DaveDDS wrote on 2026-07-05, 15:32:

Look to me that it's the right archive, and you DO have "DSKWRITE.EXE"

So i did!

Im from Windows wrote on 2026-07-05, 13:02:

I just reboot it and tried again At the A:\ command. I type C:\ or E:\ then enter and it says "invalid drive specification" Howe […]
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NeoG_ wrote on 2026-07-05, 12:56:

Im from Windows wrote on 2026-07-05, 12:54:

It gave me the A:\ command
I have type C:\ then enter, then D:\ then enter and it dose not work!

What does that mean? What message is it giving you?

I just reboot it and tried again
At the A:\ command. I type C:\ or E:\ then enter and it says "invalid drive specification"
However I type D:\ then enter key and it changes from A:\ to D:\

It is almost as it will not except any other drive to install from the the D drive

So I have now managed to get my D drive working and get my win98 insulation disk in it. Boot the A drive and this time it has automaticlly gone into win98 insulation

However now it is saying that a non MS-DOS partition is using your entire hard drive and that the entire disk has to be formatted to install win98 (utter ridicules!). There are several partitions on this HDD several of them linux distros and the winxp that I am using now. which must be an ms-dos partition (again utter redicules!)

Im from Windows wrote on 2026-07-05, 17:15:

Im from Windows wrote on 2026-07-05, 13:02:

I just reboot it and tried again At the A:\ command. I type C:\ or E:\ then enter and it says "invalid drive specification" Howe […]
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NeoG_ wrote on 2026-07-05, 12:56:

What does that mean? What message is it giving you?

I just reboot it and tried again
At the A:\ command. I type C:\ or E:\ then enter and it says "invalid drive specification"
However I type D:\ then enter key and it changes from A:\ to D:\

It is almost as it will not except any other drive to install from the the D drive

So I have now managed to get my D drive working and get my win98 insulation disk in it. Boot the A drive and this time it has automaticlly gone into win98 insulation

However now it is saying that a non MS-DOS partition is using your entire hard drive and that the entire disk has to be formatted to install win98 (utter ridicules!). There are several partitions on this HDD several of them linux distros and the winxp that I am using now. which must be an ms-dos partition (again utter redicules!)

Not 'redicules' at all. Linux uses non-MS-DOS filesystems usually. And Windows NT (3.1, 4.0, 2000, XP and newer) all use NTFS, which are all non-MS-DOS filesystems. The only filesystems Windows 9x and MS-DOS recognise is FAT (FAT16 or FAT32 on hard drives). So all it sees is that the partitions on the hard drive are using non-FAT filesystems, thus non-MS-DOS (MS-DOS and Windows 9x don't recognise other filesystems at all). That's why it won't show up as C:\ or any other MS-DOS or 9x drive. Never did and never will (unless you use specific filesystem drivers, which some people have made (unstable though for NTFS or read-only access only). All those operating systems see is a disk with some unknown partition types (it only recognises FAT16 and FAT32 on hard drive partitions. Also only MBR-based (non-MBR won't work at all, so forget about GPT).
Also insulation? Don't you mean installation?

Im from Windows wrote on 2026-07-05, 17:15:

So I have now managed to get my D drive working and get my win98 insulation disk in it. Boot the A drive and this time it has automaticlly gone into win98 insulation
However now it is saying that a non MS-DOS partition is using your entire hard drive and that the entire disk has to be formatted to install win98 (utter ridicules!). There are several partitions on this HDD several of them linux distros and the winxp that I am using now. which must be an ms-dos partition (again utter redicules!)

Do you have anything FAT on the drive? That's all Win98 recognizes.

If the drive is full, it can't allocate a free partition.

Also, W98 is "over"DOS ... and I do recall some problems with DOS and partitions, things like it had to be the first partition on the drive, had to be under a certain size, could get confused if the drive was too big, only recognized up to 4 partitions ... and lets not forget that the whole underling partition scheme changed at least once along the way - I recall this mainly with old DOS & FAT16 - hopefully much improved in FAT32 ... but it's been so long since I actually setup W98 on hardware (the only W98 I still have is in a virtual machine)...

Hopefully some other participants can advise you better on all of this.

superfury wrote on 2026-07-05, 19:10:

Im from Windows wrote on 2026-07-05, 17:15:

Im from Windows wrote on 2026-07-05, 13:02:

I just reboot it and tried again At the A:\ command. I type C:\ or E:\ then enter and it says "invalid drive specification" Howe […]
Show full quote

I just reboot it and tried again
At the A:\ command. I type C:\ or E:\ then enter and it says "invalid drive specification"
However I type D:\ then enter key and it changes from A:\ to D:\

It is almost as it will not except any other drive to install from the the D drive

So I have now managed to get my D drive working and get my win98 insulation disk in it. Boot the A drive and this time it has automaticlly gone into win98 insulation

However now it is saying that a non MS-DOS partition is using your entire hard drive and that the entire disk has to be formatted to install win98 (utter ridicules!). There are several partitions on this HDD several of them linux distros and the winxp that I am using now. which must be an ms-dos partition (again utter redicules!)

