After someone recently decided to format the hard drive in a computer, I have been TRYING to get it back up to working order. This computer was not originally installed with Windows 98 (if that even matters.) My plan is to use a DOS bootdisk, and from there use a few cd commands to get to the CD's setup file, and to go from there. My questions are, will this work? And how come, when I try to brush up on my DOS commands using the command prompt, I can not change directories into the DVD drive (it doesn't say that it cannot find the PATH, it just does nothing and skips to the next line.) Am I missing a command?

Appologies for stupidity, but I try to be simple and I do not know all that much when it comes to these kind of things.Which bootdisk are you using :-?

There may be a problem with the driver installed by the bootdisk. It might be compatible with a CDROM but not with a DVD/CDROM combo. I haven't got it yet (this computer doesn't have a floppy drive.) Which version of DOS would work best? And I was trying to figure it out erlier using my Windows XP, on the command prompt.If you plan to put 9x back on the machine, go into bios and set cdrom as the first boot device and boot from the win cd.Assuming you have a BOOTABLE Win98 CD (some are not). If yours isn;t go to www.bootdisk.com and get an appropriate one. There are floppy and CD boot ISO's as well.1: There is no boot disk (CD) or recovery or anything.

2: Even if I had a boot CD, I could not install the Windows operating system since I would need the disc in, would I not?

I plan to use a DOS boot disk (I assume the latest version) and execute the setup from there. My main question is if this will work, and what command am I missing? Trying to access anything but the hard drive doesn't even return an error, it skips to the next line. I don't know many DOS commands, should I be using one besides the change directory command?You must know the drive letter of the cdrom. If the cdrom is drive E:, then simply enter the command e:\setup. The change directory command works on the drive you are logged to. If you WISH to change drives or execute a program on a different drive you must enter the path to it. To change to the root of a different drive, specify the its drive letter. e: would change to the E: drive.Quote

I plan to use a DOS boot disk (I assume the latest version) and execute the setup from there.