VOGONS


First post, by JSO

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Greetings to everyone,

yesterday I got on my hands a Dell Inspiron 7000 A366LT (PII) laptop and I have a Dell recovery CD with Windows 98 SE. The recovery procedure stops at a specified percent, so I want to know if it's possible to run the recovery procedure from the hdd.

The CD doesn't have an .exe for setup, only two bins files and a large bak.

Is there any way to run it from HDD?

DOS IS THE POWER OF OUR CHILDHOOD MEMORIES!

Reply 1 of 8, by Horun

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JSO wrote on 2020-06-19, 22:42:
Greetings to everyone, […]
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Greetings to everyone,

yesterday I got on my hands a Dell Inspiron 7000 A366LT (PII) laptop and I have a Dell recovery CD with Windows 98 SE. The recovery procedure stops at a specified percent, so I want to know if it's possible to run the recovery procedure from the hdd.

The CD doesn't have an .exe for setup, only two bins files and a large bak.

Is there any way to run it from HDD?

Need more info ! Are you running it from the Dell bios Boot OS Recovery ? Are you trying to put it back on the original HD or a replacement ? Have you tried to Image the CD to make sure they are no defects on it ? On the HD there is a small hidden partition that contains some needed executables, they specifically point to the cdrom. If you could get those using a HD imaging util (like Acronis) you MIGHT be able to put them all on a second partition with those CDROM files and make it work. AFAIK you cannot have them on the same HD partition as where the OS is going because Dell Restore typically dumps the contents wiping any existing files on the older machines... Am sure someone else might have better info.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 2 of 8, by JSO

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Laptop came with Windows XP installed. No recovery partition to the hard disk. I'm using the recovery CD to bring it to original status.

DOS IS THE POWER OF OUR CHILDHOOD MEMORIES!

Reply 3 of 8, by Horun

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Hmm I have one Dell XP restore CD and it does have a Setup.exe in the root, and looks like a regular XP cd except for the $OEM$ folder. It is for my Dimension E521. I looked at my Dell Win7 restore DVD and it has similar layout to regular Win 7 DVD except in the sources folder has a $OEM$ folder also. No bin or bak files.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 4 of 8, by JSO

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I don't know if the issue is the media, because it's an old CD-R, not a genuine recovery CD. I also found a recovery Windows 98 SE iso from 2000 for all Inspiron's that supporting Windows 98. I have the drivers, I can install WIndows 98SE separately as I did on my Compaq Armada 1590DT (Windows 95c) but...
I also have and a Thinkpad 380z, but I installed Windows 3.11 for Workgroups with MS-DOS 7.10 (CDU version) because IBM has drivers for Windows 3.11 to 2000 for the specified model..!

I believe the cd-r(w) of the laptop has some issues, after some time stops working. I will try to find out.

I also thinking to install Arca Noae OS/2, I have bought a license last summer.

DOS IS THE POWER OF OUR CHILDHOOD MEMORIES!

Reply 5 of 8, by Horun

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There is a Dell 98se restore cd on archive org. Type Dell 98 in the search box, should be right on the top row. You may still need some drivers as Dell used to include a Drivers CD along with the OS CD (My old Vostro has two CD's). Will grab it and take a look to see what is all on it.

added: it is a genuine Dell 98se disk, here are the OEM logo's off it

Attachments

  • Wallpapr.jpg
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  • Splash.jpg
    Filename
    Splash.jpg
    File size
    25.36 KiB
    Views
    498 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 6 of 8, by JSO

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Thanks for the info.

The optical drive needs older CDR(w) to work without issues.

I used this Dell iso, but it doesn't installs the drivers of ESS solo Sound card and Ati Rage graphics card. So it's only a Dell branded Windows 98se iso.

DOS IS THE POWER OF OUR CHILDHOOD MEMORIES!

Reply 7 of 8, by JSO

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Only one driver missing...

"PCI Multimedia Video Device"...

I don't know which is...

Installed drivers for audio, video, touchpad and etc...

But...

https://www.dell.com/support/home/el-gr/produ … on-7000/drivers

DOS IS THE POWER OF OUR CHILDHOOD MEMORIES!