Windows 98 on SSD

Retro6 · 21 Oct 2021 at 00:08

I'm into building retro gaming PC's although I'm no expert its something that I really enjoy but with IDE mechanical drives becoming harder to find it presents a challenge.

I've seen a lot of videos of people installing Windows 98 "Second Edition" to SSD (often SATA) but fail to explain how it all works. I'm a bit confused... My current understanding is that Windows 98 doesn't support solid state drives and although Windows 98 installations will often go smoothly after a while there will be major issues with the OS and blue screens.

Is there a work around that I'm missing? or is Installing Windows 98 to a solid state drive completely pointless?

Thanks.

Firestar_3x · 21 Oct 2021 at 01:02

A HDD is a drive irrespective of it being solid state or not.

Depending on the age of the hardware IDE to CF or SD adaptors can work really well, just watch the size of the drive you are trying to use.

Rroff · 21 Oct 2021 at 01:25

Aside from disabling any scheduled defragging I'm not sure of any issues with Windows 98 on an SSD - I've had it installed on various flash media in the past though not an SSD specifically - in some cases you do have to modify the installation media to include the driver and/or so that the storage driver for it is loaded at the right place in the chain.

There may be issues with single volumes over 32GB or 128GB as well depending on version and some other stuff but not sure on that.

EDIT: Having a quick Google - the lack of Trim support can reduce lifespan of the SSD though that isn't always a huge issues especially with newer ones and it is a good idea to tweak the swapfile to minimise writes - apparently one way to minimise issues there is to leave 25% of the SSD unpartitioned.

Kurgen · 21 Oct 2021 at 12:32

i tried the IDE to SATA adaptors with an SSD and windows kept crashing, and starting in safe mode. I'm using Compact flash which is more than fast enough for windows 98. although it does occasional not shut down, but any number of ancient parts could be causing that

Cyber-Mav · 21 Oct 2021 at 19:08

I had win98 setup on a ide drive all i did was clone the drive over to a ssd and it worked fine. Just make sure never to defrag it.

Retro6 · 21 Oct 2021 at 21:21

Thanks for the info. From my research some solid state drives are better than others for this purpose. I believe the limit for Windows 98 is 120 GB but I normally only use a maximum of 40GB for Win98. I knew about the defragment. I have an 32GB and 16 GB SSD somewhere I will make a partition before installing win98 for 25% of the SSD unpartitioned.. I did try installing win98 to an SD card once via a IDE to SD card adapter which worked for a short time but I understand SD are not really appropriate for this purpose and CF cards are better suited. I may also have a miniSSD somewhere. I will see if there are some more ways to improve things a bit more in regards to the swapfile to minimize writes.

Cyber-Mav · 21 Oct 2021 at 22:34

My old pentium m 730 laptop uses a ide to msata adapter and 120gb ssd. Works fine although it is running Windows 7 or 10

Guest2 · 23 Oct 2021 at 09:08

Just get a good Western Digital 120GB HDD. I could load Windows 98 SE in 20-30 seconds on my retro rig.
No need to fart around with an SSD, its not like you're installing 100GB games on Win 98

Retro6 · 8 Feb 2022 at 18:42

Anybody remember people using SSD's on Windows XP?

I remember laptops being sold that were running Windows XP that had SSD. Windows XP was never designed to run on SSD and had no TRIM but they could be set up in a way where the SSD would be perfectly fine from wearing out quickly.

I read that some SSD's deal with the dater themselves via there controller. Having TRIM support built into the controller, not needing an operating system to support TRIM. Crucial mention this on there website.

Somebody suggested that to use Windows Me or Win 7 setup disk and Diskpart to set up partitions on ssd for older systems (Shift +F10 during setup) to access shell, then run diskpart. Need to do it this way or the 4k blocks on ssd are not format aligned with physical layout of cells. With 95/98/xp/2000 fdisk puts 4k blocks starting at any physical point in 4k cell block on ssd, causes multiple overlapping disk writes to multiple overlapping 4k blocks on the ssd to change data (imagine replacing a tile on a roof, having to remove lots of tiles around the broken one to get to the one you want to replace), wearing out the ssd really fast. Once partitions are set up using ME/7 you can format in 98 no problem.

There is a lot of conflicting information out there... I don't mind ruining an SSD conducting an experiment with Windows 98 installed to SSD some people say they have done it and have been using the the same SSD for years running Windows 98.

Cyber-Mav · 15 Feb 2022 at 08:15

128gb ssd's are cheapo enough. i doubt anyone is gonna use an old win98 pc as a daily driver. most of the time its just for testing stuff and nostalgia. even without trim a modern ssd will last ages in old os like win98 which itself is considerably smaller install size than newer os and doesnt have any updates to deal with that will cause drive writes.