Solved! installing win98 w/o boot diskette

[rmh2000]

im sure this has been asked many times over the eons, but am i able to install windows 98 first edition without a boot diskette? all i have is the cd the manual and a dell optiplex 4100 with a wiped hardrive and no way to burn discs or diskettes.

 

[Iron Woode]

I did it with win98SE using USB. I have no clue about win98.

I did find this:

http://www.howtonetworking.com/Windows/bootableusb.htm

 

[WilliamM2]

The CD is bootable. Just use that, no floppy needed if that is what you mean.

 

[rmh2000]

I did it with win98SE using USB. I have no clue about win98.

I did find this:

http://www.howtonetworking.com/Windows/bootableusb.htm

This really isn't an option for me unless I get a floppy emulator as my bios won't use flashdrives as a boot option

 

[TheELF]

The easiest way would to put the HDD drive into a different system that already can boot into windows,then partition and system format the HDD,this will make the the HDD boot into basic dos,then just copy all the files from the CD into a folder on the HDD and put it back into your optiplex 4100.
Now if it boots into dos you just change dir into the folder you made,if you called it win98 you just type c:\win98 and press enter after that you type setup and press enter and it will start installing.

 

[Iron Woode]

This really isn't an option for me unless I get a floppy emulator as my bios won't use flashdrives as a boot option

what about a USB floppy drive?

 

[Iron Woode]

This really isn't an option for me unless I get a floppy emulator as my bios won't use flashdrives as a boot option

How about this:

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/win98/install98stepbystep1/indexfullpage.htm

 

[corkyg]

What about #3 above - that's how I did it years ago.

 

[TheELF]

What about #3 above - that's how I did it years ago.

Hardware from that time often did not have CD boot support and not all windows 98 cds are even bootable so even if your hardware supports it the CD might still not boot.

 

[C1]

Unless you just have an upgrade disk, a full Windows 98 CD will be able to boot & provide the option to format the HDD to enable OS installation.

If you have an upgrade CD, then you will need to insert a qualifying Microsoft product (eg, Windows 95 CD) in order to allow the 98 install to continue.

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/win98/install98stepbystep1/indexfullpage.htm

 

[Iron Woode]

Unless you just have an upgrade disk, a full Windows 98 CD will be able to boot & provide the option to format the HDD to enable OS installation.

If you have an upgrade CD, then you will need to insert a qualifying Microsoft product (eg, Windows 95 CD) in order to allow the 98 install to continue.

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/win98/install98stepbystep1/indexfullpage.htm

I posted that link 3 posts above yours.

 

[rmh2000]

Unless you just have an upgrade disk, a full Windows 98 CD will be able to boot & provide the option to format the HDD to enable OS installation.

If you have an upgrade CD, then you will need to insert a qualifying Microsoft product (eg, Windows 95 CD) in order to allow the 98 install to continue.

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/win98/install98stepbystep1/indexfullpage.htm

i figured it out, i fixed it in my bios and my cdrom seems to be finicky.