When you boot off the disk. It will give you a menu that says "With or without cd rom support". You select which one you would like to use. The it loads a generic cd rom driver and starts a crappy form of dos that allows you to fdisk, but not format. Format command was not included with the windows 98 package. I've installed windows 98 a bunch of times working on people computer problems for free. Momalle1 dust off your windows 98 oem disk. Set bios to boot cd rom and see what happens. Jamzwayne or someone back me up. I'm not trying to be rude, but it works. There was a 95 to 98 upgrade disk that was pos. It basically ran from windows 95 and you had to boot it from the windows os for it to work. That might be what your thinking about.

 

Not taken as rude, and I'm not trying to be either. I have a retail disk I actually won from Microsoft, it was not bootable. It is a first edition, I copied the files and had to make my own bootable CD because I got tired of using the slow floppy, and format is on there by the way, what is the 98 CD you are using? Either way, I just want Slamma to not be confused if he tries it one way and it doesn't work as described. Check the link I posted, even Microsoft says the CD is not bootable, that you need the floppy. Slamma, check the link, it describes, step by step, how to install 98.

Invalid, I think I gave my original away and only have the bootable CD i created. I'll check my MS Select subscription and see if there is one in there.

Edit, found me 98 SE disk, it does not boot, and the directory listing shows no boot files, and I am showing hidden and system files.

Volume in drive E is Win98 SE
Volume Serial Number is 6E13-4154

Directory of E:\

04/23/1999 06:22 PM <DIR> add-ons
04/23/1999 06:22 PM 81 autorun.inf
04/23/1999 06:22 PM <DIR> cdsample
04/23/1999 06:22 PM <DIR> drivers
04/23/1999 06:22 PM 3,096 readme.txt
04/23/1999 06:22 PM 3,824 setup.exe
04/23/1999 06:22 PM 3,646 setuptip.txt
04/23/1999 06:22 PM <DIR> tools
04/23/1999 06:22 PM <DIR> win98
4 File(s) 10,647 bytes
5 Dir(s) 0 bytes free

 

ahhh, i type in Setup, and it tells me that it "cannot create a temporary directory. If you have HPFS or NTFS installed on your hard drive, you will need to create an MS-DOS boot partition to set up windows."

What is that lol?

 

How did you format the drive?

 

NTFS is windows 2000 nt paritition. Windows 98 ran on fat 32 partition.
Type fdisk and delete the ntfs partition off the computer. Then create a fat32 partition on the drive. Make the partition all the disk space. Then format the drive with windows 98 bootdisk. Windows 98 doesn't have format command on cd. Then try installing again.

 

Windows 98 Se what I am using. Mine boots and ask If I want cd rom support or not and goes into dos mode. This is really weird man. Momalle check and make sure that your cd rom is booting before your hard drive in bios. Try that, you might find a suprise. I'm not trying to be rude either this is confusing.
I have all version of windows
95a
95b
97
98
98se
ME --- crappiest one of alll
2000
xp home
xp pro

 

oh yea, i forgot to mention, im trying to install ME edition....i should have mentioned that as soon as i found out. U guys are without a doubt geniuses. You know everything about ford engines....how to keep swirls off of black paint, and now u know everything about computers. Keep it commin guys this is stressin me out.

 

I did that, and no boot. I have the same list except for XP home, but I tried both 98 disks, neihter boots. Where is yours from? My SR1 disk is retail, the SE disk is from the Microsoft Select collection. I agree with your ME assesment too, is your ME disk bootable?

 

how can i tell if it is bootable?

 

Don't forget to use "format C:/S" command to make it a system (bootable) disk.

 

It works for me. Maybe your drive doesn't recognise the cd rom driver. I'm about to make a thread on this to get some more people to try to figure this out. This is weird.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Don't do it! Use 98 instead. ME was a fluke. It only came out because the public was demanding it and 2000 wasnt ready yet. Throw that disk in the trash. It has no many bugs and security issues and Microsoft has competely abanonded it trying to wipe thier hands of it. 98 is a much better choice compared to ME.

Edited to add:
I've never been able to get my 98SE disk to boot on an empty hard drive before either. Wasn't until 2000 that I started load windows by booting to CD. I always have to boot from Floppy then load windows from dos on 98. Once windows has been installed then it will recognize a 98 disk on boot and then ask for you loading preferences. Same screen you get when you push F8 during the bios screen while bios is loading your firmware drivers.

 

i havent got a 98 disc, thats the whole prob