I have a ibm thinkpad 2626 ? that I have attempted a reinstall of 98se. The laptop came with 98se but was upgraded at some point to 2000. I reformatted and attempted a reinstall without problems. The reinstall got to the point of restarting and would not boot up again. On restart it recognizes f1 for access to the bios utility but does not start it . It does operate the floppy drive but will not boot from it. The version of 98se I have is not the original to the machine. Any other suggestions?

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Jelly Bean agrees: Thankyou

Hello ad welcome to PC Help Forum.

I am sure your problem is you cannot downgrade from windows 2000 to win 98SE.

You would hve to remove the hard drive and buy or borrow the leads to convert it to an external hard drive,then format it as a slave and repace back into machine.

Then reformat it to win 98SE.

__________________
It is all in the hardware..........................................
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/Home/
http://www.petri.co.il/index.htm

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Hi,
Did you completely reformat the hard drive and delete the existing partition?


Also, I have to ask, why not just put XP on it ? Is there a specific reason you need 98SE ?

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cyberdyne

I used the format /s command . I had not considered using XP because I have some automotive related programs that are designed for w98 and the lap top is that vintage anyway. Wether it could operate Xp I don't know. At this point getting it to operate anything is the problem. I don't have the w2K software that it was running.
Any help would be great.
Thanks

You could be fiddling with it forever if it's simply a poor install, which it could well be by the sounds of it.

I think I would delete the partition by running fdisk and reformat the HDD.

Have a good read here: How to Install Windows 98 on a Computer with No Operating System

This will explain how to delete the current partition, format the hard drive and then proceed to re-install Win98 (SE)

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cyberdyne

Ok

I "m all for a new install and your link spells out very well how to acheive that but I cannot get the win98 startup disc to function or any boot disc for that matter. The laptop starts the floppy drive and runs until it asks for my password in dos format and then accepts it (says OK ). It then blanks the screen and doesn't proceed further. I can't seem to get it into dos at all.

Potts

win98 will start up from the cd you do not need a floppy . Set optical as first boot and it will load from it. I do believe fdisk is still available by this method IIRC format c: /u is what I used to use but its a long time ago now lol

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potts agrees: good directions

Thanks for the idea but I still have been unable to access bios setup to do that. The bios utilty does not successfully run when selected. Is there any way to force it or access this another way.

Potts

Hello,yes if you open her up and locate the BIOS battery and remove it for 1 minute then replace it.Power back on after replacing the cover and BIOS should be able to be entered.

Or are you pressing the right key to enter BIOS/setup?

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potts agrees: great stuff

__________________
It is all in the hardware..........................................
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/Home/
http://www.petri.co.il/index.htm

PCHF Rules Scan Computer for Driver Updates Pre-Work

Sounds good. I'll give that a try. On startup it gives the message "Press F1 for ibm bios setup utility" . I 've always done that. Is there another key that might also do it?

Potts

NO F1 is enter BIOS.setup.

__________________
It is all in the hardware..........................................
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/Home/
http://www.petri.co.il/index.htm

PCHF Rules Scan Computer for Driver Updates Pre-Work