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realbigdreamer

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Last week I found my old Dell C600 Pentuim 3 laptop which was long lost after I got a new PC 3 years ago:p. I used it a few days until I tried to put it on yesterday and it gave me an error that said something like win.com file is missing or corrupt. It uses Win 98. I tried doing scandisk and a few other useless stuff but with no luck.It's DVD drive is broken so it only has a floppy drive. Is there some way I can fix it or install win2000 using a lan? Any of u guys have an idea how I can fix it? :confused:
 
Try and reinstall using a USB external DVD Drive if possible or attempt a usb flash drive installation.

Edit:
Try what tera mentioned with a flash drive or floppy(copy the files on a working PC)
Also try booting up with a recovery floppy disk and run chkdsk

Edit2:
Install UBUNTU ;)
 
Last edited:
dude that pc should run xp

load it and forget 98 ever existed because man was it kuk but at the time it was the best
 
I'll probably try that solotion from teraside(thanx for that link altough its a little tricky without booting up) but what I'd like to know is can I boot from a flash drive and if possible how?
Yeah it could run XP but without a CD or DVD Drive how do I install XP? And yeah it had a DVD drive( someone asked).
 
Last edited:
Deadl1y said:
I'll probably try that solotion from teraside(thanx for that link altough its a little tricky without booting up) but what I'd like to know is can I boot from a flash drive and if possible how?
Click to expand...

The BIOS needs to support it, so enter the BIOS when you start the laptop and check if you can specify a USB boot device.

Btw. just do that whole thing on the Microsoft site from another PC, load the Win.com file on a floppy and google how to copy it over from dos to the C: drive on the laptop, that will be the easiest ;)
 
F8 on boot up, select command prompt - cd\win98 then run setup - have OEM number handy (normally stuck underneath on Dells)
 
I would recommend hooking up a external USB DVD Drive.

If you are really down & out and don't have any way around it. *a Techie makes a plan*

If u can't get the lan working in dos, or know how to.

Go old'school. Copy Laplink on a Stiffy, Use serial/parralel cable and copy the WindowsXP or Win98 installation files from another computer over the cable :>>>

But thats only if u don't wanna spend alot of mulla on buying external cdrom/dvdrom wich u might only use once or twice to get the windows installed etc. (cause after all your going to use the LAN feature mostly after you installed windows)
 
i know its ancient. But most company's and even Private people don't mind how its done.

They only worry that it does get done, and easiest way to do it :>

Laplink , Serial / Parralel cable. Will sort the laptop out :>
 
take out the hard drive, put it into your new pc and then copy win98 cab files onto the drive. (c:/win98setup)

then return the drive to the old pc, and boot into dos, and run 'setup /is'

hope u have all the drivers. good luck.
 
The laptop can't boot from a USB device. I can configure it to boot from a lan. It asks wether to use DHCP or BOOTP? If booting from a lan do I have to do anything on the other PC that is on the LAN?
 
kevinswan007 said:
take out the hard drive, put it into your new pc and then copy win98 cab files onto the drive. (c:/win98setup)

then return the drive to the old pc, and boot into dos, and run 'setup /is'

hope u have all the drivers. good luck.
Click to expand...

I cant insert the Dell laptop's HDD into my new laptop(Doesn't fit). I have all the drivers btw.
 
What area are you in?
Someone near you might have an external 2.5" IDE USB case which you could plug the drive into...
 
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