Not 'redicules' at all. Linux uses non-MS-DOS filesystems usually. And Windows NT (3.1, 4.0, 2000, XP and newer) all use NTFS, which are all non-MS-DOS filesystems. The only filesystems Windows 9x and MS-DOS recognise is FAT (FAT16 or FAT32 on hard drives). So all it sees is that the partitions on the hard drive are using non-FAT filesystems, thus non-MS-DOS (MS-DOS and Windows 9x don't recognise other filesystems at all). That's why it won't show up as C:\ or any other MS-DOS or 9x drive. Never did and never will (unless you use specific filesystem drivers, which some people have made (unstable though for NTFS or read-only access only). All those operating systems see is a disk with some unknown partition types (it only recognises FAT16 and FAT32 on hard drive partitions. Also only MBR-based (non-MBR won't work at all, so forget about GPT).
Also insulation? Don't you mean installation?

I think NTFS was the next format type that came out after FAT
So you are saying DOS dose not recognize anything ells other then FAT and will therefor not understand each individual partition on the drive and just label it all as one

DaveDDS wrote on 2026-07-05, 20:53:

Do you have anything FAT on the drive? That's all Win98 recognizes.

the only thing on the HDD are currupt linux OS and winxp
More then likely winxp will be NFTS format so the answer would be sadly No!

DaveDDS wrote on 2026-07-05, 20:53:

If the drive is full, it can't allocate a free partition.

I would like to delete these sad and sorry linux partitions if possible with out loosing my winxp

DaveDDS wrote on 2026-07-04, 10:29:

Brief history of floppy disks: (you don't need to know this - but it might help understand where things came from) […]
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Im from Windows wrote on 2026-07-04, 09:21:

... Pass! dont understand any of that

Brief history of floppy disks: (you don't need to know this - but it might help understand where things came from)

-

1st floppies were 8" - these were used on mainframes (size of small house) and minicomputers (size of a refrigerator)
These had 77 "tracks" (logical rings where head writes data)
They were at first single sided, then advancement led to both sides being used.
Originally "single density", later "double density" (twice as many data bits per track)

-

Then came 5.25 - almost the same but smaller and only 40 tracks.
Single sided: 180k
Double sided: 360k (this is where IBM 5150 "PC" started)

-

Then "High Density" was developed (Even more data bits per track via different media and more tracks) - appeared in the PC "AT")
5.25 DSDD = 360k (40 track)
5.25 DSHD = 1.2m (80 track)

An ongoing problem with DD<>HD was that there was no physical difference that the drive could detect and some people formatted DDs as HDs and it "sort of" worked but was unreliable.

-

Then disks got even smaller and physically changed: 3.5" format. By this time all were 80 track.
3.5 DSDD: 720k
3.5 DSHD: 1.4m

At this time an ID hole was added so a drive could tell the different between DD and HD disks, this appearsa on HD disks but NOT on DD disks (easy to tell apart visually as well)
I found a good photo showing the differences here: https://www.micropolis.com/support/kb/3.5-inch-floppy-disk

-

I have included much more information about floppy diskette and drive types in my ImageDisk documentation.
ImageDisk can be gotten from "Daves Old Computers"

I was watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TbCj3chP_c and at 2.30min he goes into a little detail on it

Im from Windows wrote on 2026-07-05, 21:25:

I would like to delete these sad and sorry linux partitions if possible with out loosing my winxp

I don't know if FDISK on the Win98 boot floppy, if not - you could use the MsDOS6.22 image from my DOSBOOT archive.

Mine will boot up on a RamDrive (which will be C: unless it saw another FAT partition on HD as it booted), just use: C:> ZEX A:DOS
which lets you extract files from DOS.ZIP which is on the boot floppy.
- select "FDISK.EXE" to extract it to the RamDrive.

Using FDISK you can delete the "nonDOS" partition (just make sure you delete the right one (*).
I think 6.22 can create a FAT32 partition, but I've not done this stuff for many years, so I'd probably leave empty space and see if Win98 Installer can create it's own partition in that free space.

