China DOS Union

Moderators and all the experts:
I have a COMPAQ laptop with no system on it at all (it has already been formatted and repartitioned). The machine’s built-in removable CD-ROM drive has already been smashed to pieces after I dropped it, so it cannot be used. Now I want to reinstall the system, boot the DOS system with the MS-DOS 7.10 super boot disk and load the USB CD-ROM drive. In the boot options I chose item 3, but during the WIN98 installation it says there is not enough conventional memory and tells me to return to DOS and free more conventional memory. Using the MEM command to check memory usage gives:

Conventional used 181K free 459K;
Upper used 56K free 13K;
Extended（XMS） used 4744K free 190776K。
(I did not select PC－CACHE or SMARTDRV during the DOS boot process)

So what should I do now to complete the WIN98 installation? Please, moderators and experts, teach me. Please write a little more detailed (the more detailed the better , I’m a complete idiot when it comes to DOS systems. Thank you!

There is one more question. My hard disk is about 10G, and right now only drive C has been created, taking about 1G. I want to install the WIN98 system on drive C first, then under WIN98 install XP again onto drive D. I hope to keep the system on drive C, so reinstalling the system in the future might be more convenient. I don’t know whether this will work, so please give me some advice!

This post is written in a very long-winded way, thank you for patiently reading to the end. Please help me bring this computer back to life, I will be extremely grateful!!!

You should first copy the WIN98 and WINXP installation files to a partition on the hard disk and then install them. Install WIN98 first, then XP, then use GHOST to back up drive C, wouldn’t that do?

MYS is right, first copy them over and then use pure boot mode to install, that will do!

Right now my machine is using a USB CD-ROM drive. Under DOS, how do I copy the WIN98 and XP systems to the hard disk? What command should I type? I saw a post in this board before about copying the systems to the hard disk first and then installing, and it seemed to use the XCOPY command. I tried it a few times but couldn’t get it to work. Moderator, please teach me, and please write it in more detail. I’m really too much of a newbie. (sweat…………)
Also, if I copy WIN98 and XP to the hard disk first, do I need to divide the hard disk into 3 partitions first? Is 500 MB enough to install one WIN98 system?
Thank you, moderator, for replying. Knowing that this computer can still be saved really makes me happy, I can finally see a glimmer of hope! ^_^

Don’t know how to use Xcopy? Check the help with xcopy /？
If English is a problem, use a Chinese-localized edition, download Shen Jie’s Chinese boot disk.
You can also use a Chinese-localized fdisk for partitioning. If the hard disk is small, 500M is enough for win98 too, and virtual memory can be put on another drive.

Just use COPY! There aren’t any hidden files in a win98 folder you’re copying. No need to make it so troublesome!