My brain hurts even thinking about this.
How can I install windows 98SE on an old laptop that doesn't have a CD
drive?
I have 98SE on CD and a USB CD drive
It has a USB port but it won't work without an OS loaded.
I could use floppies but that would mean paying loads of cash, probably
over £25, if I could even find 98 on floppy for sale anywhere.
Would a PCMCIA CD drive work if it had a floppy disk with the install
drivers?
Bear in mind there is nothing at all on the hard disk.
Cheers,
Steve

Steve wrote:
> My brain hurts even thinking about this.
> How can I install windows 98SE on an old laptop that doesn't have a CD
> drive?
> I have 98SE on CD and a USB CD drive
> It has a USB port but it won't work without an OS loaded.
> I could use floppies but that would mean paying loads of cash, probably
> over £25, if I could even find 98 on floppy for sale anywhere.
> Would a PCMCIA CD drive work if it had a floppy disk with the install
> drivers?

Yes. I've done that. There are pcmcia drives you can get, that come
with a bootable floppy.

There are other approaches involving a desktop pc and and a notebook
drive adapter.

You can copy all the install files to the hard drive, and the run the
setup program.


> Bear in mind there is nothing at all on the hard disk.
> Cheers,
> Steve

There are other approaches involving a desktop pc and and a notebook
drive adapter.>
You can copy all the install files to the hard drive, and the run the
setup program.

Ahhhh. That rings a bell somewhere at the back.
So if I take the laptop hard drive out of the laptop and use a laptop
HD to standard PC HD converter to install the laptop hard disk in a
standard desktop PC as a slave, I can then use the PCs CD drive to copy
files from the 98SE CD to the laptop hard drive. Then unplug it all and
re-insert the laptop hard drive in the laptop.
This would give me all the files from the Win98SE Cd on the laptop but
what happens then?
Sorry to sound thick but I ain't all that switched on about computers.
Thanks for your help
Steve

Steve wrote:
> There are other approaches involving a desktop pc and and a notebook
> drive adapter.>
> You can copy all the install files to the hard drive, and the run the
> setup program.
>
> Ahhhh. That rings a bell somewhere at the back.
> So if I take the laptop hard drive out of the laptop and use a laptop
> HD to standard PC HD converter to install the laptop hard disk in a
> standard desktop PC as a slave, I can then use the PCs CD drive to copy
> files from the 98SE CD to the laptop hard drive. Then unplug it all and
> re-insert the laptop hard drive in the laptop.
> This would give me all the files from the Win98SE Cd on the laptop but
> what happens then?

There are 2 different ways to start the installation.

One is setup.exe, and the other is oemsetup.exe, that is located in a
subdirectory. I like the oemsetup.exe if it have to start an install
the hard way.

You will need a bootable floppy disk to get you the ability to navigate
in dos, and start the program. If you have the one that came with the
cd, use it. and chose "start the computer with no cd rom support". You
will get a dos prompt, and then navigate to drive C.



You can make the 98 boot floppy, here.

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm




> Sorry to sound thick but I ain't all that switched on about computers.
> Thanks for your help
> Steve

>
> One is setup.exe, and the other is oemsetup.exe, that is located in a
> subdirectory. I like the oemsetup.exe if it have to start an install
> the hard way.
>
> You will need a bootable floppy disk to get you the ability to navigate
> in dos, and start the program. If you have the one that came with the
> cd, use it. and chose "start the computer with no cd rom support". You
> will get a dos prompt, and then navigate to drive C.


Thanks for the help.
I may be able to manage that.
Cheers,
Steve

There are lots of ways to do this, but the easiest is usually to remove
the hard drive from the laptop and put the installation files onto it by
connecting it to another computer. It's also possible to use almost any
kind of external drive EXCEPT a USB drive (a USB drive can be used if
you have a "point solution driver" or DOS USB support (yes, it exists
for SOME devices)). Other possibilities include a parallel port drive
of any type (Zip, Sparq, etc.), and there are ways of doing it over a
network as well. But putting the hard drive onto another computer is
the easiest way. Just copy the Win98 folder (about 100MB) from the CD
to the hard drive and you have all that you need. In fact you don't
need some of the sub-folders.


Steve wrote:
> My brain hurts even thinking about this.
> How can I install windows 98SE on an old laptop that doesn't have a CD
> drive?
> I have 98SE on CD and a USB CD drive
> It has a USB port but it won't work without an OS loaded.
> I could use floppies but that would mean paying loads of cash, probably
> over £25, if I could even find 98 on floppy for sale anywhere.
> Would a PCMCIA CD drive work if it had a floppy disk with the install
> drivers?
> Bear in mind there is nothing at all on the hard disk.
> Cheers,
> Steve
>

You could do this with ghost. But that would cost you more then 25.00
for the software. You would use ghost to backup the cd. Then boot from
ghost and have it copy it to your hard drive. Boot from a floppy and run
the setup from the the hard drive once the bootable disk has it up and
running. Or find a bootable floppy that loads usb drivers then install
from the cd.