(*) I don't know if 6.22s FDISK can recognize XPs NTFS partition - it might also show as NonDOS.
If XP is running, you coud probably use it's tools to delete the partition instead (might be safer if you're not sure which is which)
You might also be able to use XPs tools to create a FAT32 if W98 installer gets confused about it.

Im from Windows wrote on 2026-07-05, 21:29:

... I was watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TbCj3chP_c and at 2.30min he goes into a little detail on it

I see it's about MACs ... Just be aware that Apple floppies use a different mostly proprietary low level format (IIRC they called it GCR - but that might be Apple][), which is completely unlike the more standard FM/MFM used in the PC (and almost all other systems).

... so I might not "trust" things that are mentioned (if you're not familiar with floppy disk types) ...

DaveDDS wrote on 2026-07-05, 23:50:

I don't know if FDISK on the Win98 boot floppy, if not - you could use the MsDOS6.22 image from my DOSBOOT archive.

So you are saying I should try and create a FAT partition using MSDOS and if it works then install win98 on it?

DaveDDS wrote on 2026-07-05, 23:50:

Using FDISK you can delete the "nonDOS" partition (just make sure you delete the right one (*). I think 6.22 can create a FAT32 […]
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Using FDISK you can delete the "nonDOS" partition (just make sure you delete the right one (*).
I think 6.22 can create a FAT32 partition, but I've not done this stuff for many years, so I'd probably leave empty space and see if Win98 Installer can create it's own partition in that free space.

(*) I don't know if 6.22s FDISK can recognize XPs NTFS partition - it might also show as NonDOS.
If XP is running, you coud probably use it's tools to delete the partition instead (might be safer if you're not sure which is which)
You might also be able to use XPs tools to create a FAT32 if W98 installer gets confused about it.

I think the winxp insulation disk dose give you the option to format to FAT as well as NSAP. But sadly it dose not reconize the linux partitions that i want to format and write over

DaveDDS wrote on 2026-07-05, 23:50:

I don't know if FDISK on the Win98 boot floppy, if not - you could use the MsDOS6.22 image from my DOSBOOT archive.

I cant seam to find it! unless its in your Dos Box?
But hear is an interesting site that list them all
http://www.win3x.org/win3board/viewtopic.php?t=60

Im from Windows wrote on Yesterday, 15:04:

But hear is an interesting site that list them all
http://www.win3x.org/win3board/viewtopic.php?t=60

I just been to there site and downloaded one of there "MSDOS622FR.zip"

Got my Fdisks out but I seam to be back to square one again! Tried the first 2 Fdisk and the drive would not read or format them! please see 1st and 2nd attachments . However the win98 boot disk I did before still works and the 3rd disk that I pulled out worked straight away! They are disks that I bought on ebay, the seller said they where opened but never used
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/168393763003

Moving on with copying the dose files direct to disk. I opened up the "7-Z file manager" program, to write them direct to disk (since the downloads are a zip file I used 7-zip; is this right?) please see 3rd attachment

I copied disk one directly to the A drive and it said there was no enough room on the disk. please see the 4th attachment. This is very strange because in properties the size of the file is 1,440KB so should fit!

Anyway just to make sure I have downloaded the right program, please see last attachment

**Edit*** system has displayed my attachments the other way round

It won't work that way. The .ima files cannot be copied to a floppy directly, they must be written in raw mode. First, extract the .zip file that contains the MS-DOS image files to a hard disk folder using 7zip. You should now have one or more .ima files. Then:

Download WinImage 9.0: https://www.winimage.com/download.htm

Run it, select "File>Open", select your .ima file that you extracted to the hard drive, insert your floppy, then select "Disk>Write Disk".

Im from Windows wrote on Yesterday, 15:04:

... I cant seam to find it! unless its in your Dos Box? ...

You need to get DOSBOOT.ZIP from my site, it contains floppy disk images (.IMG) formany editions of DOS:

12026-04-24 16:49:04         8362 _DOSBOOT.TXT
22026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 CALDERA.IMG
32026-04-24 16:49:04        17408 DSKWRITE.EXE
42026-04-24 16:49:04         6776 FDI.COM
52026-04-24 16:49:04         3234 FDI2ISO.COM
62026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 FREEDOS.IMG
72026-04-24 16:49:04       327680 MSDOS112.IMG
82026-04-24 16:49:04       368640 MSDOS211.IMG
92026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 MSDOS331.IMG
102026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 MSDOS400.IMG
112026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 MSDOS500.IMG
122026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 MSDOS622.IMG
132026-04-24 16:49:04       163840 PCDOS090.IMG
142026-04-24 16:49:04       163840 PCDOS100.IMG
152026-04-24 16:49:04       163840 PCDOS110.IMG
162026-04-24 16:49:04       368640 PCDOS210.IMG
172026-04-24 16:49:04       368640 PCDOS300.IMG
182026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 PCDOS330.IMG
192026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 PCDOS71.IMG
202026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 PTSDOS.IMG
212026-04-24 16:49:04         3302 XDISK.COM

The one "closest" to Win98 is MSDOS622.IMG
You then write MSDOS622.IMG to a actual floppy disk using DSKWRITE, WINIMAGE or whatever you were able to write the Win98 install floppy with.

