Windows 98 setup errors

Notice:  If you don't find what you need on this page try our full list of Windows setup error messages.

Message SU0018
"Setup cannot create files on your startup drive and cannot set up Windows 98. There may be too many files in the root directory of your startup drive, or your startup drive letter may have been remapped."

The root folder of a drive holds a maximum of 512 entries (files or folders). This message indicates that Setup has detected too many directory entries in the root folder of your computer, and Setup cannot create the files it needs to set up Windows 98. Move or delete some files from the root folder of your drive, and then run Setup again.

"Unrecoverable Setup Error" Message
"Unrecoverable Setup Error. Setup cannot continue on this system configuration. Click OK to quit Setup." This error could be caused by various conditions. See "GENERAL SETUP NOTES" and "INSTALLING WINDOWS 98 SECOND EDITION FROM MS-DOS" in your Windows 98 Setup.txt file for more information.  The file is located on your Windows CD or go to MS Knowledgebase article [Q179756]

Long File Names Error Messages
If you see the message "Setup has detected that the program, Long File Names, is installed in this directory. Setup cannot continue." quit Setup, and then remove Long File Names from your computer by using the Uninstall feature in Long File Names. See "View Software" for more information.

Not Enough Memory Messages
If you encounter an Out of Memory message, you can increase conventional memory by commenting out TSRs and loading device drivers into the upper memory area. For information on how to perform these steps, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article [Q134399], "How to Increase Conventional Memory for MS-DOS-Based Programs".
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q134/3/99.asp

Not Enough Disk Space Messages
You can recover disk space by completing any or all of the following steps:

  • Right-click Recycle Bin, and then click Empty Recycle Bin.
  • Delete the contents of your Internet browser cache folder.
  • Delete files with the extensions .bak and .tmp.
  • Delete unused program folders (be sure to back up data first).
  • Delete the old MS-DOS folder, unless you intend to configure your computer to run both Windows 98 and MS-DOS. (First, be sure you have a start disk that supports access to the CD-ROM drive.)
  • Delete the hidden file Winundo.dat from the previous installation of Windows 95.
  • Delete the old Windows 3.1 folder, unless you intend to configure your computer to run both Windows 3.1 and Windows 98.

Setup Cannot Write to the Temporary Directory
This message may appear because there is insufficient disk space for the temporary directory. If space is available on another drive, use the following command line to change the temporary directory location:

Setup /T::\TEMP

If you do not have space available on another drive, free some disk space, and then run Setup again. See the "Not Enough Disk Space" Messages section for files that can be deleted.

If you have Multimedia Cloaking and are installing Windows 98 from floppy disks, Setup may not run successfully. If you see messages about Setup not being able to read .cab files, follow these steps:

  • Remove the line referencing Cacheclk.exe from your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files.

  • Restart your computer.

  • Run Setup again.

Message SU0010, SU0012, SU0015, or SU0016
If you receive one of these messages during Setup, see "INSTALLING WINDOWS 98 SECOND EDITION ON A SYSTEM RUNNING WINDOWS NT and INSTALLING WINDOWS 98 SECOND EDITION ON A SYSTEM RUNNING OS/2 for more information.

Message SU0011
If your hard disk is password-protected, Setup will not complete successfully. You must first remove the password protection. For more information, see your computer documentation.

Message SU0013
To set up Windows 98, your startup drive must be an MS-DOS boot partition. If your startup drive is formatted as HPFS or NTFS, you must create an MS-DOS boot partition before running Setup. For more information about creating an MS-DOS boot partition, see your computer documentation.

You may also receive this error if you have third-party partitioning software such as EZ drive or Disk Manager installed. If so, reboot your system and run Setup from an MS-DOS command prompt. For more information, see "Running Setup from MS-DOS."

Standard Mode Messages
If you get any of the following error messages, remove any memory managers (such as EMM386.exe, QEMM, or 386Max) from your Config.sys file, and then run Setup again.

    Standard ModC: Invalid DPMI return.
    Standard ModC: Fault in MS-DOS Extender.
    Standard ModC: Bad Fault in MS-DOS Extender.
    Standard ModC: Unknown stack in fault dispatcher.
    Standard ModC: Stack Overflow.

  NOTiCE: If you still have problems, add EMM386.EXE back into your Config.sys file and exclude all ranges. For example,

    device=c:\windows\emm386.exe x=A000-FFFF (delete everything after .exe)

If you encounter these messages or if your computer stops responding during Setup, turn on double-buffering in SmartDrive. Several SCSI hard drives and some ESDI drives require double-buffering.

To turn on double buffering, add the following line to the beginning of your Config.sys file:

device=c:\windows\smartdrv.exe /double_buffer+ where "c:\windows" is the path to your Windows directory.

"Setup Could Not Back Up Your System Files" Message
If you see this error message while Setup is saving your system files, you may not have enough disk space, particularly on compressed disks. Free up space on the drive you are saving your system files on (the default drive is C) by removing unneeded files.
Uninstall can require up to 75 MB on many systems. If Setup is not offering you the choice of saving your system files, you may be very low on free disk space.

"Cannot Continue on This System Configuration"
If you get this message, you may have an older, incompatible disk partition. Before you run Setup, you will need to back up your data and then repartition your disk.

Message SU0167
A file or folder called Desktop exists on your computer. Rename or move your current Desktop folder, and then run Setup again.

Message SU0168
Your computer already has an operating system installed, which cannot be upgraded by this version of Setup. Please obtain the Windows 95 (or Windows 98) Upgrade.
This error can occur when you are attempting to install an OEM version of Windows 98 over a previous version of Windows.
-or-
An application has installed an OEM version of SetupX.dll that makes it appear that your current version of Windows is the OEM version.
If you suspect this is the case, replace SetupX.dll with the correct version from your current install media.

  • Place your Windows 95 or Windows 98 CD in your CD-ROM drive.

  • From a command prompt, change to your CD-ROM drive letter.

  • Type "Extract /a Precopy2.cab SetupX.dll /l c:\"

  • Copy the SetupX.dll from your C: to your Windows\System directory.

  • Run Windows 98 Second Edition Setup again.

SU99xxxx Messages
SU99 is a prefix that is added to all errors that Setup does not have a specific error message for. These errors are often caused by low conventional memory. If you have already created a Startup Disk, quit Setup, shut down your computer, insert the Startup Disk, and restart the computer. Then, run Setup from the MS-DOS command prompt.

"Setup does not have enough conventional memory to check your computer's hard disks."
-or-
"Setup could not check the hard drives on your computer."

If you receive either of these errors, Setup was unable to run ScanDisk to check your hard drives. This could be because of low conventional memory or your disk contains errors that Scandisk cannot fix when run from Setup. To work around these errors, reboot your system to MS-DOS mode and run ScanDisk /all. Then, run Setup again. If Setup still fails, reboot to MS-DOS mode and run Scandisk /all /surface. This will take a little longer, but it will ensure your hard disks are in good shape. If, after running ScanDisk with these options, Setup still won't continue, you should run Setup /is to bypass ScanDisk.


  NOTICE: Bypassing ScanDisk is not recommended and should only be used if you are positive your disk(s) contain no errors. If there are still errors, Setup may fail and your system may no longer start up.

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