Win 98 installation problems

A

Az2

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 28, 2003
Messages
379
I have a Dell Inspiron 7000 notebook. (P2 366, 128MB RAM, 8GB HDD, etc..) (old) I got it for $50.
Anyway...
I currently have RedHat 9 installed on the system and it works just fine. (a little slow of course) I'm trying to install WIN 98SE since I don't know much about Linux. I put in the CD, run setup, and it says it has to repartition the drive (I know this, of course), but then it says "error on disk, cannot continue" (something like that anyway). So... I try just using FDISK to repartition the drive. I go through the first 1-2 options, I enter "create active DOS partition", and then nothing happens, I can't go back, and I must restart.

Can anyone help me figure out what to do?
 
My guess is that Linux used all the available space on the partition but fomatted it using ex3 which is something that win98 (or 2k or XP) doesn't understand. If you are going to use FDISK be sure to remove the parition first. I think that it's option 4 (delete partition), option 3 (maybe; remove non-dos partition); reboot; fdisk, create partitions, format, install win98.

For some reason, the experiences that I've had when trying to install an MS OS over Linux, it gets funky when dealing with an unknown file system.
 
Right now I'm using Disk Druid to repartition and re-install RH9. I'm deleting preexisting partitions and loading RH9 very lightly. I will then install 98SE. I'm just going to use this system for 3 months at university until black friday rolls around, then I'll get a new notebook.
 
If that doesn't work out for you (still get the freezing issues), you might grab a copy of Autoclave (on the UBCD) and run in for a few minutes. That'll knock out the parition table, file system, etc. You should then be able to partition and format to whatever you need.

I had to do this last time I switched from linux to XP.

Isn't black friday in 5 months??
 
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