WinBook Tech Article
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Subject: Installing Windows 98 on to a new WinBook XL hard drive
Keywords: install installation reinstall
Tech Article Number: WBTA07100282

NOTE: You, the customer, are solely responsible for data security. WinBook strongly recommends that you perform a backup of all personal data contained on your system prior to performing this procedure. Warning: WinBook will NOT be held responsible for any data loss incurred during this process.


GENERAL INFORMATION: This WinBook Tech Article is intended to setup up a new hard drive with Windows 98. Do not attempt the below steps on a hard drive that already has Windows installed, as it may not work properly.

WARNING! Do not attempt this WinBook Tech Article on a WinBook XL configured with a 4gb hard drive and only 16mb of ram. This WinBook Tech Article will not work on this configuration. If you need to install Win98 on the XL with this configuration see the WinBook Tech Article for INSTALLING WIN98 ON A NEW XL 4GB HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB OF RAM.

In order to proceed you will need to following items:.

  • The WinBook XL restore CD.
  • Your Windows 98 certificate of authenticity
  • Please contact WinBook Tech Support at 1-800-468-1225 for the password needed to copy the image on to the new hard drive.

If you do not have your certificate of authenticity or the restore password do not continue with this WinBook Tech Article until you have both of them. You will not be able to install Windows until you insert these numbers.

WARNING! Restoring the Windows 98 master image will delete all data currently on your hard drive.

Changing The Boot Sequence to allow booting from the Restore CD.
As the computer is starting up, you will see the message Press DEL for Setup. Press the DEL key until you see the blue Setup Screen. Use the Down Arrow key to move to the Advanced CMOS Setup menu. Press the ENTER key once. Use the Down Arrow key to highlight BOOT SEQUENCE. Press the PgUp key till the setting is CD-ROM,A:,C:. Press the ESC key once. Press the F10 key once. When asked if you wish to save changes, press Y and then Enter.

  1. Insert the WinBook XL Windows 98 restore CD into your CD-ROM drive.
  2. Turn the computer on.
  3. At the main menu press the 1 key to activate option #1 for HDPREP.
  4. Press the spacebar to continue past last change to stop message.
  5. Once the suspend to disk partition has been created it will restart the computer.
  6. At the main menu press the 2 key to activate option #2 for FDISK.
  7. Press the spacebar at the last chance to quit screen.
  8. Press Y to enable large disk support to enable large disk support. Then press the enter key.
  9. At the FDISK menu press the 1 key to create DOS partitions, and press enter.
  10. Press #1 to create primary DOS partition, then press enter.
  11. It will then ask if you want to use the entire drive for this partition. Hit y for yes, then press, enter.
  12. After the Primary DOS partition is created it will tell you that in order for the changes to be made you must restart the computer. Press the esc key to restart.
  13. WARNING! Make sure that there are no PCMCIA cards plugged into the system when attempting to restore the image on the hard drive. Having cards in at this time could cause the system to become unstable and crash.
  14. At the main menu press the 4 key to begin coping the image on to your new hard drive.
  15. Enter the password that you obtained from WinBook Tech Support.
  16. At the warning screen press the spacebar to continue.
  17. To begin the restore process click on the RESTORE button, then click yes to continue.
  18. Once the image is copied you will be prompted to restart the computer. First remove the XL restore CD from the CD-ROM drive. Then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE. Your computer should restart.
  19. When Win98 finishes loading, input your name and company and click next to continue. If you do not wish to input a company name then leave it blank.
  20. Read the Microsoft license agreement and click on the I accept the agreement button. Then click next to continue.
  21. Now insert the number off of your Windows 98 Certificate of Authenticity. Click on the next button to continue.
  22. Click on the finish button.
  23. Windows 98 is now installed on your new hard drive.

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Disclaimer: This information is being provided to you as a service from the Technical Support Department of WinBook Computers. It is intended to assist you in the resolution of your technical problems or questions. If you feel uncomfortable implementing any of the information or suggestions contained herein then you should e-mail the WinBook Technical Support Department. WinBook will not be held responsible for any loss of information, data or programming as a result of the use of this TechNote.

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