Below are some tips that might be useful. I hope it goes well for you. 

Upgrade with a full verison CD

1) boot with a windows 98 startup diskette, choose cd-rom support (download one, 
if you don't have one. it's a self-extracting executable. just pop formatted, empty 
diskette into the drive and have it extract to a:)

2) at the a: prompt, enter:

ren c:\windows\win.com win.old

3) pop in the 98 install disc and switch to the cd-rom drive (usually e:): e:

4) run setup: setup

Note: You will get to a point in setup, when it says where it wants to put Windows. 
Make sure it is WINDOWS and not WINDOWS.000

Consider a backup of old system:

The installation should ask if you want to make a backup of your old system. If you 
have room on your hard drive, it's a good idea do it. If your new system works out 
OK after a period of time, then the backup can be uninstalled from the add/remove 
panel. Do not delete it from C:\. If necessary, a recovery can also be made from 
there. 

Posted by Jeff Marchi on another forum:

If you are currently running Windows 95 and want to upgrade to Windows 98 and keep 
your most important setup features and applications intact as much as possible, there 
are several procedures to follow to help the "overlay" install go well. 

(NOTE: don't delete any Win95 files; 98 needs win32.inf files)

Tips for upgrading to 98.

1. Open up config.sys and autoexec.bat and rem out every line except the main path 
statement or just rename both files. 

2. Disable all background apps using the configuration tab of offending program, 
or delete all the third party keys in run and/or run services in the registry. There 
are third party utilities like StartUpCop or StartUp Control Panel to assist you, 
as an option of manually editing the registry. 

3. Open up win.ini and check the load and/or run calls and disable the line if something 
is loading up there. 

4. Disable the screen saver and power management both in Windows and/or in the Bios. 

5. Delete all temp files in one or all of c:\windows\temp, c:\temp, c:\tmp and c:\dos 

6. Run scandisk. If you have the time, it's recommended to do a full scandisk ie, 
surface scan to mark any bad sectors if they exist. It's also recommended that you 
defrag in advance of the upgrade also. 

7. Disable the "virus scan" in the bios if that feature is active and Enabled. Run 
Device Manager in Windows and note the models of your sound, modem, and video cards. 
This may save you from having to pop open the case later on to ID your cards. 

8. Boot to DOS with a clean start disk and run a DOS based anti-virus program. If 
none is available, make sure the current Windows anti-virus is updated with the latest 
virus definition files and run a full scan on all drives. 

9. Make sure you have at least 250 megs free on C: before you start. Uninstall any 
unneeded apps using Add/Remove in Control Panel. Remove all bad calls/keys in the 
registry using a registry cleaner such as EasyCleaner. 

10. If you have the time, check in advance, if there are Windows 98 drivers for your 
sound, modem, and/or video cards either on the driver disks or from the card makers 
website. Be prepared to use a second computer to get them from the WWW afterwards, 
if they are not on your CDs or Windows doesn't install the proper ones included on 
the Windows CD during the upgrade. 

11. Make sure before you run the Windows 98 setup, that all your external devices 
are turned off before you boot into Windows 95 for the last time. For example, turn 
off your printer, scanner, external modem, camera, etc. After Windows 98 is up and 
running, it's best to then add one device at a time. 

12. I suggest creating a folder on C: called Win98 and first copy the contents of 
the win98 folder from the CD to it. I then run setup from c:\win98. There is nothing 
more frustrating than upgrading and having a problem reading the cdrom in the middle 
of an install. This step eliminates that possibility. 

13. Once the upgrade is done, you have to be careful with re-enabling or installing 
older anti-virus programs, and utility software such as Nortons. Also, keep in mind 
that a few programs that worked in Win 95 may not work in Win 98, unless you also 
upgrade them. 

 

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