How do I disable virus software, and do nondistructive reload of Win98

[BoskofPortKar]

Hi, I'm trying to help a friend out here... She had several problems with her PC. Her Windows 98 won't do defrag, and has missing .dll file for cdrom, among other problems. I want to do a non-distructive reload of Windows 98. (Reload Win 98 without reformating the hard drive...)
I try and do this, and the computer tells me my virus software is keeping the reload of Win 98 from running. She has Norton installed but not "running" on the PC, and is using some software she downloaded called "eAnthology". The Norton seemed to be preloaded as a trial copy on her PC, and she's using the eAnthology software now. I've tried to uninstall Norton, shut down the eAnthology, and take anything that looked like virus software out of all the system files (autoexec, configsys, and systemini). I tried to shutdown any task running that looked like virus software, but it still hung up on running virus software. I did find a posted note/page on Microsoft's site that told how to "totally disable" the virus software, but it just covered Windows 2000, and NT, not 98, and 98 didn't work like 2000 does. Any ideas out there? Any suggestions would be appreciated. She has too much downloaded software to do a format on the hard drive. Her PC only has a 1.4meg "floppy" to copy files off, which would be a mess to do. Please help...... My friend has MS and doesn't get out much, so her PC is literally a window on the world for her, and she doesn;t want to loose what she has on her PC already. Thanks much to all who help!! Dennis

 

[gjconely]

The error message you are getting - if I am correct on what message you are getting - displays after Win98 says its going to install itself. If this is the correct message, this does not have anything to do with antivirus software. Win98 cann't install itself for some reason sometimes. I would try starting the PC with the Win98 Boot-Disc, choose DOS PROMPT with CD SUPPORT and copy the WIN98 folder from the CD to the C: drive. Then reboot the computer and let it startup in Windows. Then open windows Explorer and navigate to this WIN98 folder on you C drive, and run SETUP.



Greg Conely

http://www.ImageMentor.net

 

[Imawag]

Sometimes (read as often) uninstalling Norton products doesn't completely remove all registery enteries and this can then cause problems on reinstalling operating systems.

Go to Symantec's site, download and run Rnav (for antivirus) or Rnis (for Internet security) from

http://makeashorterlink.com/?M14732266

and hopefully this will fix your problem.

 

[ctsolutionsbiz]

Installing win98 over an existing version usually results in a screwy install anyway. To re-install win 98 without losing software you need to re-enumerate. To do that, follow these steps:

1. make a backup !
2. Delete the following reg keys in this exact order:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class
HKLM\System\Enum
3. exit windows to native MS-DOS prompt
4. rename these win 9x directories with these commands:
move c:\windows\inf windows\infold
move c:\windows\system\iosubsys windows\system\iosubold
move c:\windows\system\vmm32 windows\system\vmm32old
5. reboot from win9x boot floppy and install windows into the same directory, answering no when prompted to overwrite newer files, yes for older files
6. make sure it works properly, otherwise restore your backup


eAnthology is a nasty piece of spyware - I would remove that in any case. Once you get things back up install AVG free version.

Cheers,

CTS