We Don't Got Signal

[ralphmelton]

Partially installing Windows 98 may have been a bad idea.

We don't have a product key handy for the Windows 98 disk, so I shut off the computer at that point in the Windows 98 installation. I assumed that I could boot from the Windows 2000 disk and blow away the incomplete Windows 98 installation.

It turns out that the Windows 2000 disk I have does not seem to be a boot disk. So much for plan A.

I managed to boot up with the Norton SystemWorks rescue disk and exit to DOS. But that DOS was unable to read the Windows 2000 CD. So much for plan B.

I managed to dig out the rescue disks that came with our desktop system. Booting up with that said "This is only for use with a Gateway system." So much for plan C.

(I have so far rejected plans involving floppies, because I don't have a floppy drive for this laptop. Perhaps I should try to borrow one.)

I will report on plan D when I figure out what it is.

Comments

[cellio]

I'm pretty sure I have a (legitimately-acquired) Win98 disk with the relevant product key written on the disk in indelible ink (a trick learned from a sys-admin friend). If you want me to bring it tonight, let me know.

off-site backup?

[beegle.livejournal.com]

If you want to, uh, hold this off-site backup copy of a bootable CD for 2000 or XP for me (y'know, in case mine gets scratched... yeah, that's it), I'm sure we can arrange something.

If it's an older laptop, though, it might be happier with 98.

Re: off-site backup?

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think that's what I'm doing with the Windows 2000 CD I have.

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Plan D involved juggling a bootable Windows 2000 CD and a Win2K CD to which I had the product code, and appears to have worked.