CAB File Errors During Windows 98 Setup

When you try to install Windows 98 or a component that requires copying files from the original Windows disks or CD-ROM, you may receive one of the following messages:

Setup has detected the following decoding error:
Could not decode this setup (.CAB) file. Setup will
attempt to recover from this situation, click OK to
continue.

Setup cannot copy all of the files from your Windows
98 CD. Clean the Windows 98 CD with a soft cloth,
return it to the CD-ROM drive, and then click OK. If
you receive this message again, read the CAB Errors
section of the Setup.txt file. This file is in the
Win98 directory of your Windows 98 CD.

These errors can occur for any of the following reasons:

Your Windows 98 CD-ROM may be damaged, dirty from smudges or fingerprints, or may be scratched.
Your CD-ROM drive is not functioning properly. The CD-ROM may vibrate too much for the laser to accurately read the data.
Your computer is over-clocked. Extracting files from the Windows 98 Second Edition cabinet files is memory-intensive. If your computer is over-clocked beyond the default settings, it can contribute to decoding errors. Computers that are not over-clocked but have a cooling problem can also experience decoding errors.
Your computer has bad or mismatched RAM or cache. For example, you are using EDO and non-EDO RAM, or you are using different RAM speeds. Even if Windows 98 seems to run without problems, the additional stress of extracting files and accessing the disk may contribute to decoding errors.
Your computer has Bus Mastering or Ultra DMA enabled in the BIOS and in Device Manager. The data may be moving too quickly for the system to keep up.
You are using a third-party memory manager.
There is a virus on your computer.

To resolve such error messages, follow these steps:

Remove the CD-ROM from the CD-ROM drive, rotate it one-quarter to one-half a turn, reinsert the CD-ROM into the drive, and then click OK.
Remove the CD-ROM from the CD-ROM drive. Clean the CD-ROM with a soft cloth, reinsert it into the drive, and then click OK.
Check your computer for a virus using virus-detection software.
On one of your hard drives, create an empty folder and name it Win98. Copy the contents of the Win98 folder on the CD-ROM to the Win98 folder. If you are unable to copy the contents of the Win98 folder on the CD-ROM to you hard disk, the CD-ROM may be damaged.
If you are still receiving CAB errors in Windows 98, you can manually extract all the Setup files from the Windows 98 CD-ROM to your hard disk and run Setup from there. It requires approximately 300MB of free hard-disk space to extract the Windows 98 files. You can use the Ext.exe utility to extract the Windows 98 files. This utility is located on the Windows 98 Startup disk and in the \Oldmsdos folder on the Windows 98 CD-ROM.
To manually extract the Windows 98 files, follow these steps:
1. Insert the Windows 98 Startup disk into the floppy disk drive, and then restart your computer
2. At the command prompt, type ext
3. When prompted for the location of the cabinet files, type the path to the Win98 folder that you created in step 4 above
4. When prompted for the files to extract, type *.*
5. When prompted for the location where the files are to be extracted, type the path to the Win98 folder
  Note: This does not extract the files in the Precopy1.cab and Precopy2.cab cabinet files
6. After all the files have been extracted, run Setup from the Win98 folder on your hard disk
7. If the above steps do not fix the problem, you can try to slow down your computer by changing your computer's CMOS (BIOS) settings. Bus mastering, external/internal cache, RAM settings/timings, and other settings contribute to the speed at which your computer runs. For information about how to change these settings, consult the documentation for your computer.

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CAB File Errors During Windows 98 Setup