can anyone pls tell me how do you get into DOS mode from windows XP and windows ME? I've gotten viruses on 2 computers and now need to format the drives on both of them (because I cant remover the viruses with the antivirus I have) and install windows 98 Second Edition on both of them.
My second question is, does windows 98 SE allow you to plug and play internal modems? If not, does it allow you to plug and play those little USB drives?
If I understand you correctly, you want to start from scratch, format your hard drive and re-install Windows?
I believe you can boot to the Windows installation CD-ROM to do that. You'll have to enable the boot to CD-ROM feature in your BIOS first though.
Thanks you but I dont know what BIOS is so i'll have to go through DOS.
In any case I'll have to go through DOS because I need to format my hard drive.
Does anyone know how to get into DOS mode?(http://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/smileys/Other/5.gif)
If you boot to the installation CD-ROM you can format your hard drive from there.
BIOS is a menu system you can access that controls various functions of your computer. It is on every computer, even those with no hard drive. When your PC starts to boot, look for a little message that says something like "hit DEL to enter setup" or something. The message will be different depending on the maker of your motherboard, and sometimes there is no message.
Usually, you hit Delete, or F1 or something early in the boot process and you can access BIOS.
What you need to do is change the "boot sequence" so that it looks at your CD-ROM drive before it looks at your hard drive.
Honestly, I think going through DOS will be much more complicated in the long run. The installation CD-ROM will let you partition, format and install all at once without having to dick around with a command line interface.
NOTE: the whole BIOS thing may be unnecessary if your PC is already set up to boot to CD-ROM. Just try putting in the installation CD-ROM and rebooting your computer.
ok thanks I'll have to try that.
Would you be able to answer my other questions though? Can you plug and play internal modems or those little USB drives on windows 98 SE?
That one I'm a little less sure about. Here's my guess:
If it's a common type of internal modem, Windows may have the driver in its default set so it may work right out of the box. Otherwise, you may need to download the correct driver from the manufacturer.
As for the USB drive, I believe Windows 98 has USB support, but I think it may support USB 1.0 only, which means the drive may run a little more slowly than on a more recent OS. Take that with a grain of salt because I'm no Win 98 expert.
unfortunately this computer is 4th hand and has a password on the BIOS. Is there another way around it? Do you know if theres a way to get into the DOS?(http://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/smileys/Word_Commands/2.gif)
start > run> cmd> Format C: lol.
thanks but you cant do that while running windows
I think windows me you have to make a boot floppy? In any event xp's CD ROM is a bootable.
Anyway. use the bootdisks.
Maybe [a href="http://www.cyberwalker.net/faqs/how-tos/reinstall-faq.html"]this'll help[/a]?
I have no boot disk :(( how do you make one??
[font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"]Q. [span class="style7"]I just want to make a Windows 98/Me boot disk? How do I do it?[/span][font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"]
[/font][/b]A. Creating a Windows 98/Me boot disk is easy. If Windows 98 came factory-installed with your machine then one may have been supplied with your documentation. If not, you can create one through the Control Panel. Go to Add/Remove Programs and click the "StartUp Disk" tab and click the "Create Disk" button. It will create a boot disk on a blank floppy for you with CD-ROM support.
[/font][font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"]Q. [span class="style7"]I just want to make a Windows XP boot disk? How do I do it?[/span][font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"]
[/font][/b]A. On a Windows XP computer, put a blank disk in the floppy drive then double click the "My Computer" icon on the Windows desktop. Next click the floppy disk drive to select it. On the File menu, click Format and then in the box that appears check off "Create an MS-DOS startup disk", and then click the "Start" button on that box. Looking for an NTFS boot disk for NT or XP? [a href="http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm" target="_blank"]Try here[/a][/font]
thanks. A dialogue box comes up saying "the file 'blah blah' was not found," and goes on to name about every file you need to make a boot disk. I dont have the windows ME cd or any disks? Do you have any other suggestions?
