How to downgrade from XP back to Windows 98

Question

I wanted a computer with Windows 98. I bought a used one at a garage sale. It is a Dell Dimension L1100R. It had a sticker right under the service tag that said Windows 98 Second Edition with the 25 digit Product Key listed. I took it home and when I booted it up, I found someone had installed Windows XP on it. RATS. Now I want to reformat and reinstall Windows 98 on it. What do I do?

W9YC · Answer

I have the Windows 98 CD.   Are all of these drivers you talk abou already on the computer? I assume so since it is running. Are they easy to find and save? Where are they?   Thank you

Dev Mgr · Answer

You'll need a Dell Windows 98 SE CD (other CDs including retail CDs) may not accept the product key that's on the computer.

You'll then need the drivers for that system (chipset, video, audio, network, modem, etc). You'll need to boot to the 98 CD and tell it to remove the partitions and then create partitioning the way you want it (I'd split it into a C-drive for Windows and applications and a D-drive for data). You may need to reboot and start up on the CD a 2nd time after the repartitioning. Now you can format and install Windows on the drive.

jackshack · Answer

In the event you do not have the option described in the last post, drivers for your computer using Win 98 are here:   http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=W98&osl=EN&catid=-1&impid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P3C_L___R&hidos=WW1&hidlang=en   Install the chipset installation utility first, followed by video, network, sound, and modem (if used).   The Windows 98SE CD is bootable.  Choose to format and restore, or if you would rather, exit out to DOS and use FDISK to delete the existing partition, create a new one in the now empty space, and format /s: to format the drive and place the Win 98 DOS system files on it.  You can then go back to Win 98 setup to install Windows.  Follow that with driver installation as stated above, and then your applications.

datapod · Answer

W9YC wrote:

I wanted a computer with Windows 98. I bought a used one at a garage sale. It is a Dell Dimension L1100R. It had a sticker right under the service tag that said Windows 98 Second Edition with the 25 digit Product Key listed. I took it home and when I booted it up, I found someone had installed Windows XP on it. RATS. Now I want to reformat and reinstall Windows 98 on it. What do I do?

Check in add/remove programs from Control Panel.

If XP was installed as an upgrade the user was given the option to retain or discard the previous operating system. If they chose the former then XP can be uninstalled.

If XP was clean installed or the user choose not to keep the Win9x files then this option will not be available.

Storage, Drives & Media

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