I formatted my computer and installed linux (mandrake 8.0), but my family wants windows back So, how can I install windows 98 from linux? I tried booting from the CD (didn't work, even though my computer can boot from CDs), and I don't know what else to do. Anyone have any ideas?

Make sure that your cdrom drive is actually set to boot before the hard drive in the BIOS. And of course your win98 disk is bootable

http://www.bootdisk.com

get a dos boot disk, and get the cdrom working (using MSCDEX I presume), and go from there. You'll need to actually remove the linux partition i presume, using dos fdisk, and make a new fat32 partition for windows. and install windows onto it. I found out to my cost that win98 overwrites the Master Boot Record on its drive.

Chris
xxxx

Most likely, it's your system BIOS that has the hard drive set ahead of the CDROM drive for the boot order.

When your system boots, there is usually (most systems, not all) a key you can hit to get into your BIOS settings. My system uses F1 during the memory count. You want to go in there and change the boot order so that it checks the CDROM before the hard drive.

Don't muck about in your BIOS settings it you don't know what you're doing, and almost all BIOS settings have to be saved before changes take effect, so if you're not sure you did something correctly, don't save the settings.

Best of luck.

I don't think my system has a key to press to get into my BIOS setup. It doesn't say anything like "Press <key> to enter setup", and I tried pressing Del, F1, Ctrl, and some other keys, but they didn't work. So am I basically S.O.L.?

90% of the time, it's easier to install windows first, and then linux. if you want a dual boot, then the best option in your case is probably to have windows set as the default boot, and then have a boot floppy for linux when you want to use it.

Yeah maybe, I am trying to install Windows while Linux is already installed. I checked compaq's website and got into the BIOS setup, the boot order is this: CD, floppy, hard drive.

acid kewpie, how can I get the bootdisk working? I can't execute the downloaded program, and i can't just run it from the floppy, so what am I supposed to do?

What version of windows is it?

Not all disks were bootable.

Get a boot floppy from someone who has windows 98.

If you have extended partitions of the linux file system you will need to remove the linux partitions from the hard drive first.

Use the linux setup disk and go to disk druid and remove all partitions and reboot with the windows boot floppy.


Create the partition with fdisk and reboot the win floppy with cdrom support. Install windows.

If you have a big enough drive you can make the c: drive big enough for windows, then after installing windows to c: install linux to the free space.

if you are using lilo to load linux, just type
lilo -u
and that will uninstall Mandrake, so then you wont have any operating system.
and i heard you say you have a compaq right? put in your quick restore disk (yes that red cd that came with your computer) and it will load windows back. Its going to take alot of time though. I think it took like 2 hours on my system.

Ok, looks like i cando one of two things:
1. Uninstall linux and use the quickrestore disk, or
2. Use a win98 boot floppy to boot with CD-ROM support and install windows.

I think i'll try the first one, since that would be faster than getting a boot disk from someone else.

dont forget to post the results of each procedure so we know what happens too .

Quick restore is cool











when it works

QuickRestore would be cool if it worked

I did the "lilo -u" and now i can only boot from a floppy (good thing i made a boot disk). When i don't use it it says "no operating system" or something like that. When i use the QR disc, it says "Please insert QuickRestore disc 1 into the CD/DVD drive." I do, but nothing happens, just keeps flashing that message.

lol.. this is why some ppl shun premade manufactured PCs. It it were me, I would boot off the Linux install disk and run linux fdisk to clear off ALL the partitions. Then I would boot off the Windows 98 disk to reinstall the OS, or your quick restore CD, which should be the easiest thing. I use Slackware install disk for that, and works like a charm every time. If your CD isn't booting, i dunno...
should be.

HTH

I dont see why your quick restore cd wont work... It might be scratched or something... That happened to me once and i called compaq and even though my computer was not under warranty they sent me a new one... They just need the serial number and the model number. I dont know its just a thought.