Also , it it possible if i start the xp setup from within 98 , that it will give me the option of installing it on a different drive , or will it automatically overwrite the windows 98 installation?

Becuase if it gives me that option I could simply attach both drives , boot into 98 and install xp on the other drive.

emosun wrote:

I then tried to copy the original 2gb windows 98 hard drive the computer came with , with disk copy software. So I could boot into it's original os on a new drive and from there install xp/2000. But again it refuses to boot the copied drive.

Okay, this one really ought to have worked. Did you prep the drive with "format c:/s"? You need that /s to make it bootable.

EDIT: Also you don't need "disk copy software" - you can just plain old copy the files with W98. It's really not picky.

I was using easeus drive copy

SO If i put the new drive in as drive D. load windows and bring up the dos prompt and just type "format d:/s". then just drag all the files from C to D that would work?

Yes, it's that simple.

Minor comments: I've never done this with the command prompt in W98. It certainly ought to work. Just FWIW, I've always used the W98 startup floppy for format for W98.

Also if the contents are valuable I'd use rsync to copy the drive contents because by default it checksums every file it transfers. I use grsync in linux to do this because it's so easy that way. I've never used rsync in w98 so can't help there. ALSO I run a badblocks wipe on the new drive before anything else, to make really sure all the sectors are okay. I'm old; I've learned to be pretty cautious of Murphy.

it's not that the content on the drive is valuable , it's simply the fact that the drive has a working os for the machine , but I'm trying it now to see what i get

ok that doesn't work , it starts to boot 98 and shows the spash screen for half a second and goes to the command prompt and just stops and sits at the prompt

Can you do an F8 boot and do it logged? If on the command prompt, try running WIN.

Boot log did the same thing. and what do you mean by run win?

He means enter the command "win". It's what we used to do in DOS to start Windows.

that also just moves the prompt down and seems to do nothing , I'm surprised it's this difficult to get this thing working 🤣

ok I've tried a couple times and copying the drive doesn't seem to work. the computer simply will not boot the same os if it on another drive besides the original.

In that case , will the xp cd allow me to install xp on a different drive other than c if i use the original drive?

XP will definitely let you install to another drive, it will even let you keep Windows 98 and set up a boot menu for you.
BUT it will want to modify the system files on C:\

I also found this
http://www.tomsguide.com/forum/83755-35-insta … ows-floppy-boot

Although I'm surprised you cant install 98, something doesn't sound right. That should be as simple as copying the Win98 folder from CD to the HDD, you can then run setup from that folder without any CD (You still need to have formatted with the /s command beforehand as mentioned above)