a matter of knowing how to format the hard drive and hoping that nothing goes wrong.

If the Device Manager is showing hardware with an exclamation mark next to it, there is a problem with the drivers and they need to be reinstalled(preferably with any updated drivers). Since he can't get on the Internet, downloading them is out of the question.

Since he no longer has any of the CD's that came with his computer, it tells me that he hasn't been very good at maintaining or taking care of his computer.

Trying to upgrade to Windows XP isn't a miracle cure and isn't going to solve the problem. Then there's the question as to whether that computer is compatible for the upgrade.

 

[Krelian]

I imagine you can buy windows 98 cheap somewhere, look around online.

 

[mjack]

yeah he is not good with maintaining it, thats why I suggested to him to restore his computer. Thanks to all..

 

[Krelian]

no prob

 

[flavallee]

If he's not going to maintain it, it'll just be a matter of time before problems rear their ugly heads again.