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[I]When trying to restart my daughter's pc (previously mine!) after it appeared to lock it required the product key to be entered . Unfortunately the windows 98 cd has been lost in her recent house move so we are stymied. I have been able to find a start-up floppy disc which I made when I first purchased the pc. some years ago. Will I be able use this to start the machine or will the product code still be required? If not I assume I will have to go back to her, confess that I have failed and buy another copy!!!

you can try the start up disc, is it a dell / packard bell or other branded machine as their version come with all the drivers for the motherboard the sound and graphics

you may be able to buy a win98 disc pretty cheap now as it's no longer supported and an old O/S

You can get the existing Product key by a number of means. The hardest being opening MSDOS EDIT and searching the system.dat file, or much easier is to use diag.exe. This is totally legal as you're retrieving an existing key, and not bypassing or generating a bogus key.

Download [Link Edited by Admin]. Copy the diag.exe file from the zip package to a bootable floppy (23Kb)boot the machine with that floppy, and run it from dos. (ie; just enter diag at the A:\> prompt and hit Enter.) It will provide the (bare bones) major information of the system hardware and software, the product key being one element of that info. The others in the package are windows based programs. All perform the same function.

Thanks for replies from brain_damage and Dan Perry. However, before I pop round to my daughters I have to ask a silly question (?). How do I boot from a floppy when I am unable to action it via the mouse through "My Computer" as I cannot get through to the Desktop? This is probably something very basic but I have never had cause to do it! Hope you can advise me further before I have to resort to buying another copy of "98".

can you get into the BIOS to alter the boot sequence, so it boots from floppy before the hard drive

"I have been able to find a start-up floppy disc which I made when I first purchased the pc. some years ago. Will I be able use this to start the machine or will the product code still be required?"

I had assumed you could boot the machine with a bootable floppy. (The Product Key will have no bearing as you're booting the system "independently" from the system disk.)

What do you end up with on the screen when you try to boot normally?

Do you get the MS Windows98 Startup Menu? (ie; Normal, Safe Mode, Safe Mode with step by step confirmation, Command prompt only, etc)

Or is the machine locking up somehow?

You stated it's a PC, so I'm assuming it's a desktop system and not a laptop. Is this correct?

If it's trying to boot from the hard disk first, do as brain_damage stated. Enter your system bios and set the boot device sequence to the floppy drive first.

Many thanks to brain_damage and Dan Perry for their continuing suggestions/ However I am still struggling.

I downloaded the programme as sugestested by Dan Perry and saved it to a floppy but I have not been able to get the pc to start from the floppy drive. I went into "setup" and have tried the four different boot sequences shown i.e., " Drive A then C" - " Drive A" - " Drive C" - " Drive C the A" . None enabled the machine to open the floppy drive! Just met with usual message " Non-System disc or disc error"

I was able to start the pc with the Windows 98 Startup floppy disc that I had but despite loads of information (most of it way above my head!) thsi also eventually reached the point where I was asked to enter the product code - no could do of course! Whilst in this processthe A:\> prompt was displayed so I inserted the "diag" disc and entered "diag" at the prompt only to receice the following message: DIAG: Retrieve Registry Settings from DOS
(c) 62 NDS Solutions, 1999. 62 nds@seconds.com
Error 2 opening A:\SYSTEM.DAT

Meaningless to me! I assume I was in DOS?

Incidentally I tried the floppy in my own pc (Windows XP) - it worked perfectly and immediately identified the product code!

In answer to Dan Perry the sequence when I start the pc is IBM screen followed by Microsoft Windows 98 screen followed by User Information Screen , Name, Enter Product Key. And yes it is a desktop.

That's the end of the saga.

As the situation is looking pessimistic I assume that if I buy another copy of Windows 98 I will be able to install it automatically over the present programme?

I erred in my instructions. It's been quite a while since I've tinkered with this program. Apologies.

First, do you get any kind of a command prompt when booting from the hard disk and getting; "when I start the pc is IBM screen followed by Microsoft Windows 98 screen followed by User Information Screen , Name, Enter Product Key?"

Does it end up at "C:\>"?

If it does, simply copy the diag.exe to a floppy (it does NOT have to be a bootable floppy) and insert the floppy once the system boots and ends up at "C:\>". Then, simply enter a:\diag and hit the Enter key. Your info should be displayed on the screen.

Thanks for your patience. When I reach the User Information Screen the only options are to enter the product key or exit and swith off. When I use the 98 Startup floppy I can get to a point where I have the A:\> prompt and I have tried entering "diag" here but without success. I entered C:\> against this prompt and then reached the C:\> prompt on the next line. I then followed your instructions and entered a:\ diag and received the following message:

DIAG - Retrieve Registry Settings from DOS
(c) 62NDS Solutions,1999 62nds@seconds.com
Error2 opening A;SYSTEM.DAT

I have tried numerous other combinations all without success! It just does not seem to want to boot from this floppy although the startup floppy works! (I'm sorry to have taken up so much of your time).
I may be able to get hold of another copy of Win 98 with product key. Will this install automatically over the existing system simply by inserting in the cd drive?

What do you get when you boot the machine with this bootdisk*?

Does the system still request the Product Key?

Is this problem machine a proprietary system? (ie; Dell, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Compaq, Gateway, etc)


*The above bootdisk image file is a self extracting file and has to be executed (run) from a running Windows(9x) machine in order to create the actual startup diskette on one of your floppy disks. (This image file produces the same bootdisk which 98SE creates.) This downloaded image file will format the floppy disk to ensure its integrity, write the files to the disk, then verify the file write, so it'll take a minute or three to create the bootdisk.

Ensure the floppy drive is set as the first boot device in the bios. http://www.d-a-l.com/articles/library/23.html

NOTE: When you boot a machine with this boot floppy, it creates a RAMDRIVE in system memory to contain DOS system tools/drivers. Thus it will move your "normal" CDROM device/drive letter "up" one level. (If your CDROM is normally E: it will be F: when booting with this bootdisk.)