can i install win98se without booting from the cd?

Van Hellseek

Van Hellseek

Van Hellseek

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Joined
2 Jun 2004
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i need to install win98se on another computer, but the problem is that the escape button on the keyboard doesn't work so i can't set the bios options to boot from the cd.

is there a way i can do it without booting from the cd?
 
BillytheImpaler said:
That assumes that the BIOS is not set so that the HDD is the first boot device.
Click to expand...
Which is usually a fair assumption on a PC of that age. If it's set to HDD first and it doesn't have on OS on, you're almost certainly stuffed.
 
csmager said:
Which is usually a fair assumption on a PC of that age. If it's set to HDD first and it doesn't have on OS on, you're almost certainly stuffed.
Click to expand...
it's got 98 on there already, i'm just trying to install 98se.

i'll go check to see if it checks A drive first or not...
 
seek said:
good news, looks like it tries A first, so i'll try the boot disk suggestion.

i've never used a boot disk before... what do i need to do?
Click to expand...
This takes me back(!)

Download the Win98SE bootdisk from the link above. Double click it on a PC with a floppy drive and it'll write the image to the disc. You then have a working bootdisk.

Boot off the disc on the target PC (choose boot with CD-ROM support). You should then be able to format the target drive (format C: /q).

Then goto the CD drive (usually E:\, as D: is a ramdisk created by the bootdisk).

I think you then navigate to the win98 folder (cd\win98) and type setup.
 
An alternative solution, as you already have win98 installed, is to modify the autoexec.bat/config.sys files to ensure CD-ROM support and then boot straight to DOS and do the same as above.
 
Make a bootable disk - I think this is done from Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs.

Pop disk in, boot up from it, and type in this (assuming CD-ROM is drive letter D:, and hard-drive is drive C:)

format c: /q /s
c:
md win98
cd win98
copy d:\win98
<reboot machine, without floppy or CD-ROM inserted>
cd win98
setup

What I've done there, is format the C: drive and put the system files on, so it boots up.

I then copied the Windows 98 setup files to drive C:. This allows for three thing: 1) A much faster installation; 2) No need for CD-ROM drivers during setup, therefore less chance of Win98 setup crashing; 3) No need for Win98 CD when Win98 is setup and running, as long as you don't delete the directory.
 
Zap said:
i love all these solutions, he hasn't got a keyboard :/
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when i posted this thread i thought it was only the escape button that didn't work. but it turns out half of the letter keys don't work either. so the only solution is to find an old keyboard somewhere, or an adapter so i can use my ps2 keyboard on it (if you can get them).
 
seek said:
when i posted this thread i thought it was only the escape button that didn't work. but it turns out half of the letter keys don't work either. so the only solution is to find an old keyboard somewhere, or an adapter so i can use my ps2 keyboard on it (if you can get them).
Click to expand...
I think you need a AT to PS/2 adapter. These can easily be found on a certain auction, by searching for "ps/2 at". :)
 
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