Question on burning a Windows 98 CD

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: Bozo
Win 98 disc are NOT bootable. Just tried all my 98 disc. You must boot from floppy.

Bozo

All legitimate Windows 98 CDs are bootable.

End of story.

I have a REAL copy of Windows 98SE...does not boot. Maybe this was something MS implemented in the later releases of the OS?

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: lavaheadache
yeah, I m pretty sure aswell that win 98 cd is not bootable

Wrong. They are all bootable.

Could you create, delete and format partitions from within 98 setup? As I remember you could not, so the steps I listed earlier are still relevant.

Yes, you could, but not from within Setup. When the 98 CD boots, you choose "Start the computer with CD-ROM support" (not "Start Setup from CD"), and that drops you into DOS, with fdisk, format etc, which, incidentally, is the exact same environment as the 98 boot floppy.

 

[Bozo]

Just tried all of my Windows 98, Windows 98SE, and Windows ME CDs. None will boot a computer from a cold start.
They will all start if I install them in a running Windows computer.

The first Windows operating system that would boot from CD was Windows 2000.


Bozo

 

[CQuinn]

IIRC, some OEM copies of Windows 98 were bootable. Most (including retail) were not.

 

[imported_pendragon]

Bozo said

The first Windows operating system that would boot from CD was Windows 2000.

Just tried all of my Windows 98, Windows 98SE, and Windows ME CDs. None will boot a computer from a cold start.

What he said.

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

What a thread.

In any case, Mr. Chad wins my award for best answer because I did exactly what he said and it worked!

The only exception being that for the disks from the site he specified, the CDROM is called R:

But that's posted on the site if you read the docs AND you are told textually so when you boot.

Boo-YAA! Thanks guys

 

[imported_pendragon]

So OfficeLinebacker, you made a win/98 bootdisk in the end afterall.
We wanted a more exotic solution

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

LOL it was plenty exotic enough for me!

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: Bozo
Just tried all of my Windows 98, Windows 98SE, and Windows ME CDs. None will boot a computer from a cold start.
They will all start if I install them in a running Windows computer.

The first Windows operating system that would boot from CD was Windows 2000.


Bozo

Sorry, this is complete rubbish. Windows 98 CDs were bootable. End of story. Either you have warez copies, or they're faulty.
Read this. It's not the greatest source in the world, but it'll suffice.

 

[mhillary]

What software do you use?

 

[thunderroller]

if its orignal cd then there might be a problem

 

[Bozo]

Not to keep dragging this out, but my Windows CDs come directly from MS. I've been a beta tester for almost 10 years.

If yours boots they might be OEM or bootleg. But the over-the-counter legal retail disc will not boot.

Bozo

 

[jjones]

I have to agree with Bozo, my retail legal 98SE CD does not boot; it requires a boot disc.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: Bozo
Just tried all of my Windows 98, Windows 98SE, and Windows ME CDs. None will boot a computer from a cold start.
They will all start if I install them in a running Windows computer.

The first Windows operating system that would boot from CD was Windows 2000.


Bozo

Sorry, this is complete rubbish. Windows 98 CDs were bootable. End of story. Either you have warez copies, or they're faulty.
Read this. It's not the greatest source in the world, but it'll suffice.

Sorry to spoil your party there...But i've got a retail 98FE AND retail 98SE (BTW, both of them came from the Microsoft company store..), and NEITHER of them are bootable. Must use setup floppy or a Win98 Boot CD that I made myself.

 

[THUGSROOK]

ive never seen a bootable Win98 CD before....

boot to floppy disk

 

[friedrice]

But why run Win98? A computer that runs that should be able to handle Win2k just fine and at least then you don't need a floppy drive.

 

[jackschmittusa]

You guys finally made me dig out my original Win98 oem disk and test it. It's real, has the hologram on it and all. It boots fine. Tested on an old TriGem mb (from an Emachine).

