Trouble installing Windows 98 on formatted HDD \ VOGONS

Trouble installing Windows 98 on formatted HDD

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First post, by captain_koloth

Posted on 2020-03-01, 15:51

captain_koloth Offline

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Hello everyone:

I'm trying to install Windows 98SE on a legacy gaming PC. This is a 400 MHz PII Gateway that was working fine; it had a bunch of old junk on it so I formatted C: and planned to start over. However, despite configuring the BIOS to start with the CD-ROM as the first boot device and having what I think is a bootable Windows 98SE image (and I tried several), I keep getting the message "Invalid System Disk, replace the disk, and then press any key". I dont have the materials around to easily create a boot floppy anymore and they're actually kind of expensive online so I'd like to try to do it with CD only, but I'm hitting a wall here. Any ideas?

Reply 1 of 8, by LewisRaz

Posted on 2020-03-01, 16:00

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According to philscomputerlab most recent video. The OEM win98se disk is bootable.
Of course you will need to properly obtain this disk as there is no discussion on that here I believe.

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Reply 2 of 8, by captain_koloth

Posted on 2020-03-01, 16:02

captain_koloth Offline

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As I said, I have it. It's not working.

Reply 3 of 8, by derSammler

Posted on 2020-03-01, 16:29

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Then simply boot from the floppy disk that accompanies it. There's no need to boot from the CD, as back then, most systems weren't able to anyway. Or obtain the original disc instead of using some image downloaded from the web.

I dont have the materials around to easily create a boot floppy anymore and they're actually kind of expensive online

Yep, 10 bucks or so for an USB floppy drive is expensive. Guess that's why you don't own a legit Win98 disc, either.

Reply 4 of 8, by captain_koloth

Posted on 2020-03-01, 16:53

captain_koloth Offline

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Thanks for the snark, it's really helpful. I do have a legit Windows 98 CD, as I said, but it's not working and I dont have the floppy. I'll seek help elsewhere.

Reply 5 of 8, by maxtherabbit

Posted on 2020-03-01, 17:02

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ONLY the second edition CD is bootable, are you sure you don't have a first edition disc?

Reply 6 of 8, by agent_x007

Posted on 2020-03-01, 17:32

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Trying to installing/using Windows 98 or DOS, without floppy on old platforms (S370 and earlier) is very hard.
Just buy floppy drive.

Reply 7 of 8, by BreakPoint

Posted on 2020-03-01, 18:25

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Based on my experience if there is an issue with loader it should say something like "Cannot boot from cd. code ...". If it says "Invalid System Disk" then it's probably true.
You can also try some DOS Live boot CD to format C: as system drive and copy Windows files.

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Reply 8 of 8, by Doornkaat

Posted on 2020-03-01, 20:11

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captain_koloth wrote on 2020-03-01, 16:53:

Thanks for the snark, it's really helpful. I do have a legit Windows 98 CD, as I said, but it's not working and I dont have the floppy. I'll seek help elsewhere.

Don't take it personal, I don't think he can help it.😉
There are multiple reasons to not have the original boot floppy avaliable and even if yours is an illegally obtained install disc (NNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!😱😱😱) most of us couldn't care less. If the board offers CD-ROM boot it should work without using floppy as a workaround.
Is the drive detection set to auto?
Is the drive recognised in POST?

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