Trying to install ADSL USB modem/migrating from Win98 to Win 2000 Pro

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anders.michael

Hi Group(s),

I'm trying to install an ADSL USB modem on a Win98 first edition machine,
but this evidently does not work.
I in fact expected this. And so tried to update to Win98 SE by installing a
French version of SE on top of the English version first edition. That, it
seems, is not allowed.

I guess the problem is that first edition Win98 does not provide adequate
USB support for this modem (a Sagem Fastspeed 800).

Is there a patch I can apply to this Win98 first edition installation which
will provide the necessary support ?

Alternatively, I have available a copy of Win 2000 Pro, which I guess would
provide the support, but I am rather wary of going down that road. How would
one go about upgrading from Win98 to Win 2000 Pro? Do they not have
different file systems?

Thanks in advance any helpful suggestions

Michael Anders
 
anders.michael said:
Hi Group(s),

I'm trying to install an ADSL USB modem on a Win98 first edition machine,
but this evidently does not work.
I in fact expected this. And so tried to update to Win98 SE by installing a
French version of SE on top of the English version first edition. That, it
seems, is not allowed.

I guess the problem is that first edition Win98 does not provide adequate
USB support for this modem (a Sagem Fastspeed 800).

Is there a patch I can apply to this Win98 first edition installation which
will provide the necessary support ?

Alternatively, I have available a copy of Win 2000 Pro, which I guess would
provide the support, but I am rather wary of going down that road. How would
one go about upgrading from Win98 to Win 2000 Pro? Do they not have
different file systems?

Thanks in advance any helpful suggestions

Michael Anders
Click to expand...

Win98 supports the FAT and FAT32 file systems. Win2000 supports
FAT, FAT32 and NTFS. I can therefore access everything that Win98
can.

While an upgrade from Win98 to Win2000 is supported, you would
get a far more robust and stable installation if you performed a fresh
installation of Win2000. The two OSs are radically different and
moving from one to the other involves numerous compromises that
will sometimes cause problems. If this was my machine then I would
do this:

1. Back up all important user files & folders.
2. Boot the machine with my Win2000 CD.
3. Allow the hard disk to be formatted.
4. Install Win2000.
5. Re-install all applications.
6. Restore all user files & folders.

You might consider splitting the hard disk into two partitions:
Drive C: for Win2000 and for your applications (5 GBytes),
drive D: for your data. This would allow you to perform future
OS installations without losing your data each time. It also
opens the door for disk imaging.
 
It depends. My Win2000 installation, with MS Office plus
a few other minor things, uses 3 GBytes of disk space. Other
people will have more apps and 10 GBytes will give them
more headroom.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. If I may follow up with another few questions...

The 80 GB hard disk is already partitioned into three using FDisk/DOS: an
active 19 GB partition for C:, 38 GB for D: and 19 GB for E:. All are FAT32.

What formatting will follow a boot using the Win2000 CD? Can I stay with
FAT32 or will I get NTFS? What happens to the D: and E: partitions? What
happens to DOS and any DOS programs ?
 
When clean installing win2k you are asked as to whether to use ntfs or fat.
You could just Format your C partition then install into that, the other
partitions will not be effected
(The win cd is bootable, and can be used to partition/format)
ntfs is more secure and more efficient/stable
Any apps installed on other partitions would have to be reinstalled.
You would be advised to use win2k drivers from hw manu sites, not winupdate
Assuming you dont have a Firewall app, and as you have internet access it
might be an idea to download and burn Zonealarm free version to cd
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp then install this *prior* to
connecting to the internet.
Once connected visit winupdate for win2k updates.
 
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