Going from Win95 to Win98.

[GTaudiophile]

My father just told me that I need install Win98 on his computer, because it is a minimum requirement for running DSL. He's got an old Gateway (circa 1996) with a Pentium Pro 200Mhz processor, 64MB of RAM, STB Virge VX 4MB graphcs card, 3.2GB harddrive, and a 12x Mitsumi CD-ROM. I'm planning on just formatting his harddrive and installing the full edition of Win98. Does Win98's setup program handle the FAT16 to FAT32 conversion? Is there anything else I need to know about how to do this? I think his machine can handle Win98. Eventually, I'll build a new machine for him and put Win2K on it, but I don't have the time to do that right now.

 

[RossGr]

You shouldn't have any problems. Be sure that you have the drivers you may need on hand. Win98 generally does a very good job of having the drivers on the CD but you never know. Yes, if you do not get it done before hand Win98 has a FAT16 -> Fat32 converter which works quite well.

BTW I have a P133, 80MB ram, 2G HD which runs Win98SE quite nicely, sure needs more HD space though

 

[Ausm]

With a system that old Win 98 should be able to cover all the drivers...

Ausm

 

[Blayze]

you should be fine going from Win95 to 98 on that system.

Windows 98 should cover all the drivers for that system, and it includes a utility to convert those Fat16 partitions to Fat32.

Good Luck.

 

[oneeighty]

Get ahold of a Win98 boot disk so you can use FDISK and have CD-ROM drivers in DOS. Use the FDISK utility to delete all existing partitions, then create one primary FAT32 partition. When FDISK starts, the first screen asks if you want to enable FAT32 support, the default is Y, just press enter and do it to it.

 

[Tsaico]

Beliive it or not, I have a similar spare box like the one you described (i have 128MB ram) and a pPro 200 w/512k cache, and it holds it own when running win2k. Don't get me wrong, it won't be breaking any barriers, but the ppro's do pretty well as workstations under teh nt kernel.(linux too!)

 

[Regalk]

Even if u upgrade on top of win95 there is a utility in Win98 to convert from Fat 16 to Fat 32.

 

[Dufusyte]

Win98 will chug on a Pentium200. The truth is, you would be able to get the dsl working on Win95, despite what the telco is telling you. There is a specific upgrade for Winsock that will bring the Win95 winsock up to the Win98 level.

 

[NeonFlak]

You should fdisk and format before installing win98. But other than that win98 should work fine on that setup.

 

[bernse]

Win98SE runs fine on our old P200 classic non-mmx with 32MB. It would sure like 64 though...

It will be fine on your dads P-Pro w/64MB.

For the love of god though, get him a different video card!

 

[GTaudiophile]

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

I'll go home this weekend or next and try to install his DSL connection on Win95, and if that goes wrong, I'll install Win98. Either way, it will be a temporary solution. He's given me the go-ahead to build him a system.