[Max77Rave]

I built a machine using old obsolete leftover parts and I don't have a floppy drive yet so I was wondering if it is possible to install 98 or ME on it if I don't have a floppy. I did try to but I couldn't get it to work. So should I even try again and how? I gave up and installed XP on it but I can't keep it on that because I already have XP on my main system. But I knew that and installed anyway just to test my hardware (which works fine). Thanks

 

[NiteHawk]

Since you can install XP it sounds like the CD and all your hardware is working fine.
Is the HD formatted as FAT32 or NTFS? Win98 needs FAT32. Is the partition set to active?

 

[JohnWill]

If you put the contents of the Win98 directory from the W98 CD onto the hard disk, you can install it from the hard disk. On the other computer, you can take the boot floppy and create a bootable CD with most CD burning applications.

Of course, you could just borrow the floppy from the other system long enough to get the job done...

 

[NiteHawk]

Johnwill is one step ahead of me. That was my next suggestion.

IF possible, I would copy the install CD to a folder on another partition or HD and install from there. That way if you have to format your windows partition you still have the install files on HD in another location.

 

[Triple6]

The Windows 98 and ME CD's are bootable just like the XP CD and they the partition and format utitilies on them. You probably need to run FDISK on the hard drive to remove the Windows XP NTFS partitions (under NON-DOS in FDISK) and it should work.

 

[Bob Cerelli]

I wasn't aware that the Win98 or ME standard CD's were bootable like those with a NT based OS.

If you don't have access to a CD burner, what was the exact problem when you tried to install a floppy drive. This is typically not that difficult to do. Most of the problems are from not having the data cable on the correct way.

 

[~Candy~]

Yes, Bob, I know for sure the 98 cd is bootable. I would imagine the ME cd is as well

 

[Bob Cerelli]

You might want to actally test this out. Just tried to boot from two actualy MS CD's each of Win98 and ME. Neither would boot.

It would also contradict johnwill's post about needing to make a bootable CD for Win98. Even the original post said how it didn't boot but XP did.

 

[~Candy~]

Just did my dear.....2 choices, boot from cdrom, or boot from hard drive, then 3 choices after that Bios has to be set to boot from the cdrom, of course.

Now there are probably some OEM Windows cds that won't boot, similar to the DELL OEM of XP. It won't boot either