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

Originally posted by: friedrice
But why run Win98? A computer that runs that should be able to handle Win2k just fine and at least then you don't need a floppy drive.

Because I don't have a license for Win2k

 

[imported_Phil]

Right, for all you people who doubt that genuine Windows 98 CDs are bootable, click here.

That's a screenshot, taken from VMWare, booting a genuine Windows 98 First Edition OEM CD.

/thread.

 

[talyn00]

From what I remember from the Windows 98 beta test, Windows 98 Cds were bootable, they just didnt work on all machines

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: Bozo
Not to keep dragging this out, but my Windows CDs come directly from MS. I've been a beta tester for almost 10 years.

What do you want, a medal? :roll:

If yours boots they might be OEM or bootleg.

Some of them are OEM, yes. None of them are bootleg, however.

But the over-the-counter legal retail disc will not boot.

Quite a lot of people say otherwise. My screenshot towards the bottom of the thread says otherwise.

We agree to disagree. Whatever.

 

[shortylickens]

I shall probably get flamed but.............

I purchased a copy of Win98 full from a store. Retail box. The disc is holographic and I have the holograph on the manual. This was back in the day when I purchased everything nice and legal.
The computer I first used it on is long since dead and buried.
One year ago I did a favor for a friend. I pieced together a new machine from mostly old parts WITHOUT A FLOPPY DRIVE.
I started the computer, went into the BIOS, set the first boot device as Optical drive. Then I went out, restarted the machine, put the OPTICAL DISC into the OPTICAL DRIVE and, sure enough, I got the same screen as a Dopefiend. It let me boot from CD. I went in as normal and formatted the hard drive with FAT32 and installed. When I rebooted I went back into the BIOS and set the first boot device to hard drive.

Now, all you other guys can say "Sorry Dude, it wont work" all day long. I'll let you guys be sorry while I install my OS without problems. The only questions I have are: What? What is it? What the heck am I doing wrong? What am I doing that is so wrong I can install an OS with just the CD? Is my BIOS magical? I must be doing something wrong if it works.

Were you guys all using motherboards/BIOS that dont allow booting from CD's? That would certainly explain it. But I chose to use a newer MB/BIOS that lets me boot however I darn well please. I would recommend the same to the rest of you folks. Maybe theres a batch of crazy Win98 3rd edition discs floating around and thats what I got a hold of. But that wouldn't explain the success so many others are having.
And to the guy who Beta Tests stuff: Good for you. I am glad somebody has the guts to try new software so the rest of us dont have to suffer through testing. But at some point the rest of us buy and use RETAIL software. The end product that actually works.

 

[shortylickens]

Getting back to the original topic:

I see no problem with you using a file-sharing program to get a 2nd Edition of Win98 and using your code to install it.
I believe Clone CD will also work with OS's, since it does bit-for-bit. But that program is hard to find these days. If you want to make your own ISO for safekeeping, I think WinISO 5.3 works very well.
Remember, you are allowed to make personal backups of ANY media you own.

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Is my BIOS magical?
Were you guys all using motherboards/BIOS that dont allow booting from CD's? That would explain it. But I chose to use a newer MB/BIOS that lets me boot however I darn well please. I would recommend the same to the rest of you folks.

Just wanted to reiterate that in my case it's not a BIOS thing, because with a Gentoo LiveCD it boots from the CDROM fine, but with the (copied) Win98 CD, it doesn't.

So to summarize
a)most people agree that Windows 98 had NO anti-piracy measures related to making a copy of the CD
b)some computers boot with some Windows 98 CDs, and some don't.
c)those computers that don't boot with the Win98 CD, can boot from other CDs

Also, to clarify, I didn't use file sharing, someone very kindly ripped the CD and hosted the ISO for me to download.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: Bozo
Win 98 disc are NOT bootable. Just tried all my 98 disc. You must boot from floppy.

Bozo

All legitimate Windows 98 CDs are bootable.

End of story.

No, they are most certainly not.