Does Win 98 require a bootdisk for installation? I have a thinkpad here with major problems and need to reinstall 98, however it has no floppy drive. Can it be done?
i assume if you can boot into 98 then you can use the 98 cd. I have always booted 98 from a cd, my friend made me a cd with a 98 boot disk on it years ago. Once booted into the dos like mode i change the cds over and execute it from there.
No, Win98 CDs are not bootable
Thats a common myth.
The quick & dirty way to do it is to find any one of the system rescue CDs that are floating around the net. Use this to format the HDD, & install DOS, then copy across the contents of the 98 CD and install from the HDD. Its also possible to build a CD that'll boot DOS, which you can then use to load the 98 installer directly from the CD, but thats a little more work. (IMHO anyway )
Rot
Got two here, one retail & one OEM (Although, as far as I'm aware there is absolutely no difference), and both are decidably non-bootable.
I haven't tried an upgrade disk (Did they even exist?), but I'd assume there would be no difference again.
Very odd
My OEM CD came with an ancient Panrix (Anyone remember them ) machine, would have been very soon after the introduction of SE. The retail version isn't much newer than that, although I'm not sure by how much (Came out of a junk shop), but its very decidedly non-bootable.
With both of them, there was a floppy (Lost long ago!), which needed to be booted from, which AFAIK booted DOS & loaded the CD drivers, before presenting you with a command prompt, from which you were supposed to load the CD.
Thanks for confirming that Bigboy, I thought I may have been wrong so stuck a 98 CD into my CD drive and rebooted my PC and sure enough it booted off the 98 CD, no floppy required
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.