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How do I reinstall Win98se?


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#1
jjfw42

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I recently acquired a 98se laptop, onto which I installed some music editing software, and an external sound card (Sound Blaster Connect).
All was well until a problem occurred with WaveLab lite which necessitated uninstallation. Upon reboot I received an error message telling me to reinstall windows. I can't get past that error message.

I'm going to give up on the music editing software, it always was troublesome, but I'd quite like to keep the laptop running for word processing etc. So.....how do I reinstall windows, I have the operating system disc - what next?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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#2
rshaffer61

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how do I reinstall windows, I have the operating system disc - what next?

What operating disks is this?

What is the make and model of the laptop?
Are these floppy disks or cdroms?
If cdrom is it only the OS installation disk or is there also a drivers and software disk?
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#3
jjfw42

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Thanks for taking an interest.

The disc is a windows 98se cd rom.
The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite 2060.
There were no floppy discs with the laptop.

Is there a way forward with this?
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#4
rshaffer61

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OK yes you can do a format and fresh install of the OS.
Before doing that is there any data you need to save?
We can use a Linux Live CD to get access to it if the hd is mechanically working ok which it sounds like it is.
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#5
jjfw42

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Very many thanks for getting back to me.

No, nothing. This was a laptop previously owned by a friend of my father, she upgraded, and he was going to hand it into a charity shop for her but never got round to it. I had installed a number of programmes for music editing, but encountered a problem with one of them that had happened when it was loaded on my previous XP machine. An uninstall and reinstall corrected it then, but for some reason when I tried to uninstall it from this 98se laptop I received the error message that I mentioned in an earlier post which prompted the Windows reinstallation.
...so I can happily reinstall without fear of losing anything.

The only thing that bothers me slightly is the availability of drivers for the various laptop components....or won't that be an issue?
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#6
rshaffer61

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Now are you wanting a fresh install or do you want to save the data you have.
This is important because if you want to save data I need to add a extra step in here.
If you don't need anything then yes formatting will take it back to factory new state.
We need to make sure you have drivers first though. In order to do that I need the make and model of the laptop so I can find all the original drivers for you.
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#7
jjfw42

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Hello there!

I can safely say there was nothing on it that I'd want to save, so a factory fresh install would be fine.

The details of the machine are:
Toshiba Satellite 2060 CDS/4.3
Model No. PAS206E-A
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#8
rshaffer61

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I'm not sure but it is worth a try. Lets see if there is a recovery partition on your hard drive.



To access the recovery partition do the following...

Power off the laptop.
Hold down the 0 (zero) key and turn the laptop on. Keep holding down the zero key until the TOSHIBA logo appears.
Start tapping the zero key repeatedly at this point.
Stop if the unit beeps or when the TOSHIBA logo disappears.
The screen should flash HDD RECOVERY MODE for a second and then it will load the Toshiba recovery program right from the hard drive.
Note that this erases all data, and reloads all factory default software.
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#9
jjfw42

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I tried the trick with the 0 button, but the machine just continued to (try to)load windows and beeped at me repeatedly.
Is there any other way?
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#10
rshaffer61

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There may not be a Recovery partition then. It's possible the previous owner may have formatted the system at one time and actually deleted the Recovery partition.
At this point what you need to do is enter the BIOS or Setup area and make sure the boot sequence is set so that the cdrom is the first boot device.
After that you can follow this tutorial HERE on GTG and it will walk you through the installation process for Win98.


Let me know if you need to know how to change the boot sequence.
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#11
jjfw42

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I've seen it done once, but I couldn't remember for the life of me how to reach the screen, so your assistance would be greatly appreciated!
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#12
rshaffer61

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To change Boot Sequence in your BIOS

Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the DEL button
This will enter you into the Bios\Cmos area.
Find the Advanced area and click Enter
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter
Now highlight the first drive and follow the directions on the bottom of the screen on how to modify it and change it to CDrom.
Change the second drive to the C or Main Drive
Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit. Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings.

Hopefully you have already put the 98SE cd in the drive before all this. If everything is setup correctly you will get a black screen with the following message in the upper left corner:

"Push Any Key To Boot To Cd". When you see this then push any key and the cd will take over. Then follow the prompts or if you need assistance we will help.
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#13
jjfw42

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Unfortunately, that didn't work. The computer just beeped and tried to load normally, culminating in the error message that I had before.

I must admit, I'm not entirely sure what the 'first post screen' looks like. This particular machine boots up thus:

1. Toshiba logo
2. Windows 98 screen
3. AVG scan, with the option to 'esc'
4. Windows 98 screen again
5. black screen
6. error message: 'a required .DLL file, C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSVCRT.DLL was not found' with the option 'ok', which when pressed delivers the message 'error loading explorer.exe you must install windows'

I tried pressing Del at each of these screens in turn and recieved either a beep or nothing whatsoever, the sequence simply loaded the next screen.
I did notice two keys with Del written on them. The delete key itself, and the '> .' key has 'Del .' in grey on its leading edge. I tried both keys on seperate occasions to no avail.

Is there another way of entering the Bios/Cmos area? Am I carrying out the instructions correctly?
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#14
rshaffer61

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Straight from Toshiba on your model:

Boot the system up and hold down the‘Esc’ key, then press F1 when you get the check system message. You are then in the BIOS Setup and you can make your changes and save and exit by pressing the ‘End’ key.


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#15
jjfw42

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Very many thanks! I followed your instructions and managed to reload windows, however, it maintained all previous settings and programmes, which means that the cause of the original problem is still extant: Clean 5, a music editing suite cannot be uninstalled. Neither can I reinstall it, either way I receive an error message declaring 'could not open INSTALL.LOG FILE'. It is crucial that I uninstall this programme in order to carry out a repair reinstallation of it's sister programme WaveLab lite.

Is there a way of uninstalling other than via the control panel add/remove programmes, or the dedicated unistall via the programme itself?
Will I have to reformat the hard drive, and reinstall from scratch?
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