Windows XP Home To Windows 98

[YayYay]

Its currently on a 80 gig drive with windows xp home on a NTFS partition and I want to go back to windows 98. How can this be done since windows 98 is on a fat32 partition. I know its probably has to be done by fdisking the drive then formatting it then install. I don't know the specifics though, like the commands for it. Can anyone help me out?

 

[mastertech01]

Been a long time since Ive installed Win98, but here is the best I can remember. Backup all your data you want to save and get out your Win98 boot disk. Boot to the boot disk and at the A: prompt type fdisk.. then select to view partitions, then delete partions.. delete ALL partions and logical drives untill it says there are no partions to view. Then create the Primary DOS partition, once the Primary partition is created you will have to reboot and once again booting to Win98 bootdisk, selecting with CDROM support. At the A: prompt type Format C: and it will format the drive for Win98. Have your Win98 CDROM in the CDROM. After Format is complete then at the A: prompt type setup and Win98 will begin installation. You will need your installation Key from the CD when it prompts for it. This is assuming you have a full version Win98 installation CD with Key.

 

[PalmettoTiger]

Only thing I would add is you may want to copy the Win98 CD to your hard disk and install from there. That way you won't have to dig out the CD every time you add hardware or change system settings.

Once "Format C:" has completed, switch to the C: drive and enter the following commands.
"mkdir win98cd"
"cd win98cd"
"mkdir win98"
"mkdir drivers"
"mkdir tools"
"copy D:\*.* C:\win98cd\*.*" (assuming your CD-ROM is drive D. If not substitute the right letter.)
"copy D:\win98\*.* C:\win98cd\win98\*.*"
"copy D:\drivers\*.* C:\win98cd\drivers\*.*"
"copy D:\tools\*.* C:\win98cd\tools\*.*"

That should copy over all of the necessary files. Be SURE to start the installer from your C: drive, not your CD-ROM drive. Might want to eject the disc from the drive just to be safe.

 

[YayYay]

Thanks for all the help guys. Theres no problem with formatting a 80 gig drive into fat32 from ntfs?

 

[PalmettoTiger]

No. Going from any file system to any other is easy if you DON'T want to preserve the data.

Think of file systems as shelves in a warehouse. You can take out one shelving system and put another in with no problem, as long as you're not trying to keep track of everything on the shelves.