Trying to fix my Windows 98SE laptop

[Drugwash]

Another idea would be to pop the hard drive out, take it over to a friend that has an external adapter or any other means of mounting it to another computer and have the data backed up by any available means (direct file copy, partition clone/imaging, etc).

It would also be good if you could take a snapshot of the error thrown by that particular application (Dr.Watson - a Windows tool that can be started by typing drwatson in Start > Run - could create a usable report) and/or a profiling report through Dependency Walker. These tools can offer a clue on what might be the cause of the error.

If that error appears in a whitish window with relatively large fonts, it's a GDI error and may be fixed by updating to the ME versions of gdi.exe/gdi32.dll (there's an unofficial pack around that does that, forgot its name).

Whatever you choose, always keep a backup of the old files when updating and remember any file can be restored in plain DOS mode, should anything bad occur.

[jaclaz]

OK,

this leaves us with 4.24 GB - 2.96 GB= 1,28 GB of data that needs to be saved.

It should be possible to compress this data in 512 Mb (the capacity of the stick).

There are two possible approaches:

1) try to save current data on the USB stick (better)

2) use ultimatebootcd to re-size you current partition, creating a new one where to copy the data (potentially more risky)

First thing we need to find out whether it is possible to boot from CDROM and access this USB stick from the laptop.

I am assuming the stick is formatted as FAT16 or FAT32 and has some files in it, and that you have either a CD-RW or a few CD's that will be used for tests.

1) download the USB18.ZIP floppy image for USB access from here:

http://johnson.tmfc.net/dos/usbdrv.html

2) uncompress it and use the resulting usb18.bin as "El-torito" floppy emulation image to make a bootable DOS CD with your burning software, instructions for Nero are here:

http://www.nero.com/enu/support-nero7-tutorials-data.html?

Any burning app have similar settings, if you cannot find them, post name of the app you have or use this one (Freeware):

http://cdburnerxp.se/

http://cdburnerxp.se/help/Data/bootdisc

3) Connect the 512 Mb stick, insert the CD and try booting from it

If everything goes as expected (you might need to try different choices when prompted until you find the one that works) you should be able to type

DIR C: [ENTER]

and see a list of the files on the laptop HD

and

DIR D: [ENTER]

(letter may be another one, while booting you should have seen which letter the USB drivers have assigned to the stick)

and see a list of the files on the stick.

Once you (hopefully ) got the above steps done and working, post and I'll give you further instructions.

jaclaz

[jerryw1976]

Am I making the boot CD from my XP laptop with the CD writer? If so, where do I get the win98 files to put on it? Sorry, this may be a dumb question, not sure?

[jaclaz]

Am I making the boot CD from my XP laptop with the CD writer? If so, where do I get the win98 files to put on it? Sorry, this may be a dumb question, not sure?

The boot files (not the Win98 ones - as you are not making a Win 98 boot CD at this step) are already inside the usb18.bin floppy disk image.

A floppy disk image is an image of a floppy, i.e. a byte-by-byte copy of it that can be used to create one of the three ways to make a bootCD, the "Floppy Emulation" one, which is also the most "compatible-with-all-and-expecially-oldish-BIOSes".

That particular floppy image has a number of USB drivers that, if you are lucky, will allow access to the USB stick.

jaclaz

[bassbeast1968]

Actually you don't need any backup software to do a "quick and dirty" backup of Win98, just a Linux live CD. As a PC repairman I have done this trick a bunch of times with old Win9X systems and never had a problem. First you launch regedit and export the registry to an easy to remember spot, like say C:/Backup. Then you boot from the Linux live cd(I prefer a small OS such as DSL or Puppy for old machines like this) and once booted you will find a drive mount button, usually on the desktop or file manager. Once the Windows 98 drive is mounted simply zip your C:/Windows folder. That way if anything goes wrong you can always reboot into the Linux live cd and restore the zip folder, followed by booting Win98 to MSDOS and restoring the reg file you backed up from command line.

Like I said this is "quick and dirty" but it works great for older machines like the laptop specified. And I agree with the Win98 service pack, as I have been using both the stable and beta and haven't had any troubles. And the USB generic driver really is a Godsend. I hope this helps!

[submix8c]

@jerryw1976 - follow jaclaz' instructions (pretty smart person). if possible, attempt to backup the whole HDD (including that recovery partition). otherwise, do each partition one at a time as you are instructed (step-by-step). the reason i say this is because it's possible that you can save the recovery partition on a cd (via XP machine) and expand the laptop bootable partition to the HDD full capacity (getting ahead of jaclaz' instructions...). the whole point of the instructions is to "failsafe" your upgrades in case something goes wrong. that way (providing you can boot to a cd-rom) you can construct some backup cd's that can restore your laptop for whatever your needs may be.

Just an FYI...