Windows 98 on an XP Machine

By AMANUENSIS
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Neowinian

AMANUENSIS

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hi

I have some software that runs on windows98 and the pc it was on has died, so I have bought a PC with XP on and now want to install Windows 98 on it.

How should I go about it, I have tried a normal install and it tells me I need to install from the dos prompt, I have even made a dos floppy to boot from, when I key in E:\setup to get it to install W98 from in the CD in drive E, it is telling me that the drive E is an address that is invalid. Any ideas as to how I can get W98 installed on this machine and will it enable me to use a USB mouse?

Many thanks in advance to anyone that can help

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Edited by Barney
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Grand Master

Southern Patriot

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Posted

First, did you try using the software on XP? It's likely that it would work. If you did, and it didn't work, and still want to install 98, then you should try booting from the 98 CD. Assuming it is a legit CD, it should work and start the install.

Grand Master

NightmarE D

Posted
Posted

I use a lot of older software in XP and have never had any problems running it actually. If it's something that relies on DOS like older games, you can download DosBox. You can also install the software and right click on it's icon and choose Properties then click on the Compatibility tab at the top and check the box next to "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and choose Windows 98 in the menu.

If you really want to run Windows 98 then try this:

Create a Windows 98 bootdisk. You can download the image file for one here. Just put a floppy in and run the image file and it'll do it for you. You can also se if the Windows 98 CD will boot at start up and start it from there.

Boot using the floppy you just made

At the prompt type "format c:" without the quotes and hit Enter

When the format is done, restart the system leaving the floppy disk in and choose CD-Rom support at the menu

At the A:\ prompt type E:\setup

It should start the setup fine after that. Keep in mind that Windows 98 doesn't support more than 512mb's of RAM and most of your hardware may not have Windows 98 drivers. You can also run it in a virtual machine and still have XP on your system.

Contributor

oooarrr33

Posted
Posted

Man, this is proper oldschool - I don't know whether I could find the resources to get this working, but I'll try for you. Basically as I recall, trying to get Windows to install from a Dos Boot Disk will require you to load a basic CD driver so that it can mount and read from the CD Drive. As I recall, if you look on the floppy you made, there should be two files called 'autoexec.bat', and config.sys - in one of these needs to go a reference to start the CD drivers.

If you want a quick fix though, the following website has images of bootdisks with CD driver support. Hope that helps!

Rising Star

Aldur82

Posted
Posted

In all honesty, I wouldn't even consider trying to install 98 on a modern computer due to the lack of driver support. It would be much easier, quicker, and more sensible, to run it in a Virtual Machine. The plus side to this is, if the computer ever failed for any reason all you have to do is copy TWO files over to another machine and it'll be back up an running without any trouble.

  • 3 months later...
Mentor

dmd3x

Posted
Posted

What are the specs of the PC that you are trying to install Windows 98 on? A few years ago at the school I used to go to, they were still installing Windows 98 on some computers, and the computers had Pentium 4 CPUs. A bit nuts, but I guess what happened was that the school had a boatload of Windows 98 licenses and someone donated a boatload of new computers with no OS installed... lol

So anyway, what are your specs? (Include models/manufacturers if you can)

Mentor

dmd3x

Posted
Posted

You could set up a Dual Boot, if you can get drivers for your hardware. If you are using an older PC, this should be easier to achieve.

Create a 30GB Partition for Win98 FAT (or less, but I wouldn't recommend more), and a second partition (NTFS) for Windows XP using the remainding space.

Install Windows 98 FIRST.

Rising Star

Aldur82

Posted
Posted

The really simple way of doing this would be to use Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (free from MS website) and run it as a virtual machine.

Problem solved.

Trying to install Windows 98 on new hardware is just asking for trouble. As I've already stated above.

Grand Master

markwolfe Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
What are the specs of the PC that you are trying to install Windows 98 on? A few years ago at the school I used to go to, they were still installing Windows 98 on some computers, and the computers had Pentium 4 CPUs. A bit nuts, but I guess what happened was that the school had a boatload of Windows 98 licenses and someone donated a boatload of new computers with no OS installed... lol

So anyway, what are your specs? (Include models/manufacturers if you can)

The dude posted the thread in April, and hasn't posted back at all. Anywhere on Neowin.

I don't think that this thread had any life in it when you bumped it. :unsure:

  • 2 weeks later...
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