This disk will boot to MS-DOS 6.22 an has the essential DOS utilities, some of my tools, and an assortment of packet drivers (to support most network cards) in .ZIP archives:

11994-05-31   6:22:00       40,774 IO.SYS
21994-05-31   6:22:00       38,138 MSDOS.SYS
31994-05-31   6:22:00       54,645 COMMAND.COM
41994-05-31   6:22:00       29,136 HIMEM.SYS
51993-11-01   9:11:00        5,873 RAMDRIVE.SYS
62025-05-16  10:21:20          160 CONFIG.SYS
72025-02-03  16:47:34           42 AUTOEXEC.BAT
82025-01-19  15:54:18       24,052 UNZIP.EXE
92025-01-14  14:09:22        5,218 ZDIR.COM
102025-01-31  12:12:00        5,854 ZEX.COM
112025-05-16  10:49:16      688,699 DOS.ZIP
122025-05-13   9:57:58      126,943 DDS.ZIP
132025-03-20   8:51:42      353,207 PKT.ZIP

Then - BOOT that diskette. This will create (and place you on) a RamDrive for working storage. NOTE that at first, the RamDrive is EMPTY!

1Starting MS-DOS...
2
3Microsoft RAMDrive version 3,02 virtual disk C:
4    Disk size: 3008k
5    Sector soze: 512 bytes
6    Allocation unitsL 2 sectors
7    Direcrtory entries: 64
8
9C:\> dir
10
11 Volume in drive C is MS-RAMDRIVE
12 Directory of C:\
13
14File not found
15
16C:\>

To extract FDISK.EXE, you need to run ZEX specifying the DOS archive on A:

1C:\> ZEX A:DOS

ZEX will present you with a scrollable list of the files in that archive, move to FDISK.EXE which is the 6th entry (press DownArrow 5 time) - they press SPACE to select it (FDISK.EXE will hilight) and ENTER to exact selected file(s)

Now FDISK.EXE will be on the C: RamDrive

1C:\> dir
2
3 Volume in drive C is MS-RAMDRIVE
4 Directory of C:\
5
6FDISK    EXE        29,226 05-31-94   6:22a
7        1 file(s)         29,336 bytes
8                       3,043,326 bytes free
9
10C:\>

Now you can run FDISK like you would on any DOS system:

1C:\> FDISK

IIRC FDISK is pretty easy to figure out, but if you need help, I'll have to configure an actual system with a "trashable" hard drive and fire it up (it has been years).

Like I said in previous message, I wouildn't try to create a partition for Win98, just free up space and see if Win98 installer can create it's own partition.

If needed, I can create a MSWIN98.IMG like MSDOS622.IMG except Win98 DOS edition of DOS and its tools in DOS.ZIP

asdf53 wrote on Yesterday, 16:37:

It won't work that way. The .ima files cannot be copied to a floppy directly, they must be written in raw mode.

That is what I though i was doing in 7-zip; writting the files directly to the A drive instead of copy+paste

asdf53 wrote on Yesterday, 16:37:

Run it, select "File>Open", select your .ima file that you extracted to the hard drive, insert your floppy, then select "Disk>Write Disk".

I dose not work! it just opens the entire contence of DISK1/2/3/4 up. please see attachemtn

DaveDDS wrote on Yesterday, 18:04:

You need to get DOSBOOT.ZIP from my site, it contains floppy disk images (.IMG) formany editions of DOS: […]
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Im from Windows wrote on Yesterday, 15:04:

... I cant seam to find it! unless its in your Dos Box? ...

