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hello can anyone advise me.i have a 8 year old pc which i bought brandnew with windows 98 already installed.recently the computer started to boot as normal and then asked for my product key (first ever time)i typed the product key, then booted up to a blank desktop devoid of icons but my customized wallpaper still there.i have no back up disks.what do i need to do? can i contact microsoft for a cd of some sort.is there anything on this site i can download,if so how do i do it? id like to recover my old files if possible but this isnt vital.anyone have an idea?

Welcome to the forum charlie,

So, no Windows 98 disk huh? You're going to struggle without one I'm afraid It sounds like your installation has become corrupt in some way and unfortunately the only real cure for this within Windows 98 is to carry out a repair install (install the operating system over the top again).

Is there no-one you can think of that can lend you a Windows 98 disc? I would think this is not very feasible as it's such an old OS.

cheers for the advice.i think the problem ocurred because my hard drive was at full capacity. will i lose existing files by intalling windows 98 again?

Not if you carry out an install "over the top" of the existing installation. This means that as long as you do NOT format the drive then all of your existing files will be un-affected and will remain in their existing locations.

Can you copy files to an other HD/partition or cd/dvd? I would first try to get some free space on there.

if i get a burnt copy of windows 98 and perform an *over the top* installation.will i need a new product key or use the old one with the alien copy of windows 98?