Question on burning a Windows 98 CD

OfficeLinebacker

Senior member
Mar 2, 2005
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Is there some special procedure you have to use if you want to duplicate a Windows 98 Install CD? Hypothetical question only, blah blah blah
 

jjones

Lifer
Oct 9, 2001
15,424
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Yeah, I've got an 98 disc laying around somewhere and I remember I just made a direct copy. I know that works because I've used that disc to do a fresh install of 98 on my wife's old computer.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,570
10,202
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Originally posted by: OfficeLinebacker
I must say this is not the response I was expecting.
Why? MS has never used any sort of physical copy-protection on their CDs, that I am aware of. (With an exception for some of the recent games that they also publish.)
 

OfficeLinebacker

Senior member
Mar 2, 2005
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Fine I'll just come out and say it. I DLed an ISO from someone who ripped it for me and the copy I burned from it won't work as a boot disk in a system I am trying to build. I have my own key just no disk so it's not a pirating isue I don't believe.

It boots from a Gentoo liveCD so I am trying to figure out what went wrong.
 

phisrow

Golden Member
Sep 6, 2004
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To the best of my knowledge, OS licensing is purely on the basis of how many copies you use, and under what circumstances you use them. So(assuming you aren't selling the things, or something similarly stupid) duplicating the CDs is pretty unobjectionable. It is only using more seats than you have licenses that is seriously problematic.
 

MrChad

Lifer
Aug 22, 2001
13,507
3
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Were 98 disks bootable? I always booted to a floppy disk, FDISKed and formatted from the floppy, then ran setup from there.
 

OfficeLinebacker

Senior member
Mar 2, 2005
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Originally posted by: MrChad
Were 98 disks bootable? I always booted to a floppy disk, FDISKed and formatted from the floppy, then ran setup from there.

This, sir, may be the root of the problem. Please elucidate.

 

MrChad

Lifer
Aug 22, 2001
13,507
3
81
Originally posted by: OfficeLinebacker
Originally posted by: MrChad
Were 98 disks bootable? I always booted to a floppy disk, FDISKed and formatted from the floppy, then ran setup from there.

This, sir, may be the root of the problem. Please elucidate.

Uhh.

1. Go to http://www.bootdisk.com
2. Create a bootable floppy
3. Boot to said floppy
4. Use FDISK to delete your existing partition and create a new one
5. Reboot using floppy with CD-ROM support
6. Use FORMAT to format your newly created partition
7. Type D:\setup (where D is your CD-ROM drive)
 

imported_Phil

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2001
9,837
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Originally posted by: MrChad
Originally posted by: OfficeLinebacker
Originally posted by: MrChad
Were 98 disks bootable? I always booted to a floppy disk, FDISKed and formatted from the floppy, then ran setup from there.

This, sir, may be the root of the problem. Please elucidate.

Uhh.

1. Go to http://www.bootdisk.com
2. Create a bootable floppy
3. Boot to said floppy
4. Use FDISK to delete your existing partition and create a new one
5. Reboot using floppy with CD-ROM support
6. Use FORMAT to format your newly created partition
7. Type D:\setup (where D is your CD-ROM drive)

Um. Windows 98 CDs are bootable. By default.
 

OfficeLinebacker

Senior member
Mar 2, 2005
799
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Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Did you burn the iso properly?

Well here's how it went: I opened the ISO and Roxio Easy CD Creator automatically popped up a "Record CD Setup" dialog box and I simply put in a blank CD and hit "Start Recording."
 

Raincity

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2000
4,477
12
81
I think you burned it wrong with Roxio. Also OEM versions only work with OEM serials and the same with retail versions. Also there was two versions of Win98. I hope your serial matches with the install media image.
 

natto fire

Diamond Member
Jan 4, 2000
7,117
10
76
Originally posted by: OfficeLinebacker
Fine I'll just come out and say it. I DLed an ISO from someone who ripped it for me and the copy I burned from it won't work as a boot disk in a system I am trying to build. I have my own key just no disk so it's not a pirating isue I don't believe.

It boots from a Gentoo liveCD so I am trying to figure out what went wrong.

You have a Gentoo CD and you want install win98? :confused:. I didn't think the windows 98 CDs were bootable? I thought you had to make a floppy withd CD drivers just to install it? It has been at least 6 years since I installed win98 though.
 

drag

Elite Member
Jul 4, 2002
8,708
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Win98 cds were bootable. They weren't bootable on ALL computers, the computer's bios had to support that feature. All of them do nowadays.


Anyways you don't need the CD anyways.

Hell, I rarely used the cd to install Windows 9x.

What you do is:
bootup with a DOS 7.x floppy (windows version of dos) and the utilities you need.. edit, fdisk, format, cdrom support, etc
partition and format the partitions on the harddrive
on the cdrom you find the folder with all the cab files on it, then copy over that directory with all the *.cab files.
change to the new directory on the harddrive.
run setup.exe

Then when you have to install a driver or whatnot and it asks for the windows cd, you just point it at that directory with all the cab files.

And that's about it. So you don't need the entire install cd, but you do need those cab files and you need that setup program. Most of the time when you get a computer with the OS pre-installed they do the same thing I did and had all the cab files somewere on your harddrive. Often though they didn't have all of them, just some of them. So you need to double check to make sure that you have all the correct files.

I used to use a bootable floppy with netbuie support and copy over the install files from a network share from another computer. Then I'd use those files to install Windows. I did this because most of my computers didn't have cdroms on them, only floppies. I don't remember howto make a floppy like that anymore, I use Linux now and Debian makes doing the same thing much easier and better.
 

Bozo

Senior member
Oct 22, 1999
702
0
76
Win 98 disc are NOT bootable. Just tried all my 98 disc. You must boot from floppy.

Bozo :D
 

MrChad

Lifer
Aug 22, 2001
13,507
3
81
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.