Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (
More info?)
The full answer to your question is complex. However, the 1st thing I'd
look for is a folder called "Win98" or "Win9x" that has a lot of files
in it with a ".CAB" extension. If you have that folder, it's almost as
good as a CD. I am also assuming that your "COA" has a valid product
key on it.
On a desktop, you can create a bootable CD. There are some different
ways to do this, but most likely you will take the most easy and
straightforward approach, which will be to use a floppy disk image. The
floppy disk that you use as the source of this image should be made from
a bootable floppy that has "DOS" from Windows 98SE on it. It should
have CD-ROM support (e.g. MSCDEX, a CD-ROM driver (one comes with
Windows 98 and that's fine, OAKCDROM.SYS), and the necessary lines in
Autoexec.bat and config.sys to install them). You can also put some
utilities on the bootable floppy that you use as your source for making
the bootable CD, I'd recommend Format, FDISK, SYS, Chkdsk, Scandisk,
Edit, ATTRIB, DOSKEY, MOUSE (DOS mouse driver), Deltree, Smartdrv and
XCOPY as a good starting point (you will want most of these in the
course of doing a new installation on a blank hard drive). IMPORTANT:
Get the updated FDISK.EXE that was released on 5/18/2000 and that
correctly supports larger hard drives. It's a free download from Microsoft.
On the body of the CD, put the Win9x folder from the laptop. Since it's
on the laptop, you will first have to get it over to the desktop on
which you are making this CD, presumably over a network. Also on the
body of the CD, create a folder called "DOS" and include all of the
utilities listed above, also the CD-ROM driver (OAKCDROM.SYS) and
MSCDEX.EXE.
Once you make the CD, test it. What should happen is that it should
boot as a floppy image, and you will see what looks like that floppy
that you used as the image source as drive "A:" (but it will be running
off the CD). Also, additionally, you should see the "body" of the CD
(the part containing the Win9x and DOS folders) as drive D: (or
whatever). The Win9X folder, if it's complete, will have a setup
program in it, you would run that setup program to reinstall Windows.
It will, among other things, ask you for the product key.
If you don't have the "Win9x" (might have a slightly different name)
folder on your laptop, they you will have to find a CD that has a
version of Windows 98 compatible with your product key (there were
something like 1-2 dozen different versions, and the product keys are
specific to the version of code that they were created for and are not
interchangeable between the different versions). If you find such a CD,
either copy the entire CD or the "Win9x" folder. The CD may or may not
be bootable, so be sure that you have a bootable CD with CD-ROM support
and the basic DOS utilities on it.
Good luck. Hope that this helps.
Sara wrote:
> Hi, I'm thinking about buying a Thinkpad 600x that comes preloaded
> with Win98SE with a certificate of authenticity. But no CD with the
> operating system is included, and no recovery disk.
>
> How can I reload the operating system if need be? I have around the
> house: MS-DOS on diskette, Win 3.1 on diskette and Win98 upgrade on
> CD. The Thinkpad has no floppy drive so I guess I'd have to burn the
> contents of the diskettes onto a CD on my desktop. (Would that even
> work?)
>
> What's the function of the recovery disk? The ones they sell on eBay
> have drivers and utilities but no OS.
>
> I'm confused about the whole process of computers being sold without
> the OS on some kind of external media (it's been a while since I
> bought a new computer, as you can tell). Obviously I'm missing a step
> here, but how the heck can you reload?
>
> Thanks!
> Sara
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