# Factory Reset Windows 98 Second Gen Without Discs



## Cowboyroy9123 (Mar 5, 2014)

I was given a dinosaur of a computer a Windows 98 Second Generation Computer but it pretty much beyond antivirus and such. I have been all over google I cant find a way to factory reset this thing. Please help the dinosaur man. Lol. Its the only comp I have so I need it functional thus needing to factory reset it. Thank You. Oh it does have a xp upgrade on it. Thank u for the assist ahead of time!


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## Cowboyroy9123 (Mar 5, 2014)

also it is a gateway


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Reload it. There are iso downloads available and I suspect you can get the drivers as well.


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## Cowboyroy9123 (Mar 5, 2014)

no internet connection and no way to reload them lol is there a kewy command for a factory reset screen


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## Cowboyroy9123 (Mar 5, 2014)

key command this dinosaur lol


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## prunejuice (Apr 3, 2002)

Well, what are you planning on doing with this computer?


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## Cowboyroy9123 (Mar 5, 2014)

word and such and games but there is much corrupted the only way to even have a chance at it working is a factory reset


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## MoonPoint (Mar 6, 2014)

What model of Gateway computer is it? That information should be on the back of the system. Do you know the processor speed and the amount of memory in it? Depending on those details, it might be possible to install Windows XP on it, if you have a Windows XP installation CD available, but not a Windows 98 installation CD. If you don't know those, the model number could reveal that information. Have you considered using Linux on it? Linux is free and would be an alternative to reloading Windows 98 from a CD, if there is no recovery partition on the system, which may be the case. You could download an ISO file for a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu, Knoppix, etc. using another system then burn it to a CD on the other system. You could then boot the Gateway system from that CD and install Linux from it. You still would need to verify that the system has enough memory to run the particular distribution you wished to install, though. If you installed Linux, you could install a free alternative to the Microsoft Office suite, such as Open Office, which would give you a word processor that can read and write to the Microsoft Word .doc file format.

Or, if you want to put Windows 98 on it, you could buy a Windows 98 CD from eBay for less than $25.


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## Cowboyroy9123 (Mar 5, 2014)

it has xp on it my mother when she had it has the sticker worn thin i know its 98 os second gen


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## MoonPoint (Mar 6, 2014)

If it was upgraded from Windows 98 to Windows XP, then it is unlikely there is a Windows XP recovery partition on the hard drive and I doubt there would be a recovery partition on the hard drive for Windows 98, either. You can recover a system to its factory-installed state, if the system has a partition on the hard drive where there is a copy of that factory-installed state. Since it is not likely there is such a recovery partition on the system, you will need a recovery or installation CD. E.g., if you had a Windows XP installation CD, you could boot from that CD and choose the repair option from it. If you don't have access to such a CD, you may have to fix whatever problems are present on the system to restore it to functionality. Are you having problems with the system now that make the system unusable or do you just want to get the system back to a prior state to eliminate a lot of what is on it now?


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

Do you have the CoA sticker for Windows XP?


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