49 replies to this topic 1 votes

[darkrats]

Hello everyone.

Currently at home, with lots of time on my hands, so.......

I figured I'd try installing Windows 98 (second edition) on an older IBM Netvista (which came with XP).

1. Got me a bootdisk and powered up into MS-DOS and did a complete FDISK etc. and wiped the hard drive clean.
2. At this point my USB mouse and USB keyboard were working fine.
3. While in MS-DOS, reformatted the hard drive as FAT32 (500GB drive). That went well.
4. Put in the bootable Windows 98se disk and shut down/restarted the computer.
5. The install disk was recognized and a dialog came up asking if I wanted to continue setup.
6. Tried to move the cursor to the "continue" button and it wouldn't move.
7. Tried using the keyboard to go to the "continue" button and it wouldn't move.

Okay, so the USB ports are not working, either because they just won't work, or they won't work until Wndows 98se is installed.
So I unplugged my USB mouse and keyboard and replace them with a PS/2 mouse and keyboard.
Repeated all of the above steps just to be sure, and again no mouse or keyboard at steps 6/7.

I'd appreciate any suggestions as to what's going on. I really thought the PS/2 ports would be working.

Thanks.

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[trek]

Did you power off the machine after plugging in the PS/2 devices? They aren't hot-pluggable AFAIK

[Dot Matrix]

Can Windows 98 even recognize the 500 GB HDD?

[Raa]

As pointed out, you need to switch the computer off to use PS/2 devices.
Also, you *might* be able to use USB devices in setup - go into the BIOS and find the option for "USB Legacy" and enable it.

I think you're going to run into more stumbling blocks, but that might at least let you progress!

[darkrats]

Yes, the computer was powered off between switching the mouse/keyboards.

Never actually got into Windows 98 to see what works, but I was able to format the 500GB drive as FAT32, so I'm thinking that shouldn't be a problem (but don't know for sure).

USB Legacy is enabled in the BIOS.

[Detection]

Dot Matrix, on 07 December 2012 - 00:49, said:

Can Windows 98 even recognize the 500 GB HDD?

That shouldn't affect the keyboard or mouse working in setup.

I would try clearing CMOS (Resetting BIOS) then trying setup again

Also try making a new DOS Boot disk if you're using that to start setup, otherwise booting from the 98se CD - Chances are the bootdisk doesn't have the drivers for the keyboard or mouse

[trek]

Num Lock or Caps Lock light work on the keyboard? If not, they may not have been detected.

[AWKM]

inb4 "should have installed 2k"

[Raa]

technikal, on 07 December 2012 - 00:56, said:

inb4 "should have installed 2k"

No comment.


Well if the BIOS option was enabled, and you've switched off/on and still locked at the setup, i'd say it's failing the detection at the start of setup - possibly because the machine is "too powerful" for it?

Any chance of doing this in a VM?

[majortom1981]

Its been a LOOOOOOONG TIME but do you need to have the mouse stuff setup in autoexec.bat and stuff like that for it to work in the windows 98 setup?

[Detection]

Raa, on 07 December 2012 - 01:04, said:

No comment.


Well if the BIOS option was enabled, and you've switched off/on and still locked at the setup, i'd say it's failing the detection at the start of setup - possibly because the machine is "too powerful" for it?

Any chance of doing this in a VM?

I wouldn't say 'too powerful' but newer machines are stated similar to 'xp >' due to chipset drivers etc, so 'too new' would be a better wording

[embj]

Could be because Win 98SE has a hard drive size limitation of 137GB...might be getting confused. Although, I wouldn't think so at this point in the install...

As an FYI, it's best to have partitions 127GB or smaller. This is because Scandisk and the defrag utility are 16-bit programs, and they can only recognize partitions up to this size. Therefore, I'd recommend partitioning the drive up into 127GB or smaller partitions.

Here's more information on the subject: http://www.hexff.com/w98_hd.php

Also...as another aside, GParted is an excellent free alternative partitioning software to FDISK: http://gparted.sourc...et/download.php

[Nothing Here]

I did this once before and had to pull out the usb kb and mouse and reuse the old ps/2 kb and mouse. Was the only way around it for me. I also used 100gig partitions.

[darkrats]

The bootdisk loads drivers for the mouse and keyboard.
I'll try clearing CMOS and starting setup again tomorrow.

[majortom1981]

darkrats, on 07 December 2012 - 01:43, said:

The bootdisk loads drivers for the mouse and keyboard.
I'll try clearing CMOS and starting setup again tomorrow.

You sure its the right ones though? Did you make sure no errors were posted?