Win98 won't boot, replace with Win2000?

Do you want to replaced the main HD or add a new one? If you want to replace the main one, buy a Hard drive under 160 gigs. I cant remember but 98 can not deal with a bigger one, you will have to cut it up or Partition it. Partition it down to 20 gig each. Do you have your Org. win 98 install disk? Get a setup program with the HD you buy. That program should let you Partition it and also format it to use with 98 or fat32. Once installed in the computer set the HD to master with switches located on the drive (small jumpers) As it boots up look for press DEL to enter setup. Get into the BIOS program and ck to see it it will locate your new hard drive you might have to set heads and scetors so make a note of the stamped on the drive. Once the BIOS has found the drive it is a matter of format w/ copy the command comm program from win98 you will have to have a good win 98 set up disk. Once you have formated the drive with fat32 and copied commamd.com you will need to install CD/Rom drivers you might have to find a good old win98 starup disk to boot up the cd. you might find a good old floppy with a cd intall on it at a local computer shop. if using an old win98 startup disk you can then put in the cd and at the Prompt type in cd win98 then type in  setup and that should be a good start. 

you cannot usually switch installed operating systems from computer to computer like that and still expect windows to boot, but with windows 98 it *might* work.

to install windows 98 on the usb drive, insert and boot from the windows 98 disk like you were to install it on that computer , and then, it should, before it formats any drives, give you a choice of what drive to format.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. In XP, the utility that was known as scandisk in windows 98, ME, etc is known as chkdsk, and doesn't normally run on boot unless you have set it up to do so. If you're running scandisk from dos, don't. (See this forum.)
For instructions to run chkdsk, see here and here. (and see the article above for details on how to find and read the log)
If you have a restart or shutdown issue, please consult this article and links within it to troubleshoot the problem...Or see these links for MS articles that deal with boot sequences and problems.

I hope this information allows you to resolve this issue. If you need further assistance, please post back with a comment to this thread.
If I've managed to answer your question or solve a problem, please take just a moment to rate this post....thanks!

you may face either harddisk failure, a driver problem or virus infection:

tools: original win98-cd (or a bootable image

version of it), antivir-software on cd!

- please check whether it is possible to boot from win98-cd, with cd-rom support, not from harddisk.

(such option should be availabe after bios-load is over)

if not:

leave the setup process without fully installing
(press F3 button when asked for repair or install option)

in both cases :

type at the dos-prompt:

c:\win98/win

(command for changing to harddisk, windows-folder, booting windows from harddisk, but without loading all the drivers as usually)

win98 should come up in protected mode or give error messages.

- access cd-drive and execute vir-scan.
- delete and/or repair infected files
- turn down, attempt to reboot from hd
- if still impossible reboot from win98-cd,
run repair of installation and try once again
standard boot

problem solved? if not, take down error messages consult fixya again!

You probably have a version of windows 98 that was not bootable on CD. You would need to boot from a windows 98 floppy bootup disc, then go the the d:\win98 directory and run setup from there.

Change your bios setting to boot from cd. restart, choose start with cdrom support and follow the instruction

you should update your BIOS. http://support.necam.com/Drivers/index.cfm?M=547

for WIN98 you want version 28.... version 30 is for win2000

Insert your win98 cd into the drive and set the booting option to boot from cd, with this enable start the computer with cd-rom support.here you will see
A:/
then type
A:/fdisk and press enter
here you will enbale partition follow the on-screen instruction then
A:/ format c:
after this:
locate your cd using
D;/
D:/win98
D:/setup
if yu follow this you will be able to load win98 on your PC.
Good luck

If you know what the name of the generic vga driver that's missing, you can start the computer in MS-DOS mode (if I recall correctly, you can do that in win98), then edit the boot.ini and add it in. If not, you're out of luck and need the Windows 98 CD. Since you already own a license of Windows 98, it should be legal for you to download a copy (but I'm not a legal expert and this is not legal advice).

You need to use floppy disks (called boot disks) to boot DOS with cd-rom drivers, because the win98 cd isn't bootable by default.

I suggest you to go to http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm and grab the respective windows 98 boot disk.

You will need a functional computer to write the disk image into the floppy.

After that put the boot order in BIOS as floppy first.

Once you see DOS prompt A:\> just access your cd-rom drive like d: or e: and then type install

WaZZie