Hardware·19,060 discussions

windows 98 or 2000 USB boot disk and USB installation

Locked

So far I’ve been unsuccessful in installing windows 98 through USB flash drive on a tablet that has no operating system. Presently do not have external CD or floppy.
BIOS identifies the flash drive and was able to shift it before the hard drive.
Any direction will be appreciated.

Topic

Clarifications

In reply to windows 98 or 2000 USB boot disk and USB installation

Clarifications

are you…

In reply to windows 98 or 2000 USB boot disk and USB installation

trying to install 98 from a flash drive to a hard disk inside the machine or trying to install 98 onto the flash drive

trying to install 98 from flash drive to hard disk

In reply to are you…

Hello,
I’m trying to install 98 from a flash drive to a hard disk inside the machine. Presently, I only have a USB connection in the tablet. I do not have a CD or floppy disk drive for the tablet.
Thanks

See if this is of any help

In reply to windows 98 or 2000 USB boot disk and USB installation

Win 98

If you haven’t already Partitioned and made the USB Stick Active you may need to create a Bootable CD with Fdisk.exe on it to prepare the USB Stick if you haven’t a Floppy Drive. You will need a DOS Boot Disk which can be downloaded from below.

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Download these files and add the new fdisk.exe to the floppy when it is created.

Tip. Dont forget to modify Autoexec.bat and Config.sys so that they don’t reflect any Drives. Sample and an alternative way: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootablecd Read the documentation below.

Windows 98 SE Custom, No Ramdrive

Updated fdisk for Windows 98 bootdisks

Because a lot of newer PC’s don’t have Floppy Drives anymore I use Virtual Floppy Drive. VFD.

http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html#beta

How to make a bootable CD

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000669.htm

How to Make Bootable CDs

http://www.pcsupportadvisor.com/bootable_%20CD_page1.htm

If you have access to the necessesary equipment keep the Active Partition at 2GB Read On.

Download the MS-DOS 7.10 Installation CD ISO Image

MS-DOS 7.10 Installation CD ISO Image:

http://ms-dos7.hit.bg/#msfv

Burn it to CD using Nero or any other Software that will support the ISO Image.

How to burn an ISO Image:

http://www.ubcd4win.com/burn.htm

Ensure that you have an Active Partition on the new Drive and it is Formatted FAT32

Disconnect the Hard Drive from the PC that you have been using. Set it to Boot from CD in the BIOS. Connect your USB Stick and turn on the PC.

Insert the DOS CD that you created and follow the prompts to install it to the USB Drive. When you have finished installing DOS shutdown the PC and reconnect the Hard Drive.

Restart the PC and reconnect the USB Stick, now you will need to copy the Win9X Folder from your XP CD to the USB Stick.

When you have finished doing that, disconnect the USB Stick and insert it back into the original PC. Turn on the PC and you should end up with a DOS Prompt. Now you will have to remove the Non DOS Partition, delete the NON DOS Logical Partition first and then the NON DOS Active Partition. Once that is complete recreate the Primary Partition, exit out and restart the PC.

When you get back to the DOS Prompt type in CD Win9X and press Enter. Type setup.exe and press Enter. Follow the prompts.

Hint! You may as well copy the Motherboard Device Drivers to the USB Stick at the same time as you are going to need them, also copy your Antivirus Sofware that you are going to install

Let us know how you get on.

Install windows 98 on hard drive – from a USB flash drive

In reply to See if this is of any help

Hello,
Presently, I do not have a CD or floppy drive for this tablet. I only have a USB flash drive, which I’m attempting to use to install Windows 98 operating system on the tablet. The tablet does not have an operating system at this time.
Thanks

The directions above are to allow you to copy the

In reply to Install windows 98 on hard drive – from a USB flash drive

Windows Install Files to the USB Stick.

When you have the entire Install Disc of 98SE copied to the USB Stick all that should be required if your hardware supports this option is to insert the USB Stick into a USB Port and boot the Tablet then enter BIOS and select the First Boot Device as the USB then the HDD as the second Boot Device. Save these changes on exit and allow the system to restart.

It should then find the Install Files on the USB Drive and ask do you want to install from there.

If it doesn’t either you have the Install Disc copied incorrectly or the Tablet doesn’t support Booting off a USB Device.

I’m not sure that this is even possible as 98 relies on the Install Media to be active through the Install Process and 98 didn’t have any USB Support till the SE Version and even then it wasn’t very good so I don’t know if this will even work here. Though if the Hardware supports Booting off a USB Device it should at the very least allow you to format the HDD and start the install till the first restart. After they it may fail to read the USB Stick.

