VOGONS

Windows 98 SE installation issue [with SATA controller?]

Topic actions

First post, by MalcomYork

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hi people,

I'm trying to install Windows 98 SE on a new computer I build a few days back and getting the following error during the installation:

Message SU0013

Setup cannot create files on your startup drive and cannot set up Windows 98.

To give you a little bit of context, here are my build specs:


Motherboard: Asrock K8upgrade-vm800
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
GPU: ATI Radeon 9550
Sound card: Audigy 2 ZS
Hard disk: Kingston UV400 120GB

I was able to create the partition table with FDISK and format it with the FORMAT command as a FAT32 filesystem. I have no clue what this message means, but as my research tells, this could be a SATA controller problem/incompatibility with Windows 98.

Has anyone experienced this issue before?

Last edited by MalcomYork on 2017-09-18, 04:11. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 13, by mrau

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

sata?

Reply 2 of 13, by MalcomYork

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Yes, SATA SDD drive.

Reply 3 of 13, by MalcomYork

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I was looking to set a legacy/compatibility mode for the SATA controller, but there is non. Could that be the problem?

Reply 4 of 13, by mrau

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

what i mean - sata does not work just like that to my knowledge, also there were size constraints

Reply 5 of 13, by MalcomYork

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Well, as far as I know, the size limit is 128GB and the disk I have is only 120GB, so that shouldn't be a problem. Am I correct?

Reply 6 of 13, by mrau

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

32gb max

Reply 7 of 13, by MalcomYork

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Is that limit for the filesystem where I will be installing Windows 98 SE?

Reply 8 of 13, by mrau

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

yes, and as far as i know you should be aiming much lower still to not get a slow filesystem

Reply 9 of 13, by Stretch

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Put the SATA controller to "legacy mode" "compatibility mode" or similar in the BIOS.

Win 11 - Intel i7-1360p - 32 GB - Intel Iris Xe - Sound BlasterX G5

Reply 10 of 13, by Joey_sw

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Stretch wrote:

Put the SATA controller to "legacy mode" "compatibility mode" or similar in the BIOS.

also known as "IDE mode", which is software compatible with win 98SE.
But some bios may provide AHCI mode only, which making it incompatible with win 98SE.

-fffuuu

Reply 11 of 13, by MalcomYork

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Joey_sw wrote:

But some bios may provide AHCI mode only, which making it incompatible with win 98SE.

This might be the case, because I couldn't find ant "legacy" options on the SATA controller.

Reply 12 of 13, by MalcomYork

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Ok, so I've got my hands in a PATA HDD and was able to install Windows 98 SE. After the os installation I was able to install the chipset drivers, which I downloaded from via's website. The data ssd is still being recognized by the os.

Reply 13 of 13, by MalcomYork

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

FYI, I've changed the data controller to raid and Windows 98 SE installed flawlessly. I'm changing this to resolved. That's to you.

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to General Old Hardware
Close window
Close window