One option not yet mentioned is using the parallel printer port for transfering installation files to the laptop's hard drive. This can be done by crossover cable (Laplink or Parcp) or by attaching an external box to the parallel port containing a CDROM player or hard drive inside. That box usually has some interface which translates the parallel port's logic to a standard IDE or ATA connector. A variation of the parallel port solution is using a parallel port ZIP drive. The ZIP disks are 100MB and there are drivers for both DOS and for all Windows systems. With 3 of these disks you'd have the installation files copied in 5 minutes. There are also ZIPs with 250MB capacity disks. Another option, not mentioned for obvious reasons, is the RS232 or serial port. In a similar manner to a Laplink or Parcp cable, a so-called null-modem cable connects your laptop to some other computer and then starts a long night and day of transferring the installation files. This is probably the slowest method of doing this. No matter what method you choose to transfer the installation files to your laptop drive, which you MUST do, because there's no CDROM reader, you end up with a local folder containing the complete set of installation files. In the case of W98 it is adviseable to let them stay there even after installation is completed. As soon as you make some change to your system, or install some piece of hardware, like a printer, the installed W98 system will again start asking you for installation files. I'd say the easiest method of doing this is that you take out that 2.5" laptop HDD and attach it internally to some other computer. If that other computer is a laptop, you don't even need any adapter between the 2.5" HDD connector and the bigger 3.5" HDD connector. After you've returned the drive to its original laptop, now filled with that installation folder, start up with DOS, cd to the install directory and type setup or install. Something like this: > C: cd W98 dir *.exe setup The above is from distant memory, so use your own judgement. A W98 installation should commence. Please note that you can not install directly from the serial or parallel port cable or devices. The same goes for USB on older machines. But if you had a SCSI card in the PCMCIA slot, and then a CDROM reader attached to that SCSI interface, you'd be able to install your OS directly from that.