First thing I would like to mention is the CABS for the original 98 is under windows/options/cabs but there is no setup nor can I get into _74 which I think has something to do with the installation
The CAB files are stored on most machines for the purposes of installing drivers. Otherwise, installing many drivers would require you to insert the Windows CD. Instead, the CAB files get copied to the HD and the Add New Hardware Wizard knows to look there first, making hardware installations easier. There is no way to setup Windows itself from these CAB files.
My CD is the "e" drive but the Bios is "C".
The BIOS never get's a drive letter, so I'm not really sure to what you are referring. I guess you could mean the system drive, but that's pretty normal.
I have a borrowed W98 CD and it won't so anything except give an error message which I forgot to bring with me to the library.
Error Message is a pretty critical piece of info here. Anyway, if the CD doesn't have a /WIN98 folder it's not a retail windows disc but rather a OEM restore disk. I would guess the error message was a result of this.
My neighbor, who fixes computers and told me Windows should be re-installed at least once every 3 years
This is tosh. It's based on an old myth of "Windows Rot" Where a Windows install accreates problems over time. There is an ounce of truth in the pound of fallacy, in that as a result of installing and uninstalling software, programs crashing with certain files open,. This is particularly true when installing games, which- in a lot more cases than would be expected- install low-level drivers that essentially act as rootkits just to make sure you are running a legitimate copy of the game.
The fallacy, IMO, is in the allegation that the only way to fix it is a complete reinstall. Proper maintenance over the course of using the machine does wonders. I have a Toshiba Satellite 440CDX from 1996 (with a windows install that was put on the HD in late 2000 (win98SE)) which still boots just as quickly as it did when new, and It got heavy use for nearly 7 years of that time. Of course, without that proper maintenance, eventually things just get worse as the people using the machine continue to install new programs, uninstall old ones, while continuing to simply dismiss those errors they get at startup, and by that point it's usually a lot easier to just go with a clean install. The Windows Install I am running now was Installed February 2010, and was an in-place upgrade of an Install of Vista made in June 2009. (And no, I don't have these dates memorized, that would be sad- first I got from systeminfo and second I base on when I originally built the computer for which I made a
Forum Thread.
Now, that said, I do see other peoples PCs and they definitely seem to have an advanced case of lack of maintenance- the user has been clicking through 5 error messages for the last year without even reading them, and without bothering to fix it because "things mostly work"; Starting word starts Windows Installer which says it's configuring the installer, which they cancel every time, it complains that Word will not work properly, and then Word Starts (so they don't bother trying to resolve the MSI problem); etc. It's mostly the accumulation of the small things that the user either is not equipped to fix skill or equipment wise or that they cannot be bothered to fix.
FWIW I'm not saying a fresh install is a bad idea (in fact, in this scenario it's probably quite the opposite) and that you should try to fix the problems that make you think it is "corrupted", whatever those may be, but that this is not an intrinsic property of the OS but rather a case of accumulated bad maintenance; sort of like how two people can get the same car at the same time and one of them starts having problems with it; with few exceptions it can often be traced to the person having problems not taking proper care of their car. Whereas the first owner might have their torque converter replaced when it starts giving them problems, the... uhh.. "thrifty" user might decide that they can just not drive faster than ~50mph to prevent stalls; while the first owner might get their car looked at when it starts to say "Check Engine Soon" the thrifty user puts a piece of black tape on the dash and then complains that they had no warning of problems when their car starts to stall, ignoring the aforementioned light as well as the constant misfires by the engine since, which aren't a problem because they don't mind the noise. etc.
Come to think of it, as far as car ownership is concerned I probably fall in the latter category, myself...
