More geeky help needed for Catt's computer

[fluffymark]

Windows 98 is being silly. It refuses to install on the basis that it can find an already installed version of itself - although the already installed version is corrupted and fails to work at all. It doesn't give me the option to continue on with the install, it just quits when it finds itself already there. I don't want to delete things, as catt will lose vital files she needs to keep. I've tried renaming the windows folder and COMMAND.COM to other names in the hope it cannot find them, but it still does.

So, how do I fool Windows into thinking it doesn't exist, without actually deleting it?

(or should I just give up and persuade Catt that Linux is the way forward...)

Comments

[damerell.livejournal.com]

Easy thing to try; overwrite the MBR. "fdisk /mbr" will do this from an MSDOS boot floppy.

Hard thing to try; use a GNU parted boot floppy to squish the existing Windows partition into the end of the disc, and create another MSDOS partition in front of it.

[fluffymark]

I have considered the MBR overwrite - I'm usually too scared to do things like that though, but not i think about it - the version of Windows there doesn't work anyhow, so it's not as if the current MBR is of any use, is it? Worth a shot i think. Once i've copied FDISK.EXE onto my very minimalist bootdisk.

As for the repartitioning, isn't that a bad idea unless the drive is already defragmented? Or does it defragment it too? Anyhow, the last thing catt needs is another Windows partition! She currently has 3 partitions, all with various defunct copies of Windows on them. I think she's collecting dead copies of Windows.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

MBR overwrite; you said it.

Parted will work on fragmented partitions. You could also squish up the extant partitions to occupy less space. I think the comment on this is that currently the machine is useless, so how can any non-destructive attack make it worse?

[fluffymark]

My fear is something will go very wrong unexpectedly, as i've described above to emomisy. Last time I attempted a non-destrucive attack to salvage the computer in this state, i still managed to lose some of the data files i was trying to keep. So, i'm wary of doing anything that could lose the data files if something unexpected occurs.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

If you're worried about that you can't do anything at all - including reinstall off the original CD.