Ok I was able to create a bootdisk at bootdisk.com
Unfortunately, every time I boot my system from a boot disk, when I try to access the CD drive (d:) it says its an invalid drive specification. I've tried this on two separate computers, with two different ways of creating a boot disk (with windows XP and with bootdisk.com [for a windows 98 SE bootdisk]).[img class=inlineimg title=Confused alt="" src="http://images.cybertechhelp.com/forumimages/smilies/confused.gif" border=0] So, im afraid to wipe my drives clean of windows ME and windows 98 SE respectively.
I checked out instructions at bootdisk.com to (the following is a link) "[A href="http://bootdisk.com/usb.htm" target=_blank]Make Your USB Hard And CDrom Drives Work In DOS[/A]" I can't make much sense of it, though I think they want you to edit config.sys and other files, and I'm not sure how to do that, and even if i did i wouldn't know where to put the edits they are talking about.
To be more specific on my problems, I am having problems with two computers. On the first computer, I have gotten a virus, or rather, viruses, trojans and worms. I'm able to remove all of them with my AVG free antivirus software, but for some strange reason, previously unknown and unheard-of programs continue to be detected by my zonealarm firewall as trying to access the internet. Specifically, these are mm1, mm2, mm3, mm4, mm5 and mm6. Additionally, several copies of Iexplorer are caught trying to access the internet, even though I hadn't started IE and no IE windows, minimized or otherwise, could be seen running. Each of these "Iexplorers" use up hundreds of Ks or at most about a thousand Ks of memory.
The second computer is fourth-hand, with a copy of norton-internet security on it. Although the internet security is no longer running, the computer must still be going through a proxy or the like, because I can't access yahoo mail and a few other websites, can't use any internet browsers but IE, and cant connect to P2P networks. The computer wont let me delete the norton internet security.
Any further help would be appreciated.[!-- / message --][!-- edit note --]
Okeydoke, try this at your own risk.
If you remove the battery from your motherboard (FOLLOWING ALL PROPER ESD PRECAUTIONS FIRST) it should wipe out the password on your BIOS.
If you don't feel comfortable working inside your computer case then don't mess with it.
Did you try just booting to the CD-ROM?
If you already answered this forgive me, I was too lazy to read all the previous posts....
Thanks.
I have three questions.
1) What other effects does removing the motherboard battery have
2) Where is the motherboard battery located
3)Whats esd
If there are any true propeller heads in the audience please correct me, but this is my understanding. Removing the motherboard battery will clear the temporary data stored in the CMOS chip. For instance, if a previous user had set the computer to boot to the hard drive before the floppy drive, it might default back to the factory setting of booting to the floppy drive first. The password will be wiped out.
If someone has updated the BIOS since purchase, I'm not sure whether those updates will be lost if the battery is removed. I don't think so, since BIOS updates are "firmware" updates, and firmware doesn't need power to store information.
ESD is electro-static discharge. If you walk around on carpet in sock feet and then reach into your computer and grab a RAM module you've probably just made a very expensive mistake.
When I'm working on my computer I:
1. Unplug it.
2. Open the case.
3. Touch a BARE METAL (unpainted) part of the computer case. This will equalize the charge between myself and my computer. ESD occurs when two objects have a different amount of charge and the electrons go flowing to equalize it.
4. Periodically touch bare metal just in case I've somehow gathered a charge moving around. They actually sell a little wrist strap that connects your skin to the case through a wire, so that you don't have to keep touching it, but if you touch metal every minute or so you'll be fine.
The location of your motherboard battery varies from board to board. You may have to do some research online to find out where it's supposed to be, assuming you can't find it with your eyeballs. It will probably look like a flat, circular battery held in place by a metal clip.
Please don't do anything I've talked about until a geek corrects me :)
tmapj wrote:
To be more specific on my problems, I am having problems with two computers. On the first computer, I have gotten a virus, or rather, virus[b style="font-style: italic;"]es[/b], trojans and worms. I'm able to remove all of them with my AVG free antivirus software,
Don't waste any more time. Backup your docs and format the drives down to the bare metal, then install WinXP, or better yet, install [a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/"]Unbuntu[/a].
