You need to run fdisk and partition and format the drive. How old is the PC? You may have a issue with the drive if it's over 32 GB the bios may not see over 32 GB. I did google the message because it's been so long since I used Windows 98 on a daily basis. Good luck hope this helps.

I tried formatting in MS-DOS after using fdisk to make a partition, and it said format failed.

I had an 80 GB drive where the fdisk/format that came with Windows 98SE did not work.
That's why that computer ended up with Windows ME, which worked just fine.

Ordinarily I'd have used a Linux Boot CD with gparted and created and formatted a FAT32 partition with that, but the newer Linux Boot CD's wouldn't work with that old Socket 7 motherboard. If your motherboard is newer you probably won't have that problem.

The problem with Windows 98 and an 80 gb hard drive is described here
https://www.computing.net/answers/dos/formatt … sdos/17295.html

One person in that thread suggested using the newer version of fdisk at bootdisk.com
https://www.bootdisk.com/plan012714/newfdisk.zip

Another person suggested using a Windows ME bootdisk from http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
to fdisk and format.

And the OP in that thread ended up using Partition Magic 4.01.

You could try running your disk manufacturer's diagnostics, that'll tell you if the drive is defective.

Windows XP and above (also PE editions) include diskpart which can totally blank the partition table if the drive is physically ok:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK * (make sure it's the correct disk number)
CLEAN

After various attempts to get Windows 98 to work with a particular motherboard, including installing the operating system on a different computer and trying to boot on the troublesome board, trying to install directly on the troublesome board, but getting an error about a corrupt packed file (OS Disc is fine), etc...

I'm not sure what else to try. Put a 120GB, 80GB, amd even a 40GB drive in with the board. None of them played nice with the board.

Any other suggestions?

Copy all files from CD to other partition on your hard drive, and lauch setup.exe from there using boot floppy with DOS.

agent_x007 wrote:

Copy all files from CD to other partition on your hard drive, and lauch setup.exe from there using boot floppy with DOS.

Tried that, and it didn't work.

If you're sure your installation media works and you've tried all the previous suggestions then try another drive.

I already did, BushLin. Even mentioned in a previous post.

You're just looking to eliminate a potential cause until all you're left with is a controller issue.
What board is it anyway?
Does it run other operating systems ok?
How have you configured your system and partitioned your drive?
Obvious things to check are jumpers, cables, power, BIOS settings, BIOS version.

BushLin wrote:

You're just looking to eliminate a potential cause until all you're left with is a controller issue. What board is it anyway? Do […]
Show full quote

You're just looking to eliminate a potential cause until all you're left with is a controller issue.
What board is it anyway?
Does it run other operating systems ok?
How have you configured your system and partitioned your drive?
Obvious things to check are jumpers, cables, power, BIOS settings, BIOS version.

It's a Gigabyte GA-6BA board, running the latest bios version. Bios settings are, except for the boot order, at their defaults.

Hard drive jumpers are fine, cables are fine, PSU is fine. No operating systems seem to work. Windows 98, 2000, 3.1, etc. All refuse to install or boot.

RetroLizard wrote:

BushLin wrote:

You're just looking to eliminate a potential cause until all you're left with is a controller issue. What board is it anyway? Do […]
Show full quote

You're just looking to eliminate a potential cause until all you're left with is a controller issue.
What board is it anyway?
Does it run other operating systems ok?
How have you configured your system and partitioned your drive?
Obvious things to check are jumpers, cables, power, BIOS settings, BIOS version.

It's a Gigabyte GA-6BA board, running the latest bios version. Bios settings are, except for the boot order, at their defaults.

Hard drive jumpers are fine, cables are fine, PSU is fine. No operating systems seem to work. Windows 98, 2000, 3.1, etc. All refuse to install or boot.

Try a separate hard disk controller. If that does work, your onboard controller is dead.

It COULD also be something similar to what I had with my Windows 95 computer. My system is made from parts I had lying around. It's a Socket 7 ATX motherboard with a built-in HDD controller, as was standard for ATX motherboards of that time. ATA-66 I believe.

ANYWAY, the smallest hard drive size I had was a 20.4GB Maxtor drive. When connected, the BIOS said it was 8GB... which is obviously incorrect.

So.... what did I do to get this working right? I went on-line and found really old Maxtor "drive overlay software". I downloaded a floppy image of this software and used a USB floppy drive to create the floppy from the image. I boot the system with my Win98 startup disk and then I swapped floppies and started the setup program of the Maxtor drive overlay softare and installed it to the hard drive. Now, when the computer boots up, the BIOS looks at the boot sector of the HDD and ends up loading the overlay software, which allows me to use the full 20.4GB at once, bypassing the 8GB limit of the BIOS. And Windows 95 installed perfectly and works just fine after that. DOS mode too.

Did the same on my 1989 era 386DX25 on a 4gig drive. Used EZDrive DDO. Works nicely using Dos. Tested it on a 286 and booted fine. IJust set the drive type to Type 2 on the oldies. It's a good way of getting maximum usage out of those old hdds.

Not sure what changed, but I finally got it to install.