Tiny Computers and OS

[dabandit]

Hi all..

I\'ve just joined so I feeling my way here. My Question is, is it possible for \"Computer Manufacturers\" to set up their system in such a way that you can\'t install a fresh copy of an OS without all the usual *crap* installed with it.

By this I mean, we have 4 computers which are made by a company called \'Tiny\' in the UK.  All these computers came with a restore CD in that if the system goes \"pear shape\" or \"belly up\", you can put this CD in and restore the system to its original state when you bought it.

As the restore disk includes all the *crap* programs with it, we tried to install Win98 SE using a Win98 SE CD (as you do!!) but for some reason, it won\'t appear to want to allow us to install this OS CD (or any OS CD)  but it WILL allow us to \'Restore\' from the Restore CD.  Bear in mind that we are totally wiping the HD so nothing should be on the HD.

Anyone any ideas?

Regards

Declan

[Josetann]

What error are you getting when you try to install from the Win98SE cd?  If it\'s the fullversion or OEM, it should boot right from the cd itself, if not you\'ll need to use a Win98 startup floppy to boot, then start setup from there.  I\'m assuming you\'re getting that far.  Then what?

[dabandit]

Hi..

I\'ll need to get back to you on that when I get back to work on 3rd Jan..

Many thanks

daBandit (Declan)

[mattd67]

You need Symantec Ghost. Once you restore a system and delete all the garbage, you can use ghost to take a snapshot of the system. Drop me an email at mattd67Email Removed if you want to know how.

[TheReasonIFailed]

I would assume that you\'d need to format your hard drive and start from the beginning.  I would assume the problem would no longer happen.

[Anonymous]

Norton GHOST? Man, that application is CRAP! PowerQuest\'s Drive Image Pro is much more stable and would do a LOT better job of it....

SE

[Anonymous]

It can\'t not let you, you must be doing something wrong.
Ghost won\'t do it either, or anything else. you need to make sure the hard drive has no hidden partitions,
Try kill zero \"0\" to kill everything then boot to your 98 se CD or even better a boot real disk. look at www.beta10.com /software for a boot image.
To use ghost and other tools you need extra resources, like 2 partitions, a network setup etc. Anyways, if it wont let you, then you are doing something wrong or you have hidden partitions still on your harddrive, or just maybe a bios that stops you, \"not likely\"

[[mirabilos]]

I usually use low-level format.
Drop me a note if you want that proggy, it\'s free, from maxtor
(maxllf.exe) - dunno whether there#s a new version, but
this works fine for me.
[email protected]