To me - a very strang win98se cd situation, I do hope it's not to someone out their.

[mikewatson]

I have tried to re-install my damaged win98se system which has been operating fine for a long time.
However when the cd is installed in the drive it boots up and loads windows media player - track 1. When I try to 'run media' it informs me that 'windows does not suppot this file format'
If I look at the file properties I get - cd audio track 44 bytes big, created jan 1 2005
Under properties of 'win explorer' - used space is 625 (full) file system cdfs

I hope I have provided sufficient information for this situation to make sense to a more experienced user than me, of which i'm sure their are many, and I look froward to your expert comments
Regards mike.....

[Miz]

What kind of CD are you using to reinstall Windows? Is it a retail Windows disk or a recovery/restore disk from the computer manufacturer or something else entirely?

[mikewatson]

Its OEM I believe, however I will try to describe the cd.
A markings are in hologram format, silver with a blue tinge

'Microsoft genuine' is printed all over as background and the is a hologram of the globe in a square frame north east of centre
East of centre are the words 'For distribution with a new pc only. For product support contact the manufacturer of your pc'
'Second edition'
Due siouth of centre it says 'Microsoft Windows98 FOR PC'S WITHOUT WINDOWS" and further south 'genuine'
North east is the word 'Microsoft' and East 'Do not make ilegal copies of this disc
The Certificate of Authenticity has a green background and multi colour overlay with a white box showing product key bar code and number as well as a silver tread stitched vertically on the right ahnd side,

Trust this helps
Mike

[sanmiguel]

try to 1st boot in cd, boot with cdrom support then choose the cd drive then setup and install it to the same drive where your old OS installed

[Miz]

You'll need to boot the computer up with the XP CD in the CD drive. Hopefully, it will boot to the CD and not just load Windows.

Once it's booted to the CD, read each screen carefully and make the appropriate choices.

If it ignores the CD and boots on into Windows, you'll need to get into the BIOS (also called "Setup") to move the CD drive up to first in the boot device order.

There is no standard way to get into Setup other than a particular key is pressed when the computer begins booting up. Which key that is depends on the computer.

Watch closely as the computer boots up for a screen displaying a line about pressing a key "To enter Setup" (or similar wording). If you see that line, press the indicated key.

Once you have the CD drive set as the first boot device, use the "Exit Saving Changes" option to get out of the BIOS. It should then boot to the CD.

[plthayer]

Miz,

Your instructions are for installing Windows XP. He has windows 98 so the installation has to be done using DOS if he wants to completely wipe the system.

You do have to boot from the cd but it will not say press any key to enter setup. If it boots correctly you will get a boot menu with two or three options.

Choose the option "Start computer with cd rom support".

After a few min. the screen with come to an a:\> prompt.
Look above this area and it should say the letter of the cd-rom, ex: D:

To completely wipe the drive:
1. Type d: and press enter. (Substitute d for the letter of your drive)
2. Type cd win98 and press enter.
3. Type format c: /q and press enter.
4. The system will ask for confirmation before, confirm and it will format the drive wiping all files completely. It will then ask for a volume label, just press the enter key.

To start setup just type the word setup and press enter.
Be sure to have your windows 98 product key available. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

You will need to make sure you have the driver software for any other devices in the system since windows 98 has a very limited driver database. We can deal with that after you have windows re-installed though.

[mikewatson]

Correct it is 98SE not XP Miz

Love to follow ypur guidance, however the CD will not show any information other than that it is an AUDIO track - it even opens Windows media player which complains that the track is unsuitable

I cannot there fore see a way out of this unless MS will accept this cd as proof of purchase and provide a replacement (Free or otherwise)

Thank for your contributions chaps
The help now would seem to be how to get the ear of MS.....

Regards
Mike Watson

[Miz]

My apologies...I had XP on my mind...obviously.

[sanmiguel]

have you try to 1st boot the CD choose CD 1st boot in your CMOS/BIOS

[mikewatson]

Sanmiguel - thank you for help so far. Can you be more specific as to the proceedure I should follow to 1st boot in cmos/bios
In simple terms please
Regards Mike