Can't you just copy the WIN98 directory from the CD-ROM to the hard drive, then boot from the hard drive and install from there?
It's common to do this even with a CD-ROM drive so that Windows doesn't nag you to put the CD-ROM in from now on every time you install a driver, etc.

jakethompson1 wrote on 2022-07-23, 19:36:

Can't you just copy the WIN98 directory from the CD-ROM to the hard drive, then boot from the hard drive and install from there?
It's common to do this even with a CD-ROM drive so that Windows doesn't nag you to put the CD-ROM in from now on every time you install a driver, etc.

That makes sense, upon checking the contents of the windows 98 SE cd, I could just copy the contents of it onto a hard drive. Thanks for the info, I will give that a try.

assortedkingdede wrote on 2022-07-23, 19:47:

jakethompson1 wrote on 2022-07-23, 19:36:

Can't you just copy the WIN98 directory from the CD-ROM to the hard drive, then boot from the hard drive and install from there?
It's common to do this even with a CD-ROM drive so that Windows doesn't nag you to put the CD-ROM in from now on every time you install a driver, etc.

That makes sense, upon checking the contents of the windows 98 SE cd, I could just copy the contents of it onto a hard drive. Thanks for the info, I will give that a try.

You only need the WIN98 directory if you want to save some space.

jakethompson1 wrote on 2022-07-23, 19:58:

assortedkingdede wrote on 2022-07-23, 19:47:

jakethompson1 wrote on 2022-07-23, 19:36:

Can't you just copy the WIN98 directory from the CD-ROM to the hard drive, then boot from the hard drive and install from there?
It's common to do this even with a CD-ROM drive so that Windows doesn't nag you to put the CD-ROM in from now on every time you install a driver, etc.

That makes sense, upon checking the contents of the windows 98 SE cd, I could just copy the contents of it onto a hard drive. Thanks for the info, I will give that a try.

You only need the WIN98 directory if you want to save some space.

Tried this, I got a DISK BOOT FALIURE error.

You should make the HD bootable first using a boot floppy or maybe boot from floppy and then run Windows setup on the HD. As long as the HD was properly fdisked and formatted either way should work...

I used to have 98 on a HDD, was just a DMA mode 4 quantum of around 500MB, but man was it a lot faster than even fastest CD drives, cut install time to a quarter, would be to the desktop setup while a CD drive was still weeeeepwooooopweeeeepwooooping it's way through "copying files needed for installation". Guess it was the seek times more than the straight up transfer speed, though I think that drive managed 15MB/sec or so.

Anyhoo, very do able, but I used to boot a 98 floppy rather than have the 98 install HDD boot the system. Some machines are a bit weird about deciding what disk was C or D, and if it changed after reboot, win98 setup would get confused. That's with using a 2 drive method, C drive you want to install on and D drive with the 98 setup files.

edit: Oh right, that's why I probably did it off floppy, it was actually faster... otherwise you had to boot the win98 drive, set up the primary drive manually, transfer sys, reboot and maybe go into CMOS Setup to alter drive priority, then boot off the primary as C drive, then install 98 off D. Otherwise it was just boot floppy, C would be actual primary because D didn't boot it, so just setup off D and tell it to prep C and install and it away it went, no messing.

I was able to boot using a single hard disk into windows 98 setup and get it to install however when it needed to reboot, windows was unable to start citing missing or corrupted COMMAND.COM and when I tried to start COMMAND.COM, it said "Incorrect MS-DOS version. I was using MS-DOS created as bootable with RUFUS.

Right, if it doesn't prep the disk it just assumes it's a win98 format, not an MSDOS x.x format. So, boot a Win98 boot disk, use sys to make C: win98 bootable. Sys should be on a proper win98 boot/install disk I think, but maybe not on empty bare minimum boot disk.

How i install windows98 without a CD....you can tweak it by yourselfs needs 😀

Download Free Dos Full Image and Install with Rufus.
Now Boot from USB Flash.
run not the installation went direct to DOS

fdisk, create a partition.
Exit fdisk and,

format d: /s

cause C is the flash drive.
And D is now youre HDD/SSD
Now formate youre Flash drive on youre other PC.
Extract all Files from Windows 98CD to youre HDD
Start Rufus, Install now Rufus FreeDOS Version not the one above you downloaded.
Copy the Win98 folder into Rufus and add the Nusb Usb Driver to the folder.
Now Put the Rufus Stick back to the PC without a CD Drive.
Boot from it.

d:
md win98

now you have a win98 folder on d
cd win98
if it works youre in win98 and the folder exists

c:
cd win98
dir
copy *.* d:\win98

Wait till evrything is copied to D

d:
cd win98
setup

Install should start. And evrything should work.

As you have acces to the PC maybe copy the files to the hdd and
run dos mode and install it this way?

I always format the majority of the hard drive as fat 32 named windows 98 and 2nd 1gb partition at the end of the disk named 98CD. I use a modern computer and an ide to usb adapter because its fast and easy. Then i copy the windows 98 cd and any drivers i need to the partition called 98CD using the modern computer, if you name the partition as 98CD windows 98 thinks its a legit cd and always automatically mounts it at boot so you rarely have to point it at a file manually. Then i use a windows 98 boot floppy to go to the 98CD partition and type setup.exe. Once its all installed you can just right click, explore the 98CD partition to get to your drivers to install them. If anything goes wrong you just need the boot floppy and you have the cd and all your drivers already on the disk ready for re installation.

Whatever Dir you install Win98 from it always automatically uses to get drivers etc from first, sometimes on a fast machine blink and you'll miss it 🤣

All you need is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_GEsE2_j4Y&t=142s