pote2639 wrote:

Sounds complicated to set up a server to be honest, also I just got IDE to USB 2.0 adapter now so everything is fine now. except I have to launch the windows 98 setup through my VMWare using the physical disk, let it install halfway before it will detecting drivers and then swapping to my retro PC.

Wonderful. And now look back at the first page and ask yourself where you'd be if you had just gone out and got yourself a USB CD burner. 😉

VOGONS. It's the journey that counts, so much that the destination even gets in the way. 😀

Orkay wrote:

pote2639 wrote:

Sounds complicated to set up a server to be honest, also I just got IDE to USB 2.0 adapter now so everything is fine now. except I have to launch the windows 98 setup through my VMWare using the physical disk, let it install halfway before it will detecting drivers and then swapping to my retro PC.

Performing a network installation of Windows 98 does require some involvement for sure, but it's well worth it once you have a working solution. The easiest way to go about it, at least for me, is to run TFTPD32 with PXELINUX, as well as the Network Client Administrator either in a Windows NT Server installation or by extracting the relevant program files to a newer version of Windows. I feel I could explain everything better through this video I made detailing the whole process.

One of the major advantages of setting up a server to provide OS installations over LAN is that you can update the installation directory without having to burn more CDs or move a USB stick back and forth between computers; this convenience really comes into play when preloading a large sum of your own drivers with INFINST.EXE. When combining this solution with the creation of a batch setup answer file using a program included in the resource kit, you won't want to go back to any other installation method!

Oh you're Kugee from youtube! I love all of your stuff you uploaded especially that sad Dell video haha.

Also maybe I'll try your method someday if I have the chance, I guess since windows 10 is NT-based I hope it will work (kinda) or else VM Windows NT 4 could do that somehow.

dr_st wrote:

pote2639 wrote:

Sounds complicated to set up a server to be honest, also I just got IDE to USB 2.0 adapter now so everything is fine now. except I have to launch the windows 98 setup through my VMWare using the physical disk, let it install halfway before it will detecting drivers and then swapping to my retro PC.

Wonderful. And now look back at the first page and ask yourself where you'd be if you had just gone out and got yourself a USB CD burner. 😉

VOGONS. It's the journey that counts, so much that the destination even gets in the way. 😀

But I don't have to go out and buy 35$ USB CD Reader which I'll never use again so I'll take that 🤣

Just do a complete copy of all the files from the Win98 directory on the Win98 CD, to a CF card and have it in an adaptor. Set it to slave and have it installed as second harddrive. Then use a Dos boot floppy and make the boot partition on the primary drive, format it with /s and just install Win98 from the slave drive. You do not need any special usb boot thingy and Win98 does not care what physical media the installer is located on. You can even make a "C:\INSTALL\WIN98" directory and copy the files from the cd to that before installation.

Basically... Why chase USB boot option at all, for a system that can not boot from USB in the first place, when dealing with Win98?