Clearly that should not be happening. Sounds to me like your drive is still faulty.

You don't have to do a full format, do a Quick format.
Use Win98SE as boot disk to dos w/CD-ROM suuport, and run fdisk to partition with FAT32, then quick format.
All is on the bootable Win98SE disk, I think in the WIN98 folder on the disk.

Once the disk is properly partitioned (if you want) for FAT32 and formatted, installation is a breeze.

After Windows98SE is installed go HERE (burn on a CD) and install the service pack 3, don't bother with the additional stuff except maybe DirectX9.
Next go HERE and install the universal USB drivers, for ENGLISH Win98SE only! Woks like charm.

James-F wrote:

You don't have to do a full format, do a Quick format. Use Win98SE as boot disk to dos w/CD-ROM suuport, and run fdisk to partit […]
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You don't have to do a full format, do a Quick format.
Use Win98SE as boot disk to dos w/CD-ROM suuport, and run fdisk to partition with FAT32, then quick format.
All is on the bootable Win98SE disk, I think in the WIN98 folder on the disk.

Once the disk is properly partitioned (if you want) for FAT32 and formatted, installation is a breeze.

After Windows98SE is installed go HERE (burn on a CD) and install the service pack 3, don't bother with the additional stuff except maybe DirectX9.
Next go HERE and install the universal USB drivers, for ENGLISH Win98SE only! Woks like charm.

I was using freedos cd as the drive is 80gb, and apparently fdisk on windows 98 doesnt support over 64gb? but then fdisk in free dos only allows me to create partitions and set them as active.

The fdisk included with Win98SE is a bit buggy, yes. There is a fix available from Microsoft.

goodtofufriday wrote:

I was using freedos cd as the drive is 80gb, and apparently fdisk on windows 98 doesnt support over 64gb? but then fdisk in free dos only allows me to create partitions and set them as active.

https://youtu.be/YjGWj8d_gMk?t=11m54s

Maybe this will help.

James-F wrote:

goodtofufriday wrote:

I was using freedos cd as the drive is 80gb, and apparently fdisk on windows 98 doesnt support over 64gb? but then fdisk in free dos only allows me to create partitions and set them as active.

https://youtu.be/YjGWj8d_gMk?t=11m54s

Maybe this will help.

Ill try and get a freedos cd with disk manager going as my floppy drive went kaput and now just eats disks

... I like to do things a bit differently. I never select "Start win98se installation" because it almost always wants to re-partition and format the drive itself. So I select "boot with CD-ROM support", run fdisk to partition the drive (win98se prefers disks partitioned with the included or fixed version of fdisk, otherwise it might not boot), then format and make a "winkit" folder on C:\ where I copy the contents of the win98 folder on the CD. This way windows will not ask for the CD all the time when making changes to the OS or installing drivers. After that I run "setup /is" from the winkit folder on my C drive, and let it run it's course.

Is here where Ontrack DM or PartitionMagic comes handy for old PC disk diagnostics. Them will generally save you from the pain in the arse the original FDISK/FORMAT tools can be. Both tools are full compatible with CHS/Large(Phoenix EDD)/LBA BIOS disk addressing modes. PM makes partition and format easy, scriptable and fast, but isn't free. DM isn't advanced as PM in FS format support (generally only supports FAT/FAT32 FSs), but it will let you diagnose and zero fill your whole drive, so you can format it like if it was brand new. DM is available to many HDD brands as free diagnostic disk tool.

I do the same as kanecvr,
I would also recommend a smaller partition for c:\ win98 games PC wont need more the 4GB tops. makes for much quicker formats and all your games can safely be installed on D:\ which is where I keep my Win98 folder from the CD as well.

+1 on copying the Win98 CD contents to a D:\Win98 folder after installing. Makes driver updates happen much faster with less hassle. I formatted my drive as 32GB C: and 8GB D:.

chinny22 wrote:

I do the same as kanecvr,
I would also recommend a smaller partition for c:\ win98 games PC wont need more the 4GB tops. makes for much quicker formats and all your games can safely be installed on D:\ which is where I keep my Win98 folder from the CD as well.

I do the same. 1GB is usually enough for win98, but I make a 4GB C: partition for good measure.

I do the same as well. W98 on a 1gb C:\ partition, the rest of the drive allocated to D for games/data. I keep only system related stuff and system utilities on C, along with a small handful of useful vanilla apps like Word etc., and find 1gb more than enough. In the day I when drive space was at a premium I went under 500mb. Likewise keeping your W98SE install folder on D: saves a ton of time for all the reasons posted so far.

Another trick is to create a 3rd partition and mirror your current C: W98SE install there. Maxtor had a nice floppy app (EZMax) you could boot off of in the event of system calamity, reformat C drive, then copy over your backed up OS. I'm sure other drive manufacturer's had similar utilities. It was basically a manual version of current imaging techniques. I remember the whole process took about 15 minutes (compared to hours and hours for a fresh install and custom setup/tweaking) - but like I said I kept (and still keep) C: squeaky slim.

ended up running setup with /is /iq to skip scandisk. finally got 98 installed