Question : Windows 95 to 98 upgrade

How do I go about a fresh upgrade?  

Answer : Windows 95 to 98 upgrade

Installing Windows 98 from Windows 95 (Without installing 95)

You need to have your bootdisk with cd rom drivers installed on it. You'll need to fdisk and format the drive as well as setup the drive to your liking. I still use partitions in my systems just to stay organized. Your installation should be to your liking but, if you want one big partition (up to 8.4gb), you will need Windows 95b or Windows 98 bootdisk with the FAT32 option to do this. This article will deal with FAT16 and the Dos fdisk program.

NOTE: You will need approximately 220 MBytes on your hard drive for this operation. Remember, these instructions are for a "bare" drive with just system files (command.com) and your cd rom drive support. There is no need to put the autoexec.bat and config.sys files on your hard drive. These files can be on your  DOS bootdisk and the commands can be given from there.

After setting up your drive and being able to access your CD Rom drive, you'll need to do the following:


Go to the C:\> prompt and make a directory/folder named Win98 by typing in the command: md Win98 and press enter.

Insert your Windows 98 cd rom into the CD Rom drive and access the Win98 folder on it by changing the directory with the cd Win98 command. Type in the command: copy  *.*  c:\win98 (making sure there are spaces between the commands) and press enter. This will copy the Win98 setup files to your hard drive. When finished, remove the cd rom from the drive.

From the C:\> prompt, type in cd win98 and press enter. This takes you to the setup files for Windows98. Type setup at the C:\>win98 prompt and press enter. This will start the Windows98 installation. The program will analyze your system and ask you for you're CD KEY number. Don't lose this  25 character number. You'll be prompted for the Upgrade Compliance Check. To locate the verifying copy of Windows, insert the Windows95 cd and use the Browse button and point it to the Win95 folder, or you can type in the path statement in the box.. You will look for: D:\win95. Click Next and continue the installation.

As with my directions on installing Windows 95, you won't need to dig out your Windows 98 cd rom when making changes to the system after completing the Windows 98 installation. The setup (.cab) files will be permanently installed on your hard drive and this will allow you to make changes, when and if needed, to the operating system. If you don't have the extra 120mb's needed for the folder to keep on your hard drive, you can run the installation from the cd rom drive.

NOTE: If you install Windows 98 Upgrade from the cd, you will be able to remove it during the verification process. You will remove the Windows 98 cd and install the Windows 95 cd and "point" the command line to the D:\win95 folder. When completed, Windows 98 wizard will inform you to reinstall the Windows 98 cd and continue the installation.

The only other folder you need from the Windows 98 cd rom is the Tools folder. This contains some useful utilities like TweakUI and RegClean. This folder can be installed after your completion of installing Windows 98. If you choose to, you can copy this folder to the hard drive just like you copied the .cab files in the instructions above.