Please explain what you are trying to do. What OS is on the xpi.

I'm trying to "Recover" this Laptop back to the original factory condition.

 

The OS on the Recovery CD is Windows 98se. The computer has to run DOS or Win98 Safe mode, it will freeze if I try to start Windows regular mode.

 

If there were any partitions on the hard drive they have been removed and the drive formatted as all one C: drive (2 gig).

 

The BIOS does not have a setting to boot from the CD so any installation will have to start from the A: drive. The Dell CD does not have a "Setup.exe" program on it, so there must be a "Dell Specific" boot floppy to run Recovery in case of a disaster. A standard Windows98 "new installation boot floppy" doesn't work.

 

The one file on the CD that I'm trying to figure out is "engw98se.pak". Does anyone know of a program that will open Dell's version of "pak' files. I have a pak file reader program but it won't open this particular file.

 

Any help appreciated.

Blue57

 

I'm looking at one of those CDs at this moment.  If you examine the directories you will find TOOLS\SYSREC.  In that directory you will find a text document that gives you a procedure to follow.  It involves booting from the 3.5" floppy, changing to the CD drive as the default drive, changing to the above named directory, and typing "PCRESTOR".  From the looks of things this makes a directory on the C: drive, puts the MSBATCH.INF file into that, changes to the W98 directory, and executes setup with a number of switches.  Finding this I looked at the W98 directory on the disk for setup.exe, but failed to find it.  You should try the procedure, however, in the event setup is somehow hidden.  This procedure was designed to restore the entire system but depends on you having made a back up to restore.  I would think that if you didn't have one, however, you could stop the process after Windows had been reinstalled.

 

This disk has been designed to boot; it has been a long time since I looked at a XPi and can't remember how it used to get set up.  Are you certain there is no "one time boot" menu that mentions a CD?

 

On a look on the forum I found this from Dell:

 

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&l=en&s=gen&docid=6D339E919F1E46F691AD67A185C8A0AF&journalid=497641E44A9D11DC8D18D9504C655C5E&Query=aW5zdGFsbCt3aW5kb3dzKzk4&SystemID=LAT_PNT_PNT_XPI_CD&ServiceTag=&contenttype=-1&os=-1&component=-1&lang=-1&doclang=en&toggle=false

 

About half way down the page is a bit on installing from a boot floppy and a link to take you to a place that will let you download a file to build one.

 

 

>I'm looking at one of those CDs at this moment.  If you examine the directories you will find TOOLS\SYSREC.

 

This procedure is for when you backed up your drive with Microsoft Backup, which is not the case here.

The files you mention are on "all" Win98 CD's, not just Dell's.

 

The link you provided to Install/ReInstall Win98 applies to Microsoft's Win98 CD's or perhaps

Recovery CDs that contain Setup.exe, however it does "not" apply to this Dell Product Recovery CD

because there is NO Startup.exe file of any sort anywhere on this disk. The boot disk used at the link

you gave is the standard Win 98 Floppy boot disk that was part of, and shipped with, Windows 98.

 

The boot floppy I'm looking for had to be created by Dell for this specific application. Somehow it has

to start the CD install process and possibly open the huge ".PAK" file on this CD.

 

I have a couple or programs that will read files with .pak extensions but won't read Dell's.

 

I have something new to check out. Last time I turned off my XP PC, I forgot to take the Dell Recovery CD

out of the drive (I was searching it). When I turned my XP PC on again the opening screen of the

Recovery CD came up with a message that this CD is for Dell computers only. Hmmm, now if I can only

figure out what file caused this and how it was activated. Probably an INF file somewhere.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

Blue57

 

Yes, I agree with what you say, but the Dell "restore" disk is simply a Microsoft Win 98 SE installation disk with Dell's label on it.  It is possible that since the CD is a boot disk no provision was made to start it with a floppy, though the instructions on the disk read contrary to this.  When I read it I also wondered how setup.exe was going to run when it wasn't on the CD.  I imagine you didn't find it on the boot floppy made from the Dell download either.

 

Though the instructions do say you need the backup file, if you read the instructions in that directory it tells you that it begins by restoring Win 98 to the hard drive.  It might complain later that you don't have the backup file, but I don't think that affects the restoration of the os.

 

Anyway, sorry I can't be of more help.