HELP- Formatting HD, Reinstalling Win98

[cmp1223]

I have an old Gateway laptop: PentiumII, 64MB ram. I tried to play a DVD, it wouldn't play becasue of a Macrovision error. So i installed DirectX9.0c on it becasue i read that could have been the problem. After that, the DVD drive dissappeared. So, i deleted the drivers so i could then replace them. Well, i must have deleted something important because after that windows wouldn't start. I try to reinstall Win98 but it says that the file compression method is not compatable??? So i guess i have to reformat, right? I had nothing really important on that old thing anyway. Do i reformat from the BIOS (didn't see it though when i looked)? From a DOS prompt? How do i make it so i can then install Win98 again?

thanks
-chris

 

[CrispyFried]

You need either the win98 emergency disk, or download a boot disk from http://www.bootdisk.com/

Then boot with it and format your drive.

 

[DennyD]

You should be able to boot from the CD and just install 98 on top of itself...

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: DennyD
You should be able to boot from the CD and just install 98 on top of itself...

Installing Win98 "on top of itself" is no fix for anything and often cause just MORE problems. A fdisk - reformat of the hard drive and a brand new "fresh install" of the O/S is the only way to go IMHO !