Teh, thanks but I've got a little problem with getting my boot disk to get my CD-ROM drivers. Once I wipe my harddrive clean will my CDROM automatically work?
tmapj wrote:
Teh, thanks but I've got a little problem with getting my boot disk to get my CD-ROM drivers. Once I wipe my harddrive clean will my CDROM automatically work?
The two don't really have anything to do with one another, only of your CD needs to load a specific driver to work (most recent ones don't). You may need to go into your BIOS to set the CD drive so it's bootable (assuming your BIOS supports that).
TehBorken wrote:
The two don't really have anything to do with one another, only of your CD needs to load a specific driver to work (most recent ones don't). You may need to go into your BIOS to set the CD drive so it's bootable (assuming your BIOS supports that).
This is a really old computer. The CD is bootable, but DOS doesnt recognize it for some reason.
My understanding is that if your BIOS is set to boot to CD-ROM first, DOS is irrelevant. Your computer will look at whatever's in your CD-ROM drive and try to find boot files. Your Windows installation CD-ROM has these boot files, so even with a blank hard drive, you should be able to boot to CD-ROM in order to partition, format and install your OS.
Does that sound right Borken??
tenkani wrote:
My understanding is that if your BIOS is set to boot to CD-ROM first, DOS is irrelevant. Your computer will look at whatever's in your CD-ROM drive and try to find boot files. Your Windows installation CD-ROM has these boot files, so even with a blank hard drive, you should be able to boot to CD-ROM in order to partition, format and install your OS.
Does that sound right Borken??[/DIV]
Yeah, I've got it set up to boot first from CDROM then from harddrive, but I restart the computer with the windows 98 installation CD in the CDROM and it ignores it, and continues to load windows ME as normal.
tenkani wrote:
My understanding is that if your BIOS is set to boot to CD-ROM first, DOS is irrelevant.
Yep. If your system has a CDROM that can act as a boot device and the BIOS is set to try it first, then it doesn't matter what's on the hard drive.
tmapj wrote:
[em][/em]Yeah, I've got it set up to boot first from CDROM then from harddrive, but I restart the computer with the windows 98 installation CD in the CDROM and it ignores it, and continues to load windows ME as normal.
There's the problem: the WIn98 CD isn't a bootable CD. There's a 'BOOTDISK' dir on it somewhere that lets you make a set of boot disks, though.
TehBorken wrote:
tmapj wrote:
Yeah, I've got it set up to boot first from CDROM then from harddrive, but I restart the computer with the windows 98 installation CD in the CDROM and it ignores it, and continues to load windows ME as normal.
There's the problem: the WIn98 CD isn't a bootable CD. There's a 'BOOTDISK' dir on it somewhere that lets you make a set of boot disks, though.
still, DOS isnt recognizing my D:\ drive period when I boot with a boot floppy.
Hmmm, you know how you can get to a boot menu by pressing um...was it F8 during the boot process??
Isn't there an option for "command line with CD-ROM support" or something similar?
tenkani wrote:
Hmmm, you know how you can get to a boot menu by pressing um...was it F8 during the boot process??
Isn't there an option for "command line with CD-ROM support" or something similar?
Just tried that. It gives you that screen... "1)Safe mode 2) Logged mode 3) Normal mode 4) Step-by-step confirmation"
Brezzledrek!!
I haven't played with 98 in a long time. I guess the command line with CD-ROM support is only for the newer OSes. Either that, or I'm remembering incorrectly.
I seem to remember finding a generic boot disk online with generic CD-ROM drivers included. I know that's not very helpful...
tenkani wrote:
Brezzledrek!!
I haven't played with 98 in a long time. I guess the command line with CD-ROM support is only for the newer OSes. Either that, or I'm remembering incorrectly.
I seem to remember finding a generic boot disk online with generic CD-ROM drivers included. I know that's not very helpful...[/DIV]
Yes that would be very helpful. Do you happen to have that?
No I don't. Like I said, I haven't played with old OSes in a long time.
Try to google "Windows 98 generic boot disk" or something similar. Maybe "generic boot disk with CD-ROM support".
I don't know if 98 can make a DOS boot disk with CD-ROM drivers automatically. I think the recovery disks are something else completely.