I rebuilt my computer with an AMD Dual Core 4400 processor and a Seagate 250GB hard drive. Seagate instructions are to use the Windows start up disk to setup hard drive. I have the full Windows 98 disk and an upgrade for Windows XP. After preparing hard drive, Windows 98 says that it has detected a previous operating system and recommends exiting. Forcing the installation makes the system unstable. Is Windows reading the Command.com file transferred by format c: /s as a previous operating system? Can I get around this by using the DOS startup disk to set up the hard drive?

What you should do is put your new Hard Drive in, and make it the master drive. Then use the windows XP disc first. It will ask you later in the install to "Please insert a previous version of windows" screen. Place you Win98 in the drive and let it read from it, then remove it and place in your XP disc. When it asks you what you want to do with your old hard drive, if you want to keep it, that is fine. Format the new drive with the FAT32 file system if you still want to dual boot to the Win98. If not, format both drives with the NTFS file system.

Thanks. I'll try it tonight. Sometimes I miss DOS.