Steve wrote:
> My brain hurts even thinking about this.
> How can I install windows 98SE on an old laptop that doesn't have a CD
> drive?
> I have 98SE on CD and a USB CD drive
> It has a USB port but it won't work without an OS loaded.
> I could use floppies but that would mean paying loads of cash, probably
> over £25, if I could even find 98 on floppy for sale anywhere.
> Would a PCMCIA CD drive work if it had a floppy disk with the install
> drivers?
> Bear in mind there is nothing at all on the hard disk.
> Cheers,
> Steve
>

If he were able to copy files from the CD drive upon boot up then he
would be able to run the setup. Thus he said he can't.


paulmd@efn.org wrote:
> Steve wrote:
>> My brain hurts even thinking about this.
>> How can I install windows 98SE on an old laptop that doesn't have a CD
>> drive?
>> I have 98SE on CD and a USB CD drive
>> It has a USB port but it won't work without an OS loaded.
>> I could use floppies but that would mean paying loads of cash, probably
>> over £25, if I could even find 98 on floppy for sale anywhere.
>> Would a PCMCIA CD drive work if it had a floppy disk with the install
>> drivers?
>
> Yes. I've done that. There are pcmcia drives you can get, that come
> with a bootable floppy.
>
> There are other approaches involving a desktop pc and and a notebook
> drive adapter.
>
> You can copy all the install files to the hard drive, and the run the
> setup program.
>
>
>> Bear in mind there is nothing at all on the hard disk.
>> Cheers,
>> Steve
>

Kevin Weaver wrote:
> If he were able to copy files from the CD drive upon boot up then he
> would be able to run the setup. Thus he said he can't.
>

Read more carefully.

> > There are other approaches involving a desktop pc and and a notebook
> > drive adapter.

I did, "He said" he could not. Now if you want to tell him your way go
ahead. There are lots of ways to do it. I told him of one way with ghost.

Don't tell me to read more carefully. Why not explain the other ways. He
also stated he did not want to spend money on floppy disks. That's why
him buying ghost won't work as it's a lot more in cost then buying floppy's.


paulmd@efn.org wrote:
> Kevin Weaver wrote:
>> If he were able to copy files from the CD drive upon boot up then he
>> would be able to run the setup. Thus he said he can't.
>>
>
> Read more carefully.
>
>>> There are other approaches involving a desktop pc and and a notebook
>>> drive adapter.
>

Steve wrote:
>>One is setup.exe, and the other is oemsetup.exe, that is located in a
>>subdirectory. I like the oemsetup.exe if it have to start an install
>>the hard way.
>>
>>You will need a bootable floppy disk to get you the ability to navigate
>>in dos, and start the program. If you have the one that came with the
>>cd, use it. and chose "start the computer with no cd rom support". You
>>will get a dos prompt, and then navigate to drive C.
>
>
>
> Thanks for the help.
> I may be able to manage that.
> Cheers,
> Steve
>
It will go even faster/easier, if you boot the desktop unit with the W98
CD (or boot floppy if need), and run it's fdisk and format with /s
option to make the laptop HD bootable directly. Then copy the directory
from the cd with all the install exe and cab files to a special install
dir on the laptop HD.

Then, when you boot the laptop directly from this prepped HD, you can
"cd" to the install dir, and run "setup" (check the options with "setup
/? or /help - forget which). No need for floppy or CD for the install
on the laptop this way.

Another nice advantage of this approach later, is that anytime you have
to update/add other W98 options/programs, it will automatically look in
that on-drive directory, and you don't have to fool with the CD. There
is a way to change W98 to do that after a CD install I believe, but this
is more straightforward, and generally faster than installing from CD.

HTH,
ROC

rocxspam wrote:

> Another nice advantage of this approach later, is that anytime you have
> to update/add other W98 options/programs, it will automatically look in
> that on-drive directory, and you don't have to fool with the CD. There
> is a way to change W98 to do that after a CD install I believe,

Can anyone tell me exactly how to do that. I have a computer where I did
copy the Win98 folder over after the install (just because I forgot to
do it before) and now it always asks for the CD first.



but this
> is more straightforward, and generally faster than installing from CD.
>
> HTH,
> ROC

There is a registry entry that is set during the install that tells 98
where the installation came from. If it came from a CD, you are going
to be asked for the CD every time something changes (although you can
re-point the request to the hard drive partition). But if the install
was originally done from the hard drive, it will just look there without
asking. You can edit the registry entry after installation with
regedit. I don't remember the exact full path but I think that the
variable is called "installation source" [However, there might be a
number of "installation sources", as many pieces of software remember
where they were installed from.]


Ron S wrote:
> rocxspam wrote:
>
>> Another nice advantage of this approach later, is that anytime you
>> have to update/add other W98 options/programs, it will automatically
>> look in that on-drive directory, and you don't have to fool with the
>> CD. There is a way to change W98 to do that after a CD install I
>> believe,
>
> Can anyone tell me exactly how to do that. I have a computer where I did
> copy the Win98 folder over after the install (just because I forgot to
> do it before) and now it always asks for the CD first.
>
>
>
> but this
>> is more straightforward, and generally faster than installing from CD.
>>
>> HTH,
>> ROC