Maybe some alternate drivers to oakcdrom.sys would work ?

Otherwise, you can still at least format the C drive and make it bootable. Then, take out the hdd and put it in another computer (another laptop that can see the cd drive, an usb dock connected to a modern pc, or whatever), copy the "win98" directory to the hdd. Put the hdd back in the computer, it will boot to DOS, go in the win98 directory and start the installation

It may be possible to boot one of the Linux live images, that would then allow the copy of the installation folder to the device.

There's a way around this that costs a little money and that's to get a USB floppy drive. €10 and you're set. Then just make a boot disk for Windows 98 with the right drivers and off you go! I assume that laptop has a USB 1.0 port which a laptop of that time should have.

fdisk + format the C: drive, get an IDE to USB adapter and copy the WIN98 directory from the CD to C:, boot from Win 98 CD and C:\WIN98\setup /is (skips disk checking, saves time). Leave the C:\WIN98 directory after the install so you don't have to pop in the CD every time you install drivers or an udpate or networking, etc. While you have it plugged into another PC, might as well dump the installers for all the programs you want and the drivers as well.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/132081133252

Remove hard drive, connect it to another pc, format and partition it, set boot partition, copy an MS-DOS boot floppy contents to it, copy Win98 CD contents to another partition.

Move hard drive back to laptop, boot MSDOS, install Win98 from other partition.

What about using Rufus?

- Make a bootable USB.
- Copy the Windows 98 install files into it.
- Boot from USB.
- Run FDISK and make a partition, format it with system, copy the Windows 98 install files into that partition.
- Boot from your hard disk, install Windows.

Zup wrote:

What about using Rufus? […]
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What about using Rufus?

- Make a bootable USB.
- Copy the Windows 98 install files into it.
- Boot from USB.
- Run FDISK and make a partition, format it with system, copy the Windows 98 install files into that partition.
- Boot from your hard disk, install Windows.

I highly doubt a PC that old will allow booting off USB sadly enough. I had a similar idea but it's unlikely to work. Most other solutions I thought of as well but drives this old most likely require ATA slots meaning you need a second old PC for it to work.

Well, if your CD can boot...
- Burn a Puppy Linux CD and boot from it.
- Use Gparted to make and format a FAT32 partition on your HD.
- Copy the Windows 98 files on your HD.
- Reboot from you Windows 98 CD, SYS your HD partition.
- Reboot and start the installation.

Or, if your CD can format...
- Boot from your Win 98 CD.
- Partition, format, sys.
- Reboot using Puppy.
- Copy your Windows 98 files.
- Reboot and install.

All you really need is a cd-rw or a blank cd-r:
-extract the bootable floppy image from your Win98 CD using isobuster
-modify that floppy image with winimage, add the needed drivers and edit the config.sys and autoexec.bat files
-burn a new boot floppy emulation CD using your new image with imgburn

lolo799 wrote:

All you really need is a cd-rw or a blank cd-r: -extract the bootable floppy image from your Win98 CD using isobuster -modify th […]
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All you really need is a cd-rw or a blank cd-r:
-extract the bootable floppy image from your Win98 CD using isobuster
-modify that floppy image with winimage, add the needed drivers and edit the config.sys and autoexec.bat files
-burn a new boot floppy emulation CD using your new image with imgburn

This is what I'm trying. I extracted the image to my Windows 10 machine, then extracted those files to a folder using 7zip. I went into the BOOT folder, extracted the Boot-1.44M.img the same way, edited the autoexec and config files, used WinImage to make it a floppy image again, replaced the original, deleted the excess files, and burned to CD. Now it won't boot to the CD, or give me the option. It goes straight to the "Missing Operating System" error.

I tried booting to a linux distro, but I've wasted 5 CDs/DVDs because none of the ones I chose works. Puppy linux, no, Knoppix, no dice, TinyCore, nope.
I think this is mostly due to my faulty CD burner. My grandparents' computer burns everything perfectly - mine always fails.

So I would prefer just to edit the Win98 CD with the new floppy image. This would work... if WinImage could even make the image BOOTABLE, which it appears it does not.

I'm getting very annoyed from this... Sorry if I sound like I'm ranting.

Maybe I don't even know what I'm doing at this point. I don't supposed anyone has a step by step walkthrough with how to make a compatible bootable image that can be put in place of the old one on that CD?

Definitely don't just extract the contents of the boot floppy image using 7-Zip and then try to recreate the image... you won't end up with a bootable image. I would suggest modifying the contents of the image in-situ using WinImage, or even by mounting it in Dosbox and modifying the files on it through Dosbox. Then, of course, use any burner software capable of creating a bootable CD to use the floppy image you modified for booting and then the contents of the original Windows 98 CD verbatim.

appiah4 wrote:

Remove hard drive, connect it to another pc, format and partition it, set boot partition, copy an MS-DOS boot floppy contents to it, copy Win98 CD contents to another partition.

Move hard drive back to laptop, boot MSDOS, install Win98 from other partition.

This is actually how I would do it.

I 2nd, 3rd, 4th? the use another PC to partition/copy CD contents over.
But as long as any CD can boot and leaves you at a dos prompt, you can then remove that CD, insert the Win98 Cd and type setup, away you go!
No need to mess round modifying CD images!

chinny22 wrote:

I 2nd, 3rd, 4th? the use another PC to partition/copy CD contents over.
But as long as any CD can boot and leaves you at a dos prompt, you can then remove that CD, insert the Win98 Cd and type setup, away you go!
No need to mess round modifying CD images!

That would be ideal, if it weren't for the fact that the hard drive in this particular vaio isn't easily removable. I have taken all the screws off before, and the hard drive is bolted to the motherboard in such a way, that I would have to remove the heatpipes, RAM, etc just to get to it. I guess if it comes down to being no other option, then I'll have to do it regardless.

Shoudnt have to remove all that! http://dougpile.com/computer/vaio/harddrive.html
Still, not exactly a quick swap out like other laptops is it 🙁

Here's an .iso image, extract it from the zip file and burn it using imgburn, it works.
And don't extract the contents of the .iso, or it won't work anymore.

lolo799 wrote:

Here's an .iso image, extract it from the zip file and burn it using imgburn, it works.
And don't extract the contents of the .iso, or it won't work anymore.

Thank you! I've installed Windows XP earlier, just to get something on it, but I will try this out tomorrow.

Hopefully this post isn't too late to be violating forum rules, but I wanted to provide an update.

The Vaio CD-51 boot disc provided earlier didn't work, so what I ended up doing was installing Windows XP (the only OS that WOULD boot from my drive), making a 2gb FAT32 partition, copying the 98 SE install disc to new partition from within XP, rebooting, formatting C: and starting the install process from the second partition.

After 98 SE Setup completed, it was just a matter of going driver hunting - but the single USB port worked out of the box, so that made it a lot easier.

Thanks for all your help!

What went wrong with the CD?

lolo799 wrote:

What went wrong with the CD?

It said the files it was trying to load were corrupt or missing. Funny thing is, I burned that disc on the CD burner in my house that always works.

But all that matters is I got it working in the end. I'm glad too. This laptop has a genuine Yamaha DS-XG sound chip that's amazing for old games.