thought about it for a little bit, and all of our problems seem to go back to that requirement for the windows cd key.... something you're not conveying or my not seeing is still going on.
Given that the CD you seem to be using is an OEM disk, and given the problem we are now seeing, I do not think that we are going to recover that windows installation.
That DOES NOT mean your data is gone. It will all still be there, but we are going to have to do a new installation of windows and your programs and then recover your data.
This is what I would do in your case.
Reboot to DOS again
At the c: prompt type the following
rename c:\windows c:\bakwin
rename c:\progra~1 c:\bakpf
Reboot with Windows 98 cd and install windows.
You will get a totally fresh install with no functioning programs and no updates. Reinstall your programs and hit windows update.
Your MY DOCUMENTS should be intact, unless you had a multi profile system, but the data will still be there
If you did not have a multi-user system, most of your data will be here:
c:\bakwin\desktop
c:\bakwin\favorites
c:\my documents
What email program did you use...I will walk you through restoring that.
ok here's the deal... i did what you told me to do in combination with the "remove windows 95/98 from a hard drive without reformatting" thingy posted by admin...
so here's what happened...
renamed c:\prora~1 to bakpf
then deleted the files that were to be deleted in admin's post....
renamed c:\windows to bakwin
but when i proceed with setup.... it just tells me that i already have a system in my pc and i'll have to acquire a "windows 98 upgrade" to proceed with setup...
did i do sumthing wrong? should i have followed your instructions strictly i.e. not doing the stuff posted by admin (deleting stuff)?
what shall i do from this point?