You need to get DOSBOOT.ZIP from my site, it contains floppy disk images (.IMG) formany editions of DOS:

Copy code to clipboard

12026-04-24 16:49:04         8362 _DOSBOOT.TXT
22026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 CALDERA.IMG
32026-04-24 16:49:04        17408 DSKWRITE.EXE
42026-04-24 16:49:04         6776 FDI.COM
52026-04-24 16:49:04         3234 FDI2ISO.COM
62026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 FREEDOS.IMG
72026-04-24 16:49:04       327680 MSDOS112.IMG
82026-04-24 16:49:04       368640 MSDOS211.IMG
92026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 MSDOS331.IMG
102026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 MSDOS400.IMG
112026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 MSDOS500.IMG
122026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 MSDOS622.IMG
132026-04-24 16:49:04       163840 PCDOS090.IMG
142026-04-24 16:49:04       163840 PCDOS100.IMG
152026-04-24 16:49:04       163840 PCDOS110.IMG
162026-04-24 16:49:04       368640 PCDOS210.IMG
172026-04-24 16:49:04       368640 PCDOS300.IMG
182026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 PCDOS330.IMG
192026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 PCDOS71.IMG
202026-04-24 16:49:04      1474560 PTSDOS.IMG
212026-04-24 16:49:04         3302 XDISK.COM

The one "closest" to Win98 is MSDOS622.IMG
You then write MSDOS622.IMG to a actual floppy disk using DSKWRITE, WINIMAGE or whatever you were able to write the Win98 install floppy with.

I cant see that list from your site; nor can i see a DOSBOOT.ZIP from that list either! (only a .TXT)

Im from Windows wrote on Yesterday, 21:17:

I dose not work! it just opens the entire contence of DISK1/2/3/4 up. please see attachemtn

You already successfully created a win98 boot disk using the same method, all you have to do is do the same thing again

- Open the .ima file with WinImage
- Disk -> Use Floppy A:
- Disk -> Write Disk

Remember the Disk menu is the text menu at the top, not the icons

Im from Windows wrote on Yesterday, 21:27:

I cant see that list from your site; nor can i see a DOSBOOT.ZIP from that list either! (only a .TXT)

**The first list I showed is the CONTENT of DOSBOOT.ZIP which you can get from my site:

Go to my site ( https://dunfield.themindfactory.com )

Click "Download files" ( near bottom of main page )

Click "DOSBOOT" ( titles are in alphabetical order - this is maybe 1/3 way down page )

This should download DOSBOOT.ZIP to your system.

-

** The second list I showed was the CONTENT of MSDOS622.IMG which is a floppy disk image within DOSBOOT.ZIP
You need to extract MSDOS622.IMG from DOSBOOT.ZIP , write it to a floppy, (use DSKWRITE or WINIMAGE) boot that floppy and then do:

> DIR A:

To see those files. (which should match my second list)

Then:

> ZEX A:DOS
To extract FDISK.EXE from A:DOS.ZIP

> FDISK
To run FDISK.EXE (which will let you delete partitions)

-

This was all laid out in my previous message... But honestly, I'm not sure you should be deleting partitions with FDISK.
If you don't know exactly what you are doing, you could delete the WRONG partition! and lost stuff - you might want to get a trashable hard drive and practice this kind of thing first.

Hi, in WinImage, the "Disk" menu item has an entry to write the content to a floppy.

Btw, the difference between 7Zip and WinImage is that one works on a file basis and the other on a sector basis.
7Zip always tries to compress/decompress files, whereas WinImage reads/writes image files that contain the raw 1s and 0s of a floppy disk.

That's the raw stream of bits and bytes as they are located on a floppy, basically. No files, just sectors.
(As an analogy, an floppy image is like transfering a whole vinyl record from its beginning to its end to a tape with a tape recorder.
There are no individual chapters/tracks but just one long, ongoing audio stream on tape.)

The files we see in WinImage window are later being generated by WinImage itself by interpreting the boot sector, the FAT filesystem and so on.
That way, it's easy to drag&drop files to and from WinImage.
But if we choose reading/writing via the "Disk" menu item, then it's all about the raw sectors, really.

There's a little tutorial here:
https://www.izcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/How … th_Winimage.pdf

OK, I have tossed together a Win98 edition of my DOS boot disk.

You can get it here: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com/Drop/WIN98.ZIP

Write this .IMG file to a actual diskette using DSKWRITE or WINIMAGE, then boot it. Note that that booted DOS will show this version:

1?:\> ver
2
3Windows 98 [Version 4.10.2222]
4
5?:\>

You can run FDISK as I described in my previous messages:

1?:\> ZEX A:DOS

Move selection bar to FDISK.EXE with arrow keys, press SPACE to select it (FDISK.EXE will hilight), then press ENTER to extract it.
Back at DOS prompt, run FDISK:

1?:\> FDISK

-

This is the actual Win98-DOS boot, and should recognize any FAT/FAT32 partitions.

Note that in the above examples, I have showed the default drive as '?' - this is because this boot disk will allocate a working RamDisk and make that the default drive.

If you don't have any FAT partitions (or other partitions that Win98 recognizes - I don't recall if it knows about NTFS) this RamDrive will be C: - but if you have other partitions Win98 knows about, It could be D:,E:,F:...