[Caffeine_Powered]

Many people get confused by this -- a win98 boot floppy will fix the master boot record on a windows xp or 2000 machine

the master boot record is OS independent--it has one job and one job only...when the hardware completes its initial hardware scan, it passes control of the machine to the MBR...the MBR then passes control of the machine to the bootsector record (not the same as MBR)

After that is when the various Operating Systems do their magic, but before that were simply talking a little machine code

o alright now i understand
your not installing win98 on the computer your using the win98 MBR to boot up win xp

i didn't know they were universal-

i got alot of computers in my house lol so i'm tryin to collect knowledge bit by bit

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alrite so put the win98 thing on a disk and just load it

will this prompt it to boot into win 98 or just regualarly and will any data be lost

and one last thing

does it have to be a floppy can it be a cd?

[Caffeine_Powered]

alrite so put the win98 thing on a disk and just load it

will this prompt it to boot into win 98 or just regualarly and will any data be lost

and one last thing

does it have to be a floppy can it be a cd?

[wannabe1]

Refer to post #12

Yes, this must be a floppy that is made into a bootable diskette as described in Post #12.

We're not going into Windows of any version and there will be no data loss. Just follow the instructions given you in Post #12.

wannabe1

[Caffeine_Powered]

Refer to post #12

Yes, this must be a floppy that is made into a bootable diskette as described in Post #12.

We're not going into Windows of any version and there will be no data loss. Just follow the instructions given you in Post #12.

wannabe1

one more question before i attempt this

the computer thats broken computer is the last one thats online and has a floppy disk drive i was wondering would it be possible for me to burn the win98 on to a cd then go to my brothers work computer (off line) and transfer it to floppy or would it alter the program

fortunatley his work computer's home so if i have to it would take 5 minutes

if not i could hopefully hook his computer up online dl the program and save it

thanks so far you guys have been great help

[wannabe1]

That would work just fine. Remember to pyt the floppy in the drive AFTER you double click the file when you go to make the Startup Disk.

[Caffeine_Powered]

i'm copying it on a disk as i type

will give updates when they're avalible

hopefully all goes well


it would be cool if this worked for my old comp which has a similar problem

(i didn't mind so much with that on cause its 10 years old and runs on win98)

plus i had my new one by that time, but couldn't let go of such a reliable (slow) computer

lol has a 2 gig hard drive and has 16MB RAM (may be a little more cause its a different hard drive)

[Caffeine_Powered]

problem

so i did all this and typed the thing in prompt

at first i thought i did something wrong because nothing happened, it loaded for a second then another prompt appeared below it

but i remembered that thats how MS-Dos is sometimes

so i turned it off and turned it on

it got to the screen where it would either boot or bring up an error, and it sat there for a minute and i'm looking at the screen

then it pops up saying
"Error loading operating system"

ahhhhhhhhhh

[wannabe1]

Did you take the floppy out of the drive? Although, it should have booted back to options with the floppy in. You don't have the cd, but do you know someone who might have a retail cd of the same version XP? It would sure be nice to have access to some of the procedures on the cd.

[Caffeine_Powered]

i'm asking around with ppl i know at the moment looking for a copy

i may have one i may not i have to see

i suppose it would be a bit illegal to have it on the interenet
i don't know if Windows XP came with anyboy's computer
hm

any other way you know i of ?

Edited by Caffiene_Powered, 10 March 2006 - 10:24 PM.

[Caffeine_Powered]

if nobody has it and ther'e no other other way i'll see if i can go to the store tomorrow and get it at a discout (clearance sale)

[Caffeine_Powered]

wow to my complete and total surprise
i actually found somebody with an XP home edition disk

its still sealed and everything, when they bought this laptop , they bought windows xp so surprised

anywho i can use it and i'm ready
only thing is its distributed by dell does that make a difference
alrite

if you don't respond tonite (on the east coast) then i'll check back tomorrow

[Mikail]

[font=Tahoma]
Hi Caffeine.... Im interestted with your PC problem...i might be of some assistance...

Are you planning to reinstall your O.S. using that CD you bought...sounds like a stupid question hehehehe but i need to be sure...

Regarding the CD (i.e. distributed by DELL) well it will work with your HP unit however in legallity it should not be installed on units not carrying the DELL sign or brand.

If you are considering to use it tell me...

[wannabe1]

Well, let's hope the Dell disk will let us do a few things anyway. I believe it will be too proprietory to do an install or repair, but we may be able to use Recovery Console.

Boot with the cd in the drive and tell me what comes up on the first screen (Press any key to boot from cd prompt at the bottom of the screen). If it tries to run a restore or recovery operation, cancel out.

wannabe1

[Caffeine_Powered]

said press any key to boot from cd.......

[wannabe1]

Did you press a key and boot? I't the screen you get after doing that I'm interested in. What we want to see is a blue screen that has "Welcome to Setup" on it...and the options to "set up Windows" or to "Repair Windows". Do you get the screen I just described?