You may need to copy the Install Files to a small Partition on the HDD from the USB Stick to install the OS here on a reboot after removing the USB Stick after the Copy to the HDD finishes.

I hope that helps.

Col

Just to add

In reply to Install windows 98 on hard drive – from a USB flash drive

The directions that I have supplied are for you to prepare the USB Stick to make it Bootable and act as a Drive so that it can be used to install Win98 to the Hard Drive in the Tablet. This is assuming that the USB flash drive can be booted from on the Tablet by setting the Boot order in the BIOS. Win98 will think that the USB flash drive is a Hard Drive it wont be worried about USB support at this time.

When you have prepared the USB flash drive try to boot from it. If it works but you can’t install Win98 from where it is then you will have to make the Hard Drive in the Tablet Bootable by typing sys.com d: and press Enter. We will cross this bridge if needed later.

a work in process

In reply to Just to add

Hello
Thanks for the support.

I downloaded the bootdisk and updated fdisk to a floppy drive on a different PC. I then used HP Drive Key Boot Utility to create the disk image file on the USB stick.

I tried a number of different modifications to Autoexec.bat and Config.sys but the outcomes were all the same.

The tablet bios would recognize the USB – I changed the boot order so it preceded the hard drive and got the following outcome when trying to boot up:

SYSLINUX 2.10 …..
… ….
boot: (here I could make entries from keyboard such as sys.com d: – which resulted in “could not find kernal image: sys.com”)

Sceen then proceeded to show loading memdisk and then the .img file created by the HP Drive Key Boot Utility followed by the statement: Ready.

There was further output to the screen which ended with the last line:
Loading boot sector … booting…

At this point there is a flashing cursor but will not take any input from keyboard.

Nothing happens after this except occasionally the screen will show flashing text or color lines then return to the text ending in … booting…

Can you recommend a next step to try?

Thanks

Yeah,

In reply to a work in process

follow the instructions that were provided.

< Typo >

You should be able to install DOS 7 on it now.

so many questions

In reply to Yeah,

Hello
Was able to get a C: prompt on the tablet, but not using the USB stick loaded with DOS 7.1 using process you provided.

Got C: prompt from USB stick with disk image file from windows 98 SE bootdisk.

I am not sure what you mean by the new drive when you state: “Ensure that you have an Active Partition on the new Drive and it is Formatted FAT32”

Also was not sure by your reference to a XP CD when you state: “you will need to copy the Win9X Folder from your XP CD to the USB Stick”. I don’t have Windows XP if that was the reference.

I installed DOS 7.1 from the CD to the USB Stick after the stick had been set up to be bootable including the Windows98 boot directory – the USB stick was able to get a C: prompt on the tablet before installing DOS 7.1 on it.

I have a second USB stick set up to boot the tablet. I loaded the Windows98SE disk on it and have access to all those files. Ran Fdisk.exe with this USB and was able to see both the USB and tablet hard drive. Started the setup.exe process but assume that it would setup on the stick and not the tablet hard drive so camcelled it.

Tried sys.com d: but don’t know how to get to the tablet hard drive.

Will keep working on it.

Ok

In reply to so many questions

I am not sure what you mean by the new drive when you state: “Ensure that you have an Active Partition on the new Drive and it is Formatted FAT32”

I am refering to the Tablet Drive.

Also was not sure by your reference to a XP CD when you state: “you will need to copy the Win9X Folder from your XP CD to the USB Stick”.

I meant Windows 98 CD.

I have been having a play as well and you wont be able to make the Tablet Drive Active unless you use the DOS based Partedt. part244.exe which can be downloaded here.

http://www.ranish.com/part/

I really don’t think that you are going to be successful doing it this way as the USB Stick is going to be C:. I think that you would be better off with a Notebook IDE Hard Drive Adaptor. That way you can connect the Drive to a PC and use the CD to install to it. You are also going to need USB Drivers for 98.

< Typo >

OK try this as you now have the Tablets Drive Formatted

In reply to so many questions

Reboot the Tablet and then run the Setup.exe after the reboot the Tablet Drive should be seen as the C Drive and 98 should install itself there.

Regardless you will be asked where you want to install Windows to just point to the Tablet HDD and allow the Install process to run. This at the very least will get the First Part of the Windows 98SE copied to the HDD of the Tablet but as I’ve said previously I don’t know what will happen after the reboot that is required by Windows.

You may have to make 2 Partitions on the Tablet’s HDD a small one formatted as FAT16 and the main One Formatted as a FAT32. That way you can start he Tablet with a DOS Boot Disc copied to the USB Stick and then under the C Prompt start the setup.exe program from the FAT16 Partition. That way when the system needs to restart it will not have to look for the Install Media.

Col

[Author]

Replies