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98 install question


RacerBG

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Because I have detective skills I found one good bootable CD for Windows 98 and decided to throw it out of the window. :realmad:

Well, well let's get serious now, shall we? :D

Thanks to this CD I learned why it's called bootable - I can install it on bare bones hardware and run the setup directly from there.

So far so good, the install went fine, I saw my favorite loading screen, then the white mouse, the blue screen of life (BSOL)...Everything was like in a dream except the drivers!

I mean that something went totally wrong - when the usual screen arrived and Windows started detecting my hardware it started also asking me to insert the install CD for the drivers. The CD was there, the path for some reason was to the Windows folder (I don't know why and I don't know what is the path of the CD). Anyway no drivers were found because of the "missing CD". I stopped the VB at this point. Where is my mistake?

Notes: I removed the CD at one point after the install and after the question for the CD I inserted it again. I was doing this with Virtual Box.

I have a strange hope that my Acer will someday say "welcome" to my first and favorite OS...

EDIT: Looks like I was blind for some options. I will see what I can do about it.

EDIT 2: Nope, looks like I don't understand fdisk properly.

Edited by RacerBG
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Need more details about your setup please. If your're trying to install Windows 98 in a "virtual box" than it's no wonder the installtion didn't work correctly. As the installation program wouldn't know what it was dealing with... for example, newer hardware you're trying to install onto. I've never attempted one of these "virtual box" installations of Win9x. On the other hand, I've installed many a Windows 9x onto the proper hardware which it was designed for, without using virtual boxes of any sort. Some questions: what kind of Windows 98 CD do you have? Is it a genuine installation, or an upgrade, or one of those HP or Dell ones? What sort of computer? RAM specs, hard drive specs, CPU specs? What operating system are you running a "virtual box" from? You leave out way too much information for me to even guess what the problem could be.

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Yes, sorry for the lack of information guys:

Im using Virtual Box 4.2.16;

Bootable Windows 98 SE CD 656,6 MB;

The virtual machine have 512 MB RAM, 128 MB video card, 1 processor and 4 GB HDD;

This disk gives me 2 options: Boot from HDD and Boot from CD;

Im choosing Boot from CD;

Then 3 options are appearing: Start Setup from CD, Start PC with CD-ROM support and without CD-ROM support;

I chosed the first and maybe this is my problem.

With the second which seems logical decision a DOS prompt is appearing with A:\>.

From there I can use fdisk, then run the setup. Using fdisk at first seems to me dirty job. :D And for some reason always Im unable to format after partitioning and after that Windows is saying that it need from 739 MB memory to run or something like that.

My first try was with the "Start Setup from CD" and THEN my problem appeared with the drivers. Looks like the virtual PC was unable to detect my disk at all.

Edited by RacerBG
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Just find an old pentium 1, 2, or 3 computer (something with 900 MHz or less CPU). Computer manufacturers never designed anything beyond the above specs to support Windows 9x... at least not officially... and not without "issues." For example, my computer was designed for Windows ME use only. Since Windows ME was the last version of 9x, I would assume that any newer, faster computers, WERE NOT designed for Windows ME. Hence, I wouldn't bother installing Windows ME on anything more than, say, a Pentium 3. I'm sure there are plenty of "power users" on this board who have Win9x installed on better machines... but they also have a higher tolerance for troubleshooting. Me, not so much. For instance, before I get a computer, I check online to read the user manual and see what operating system the computer was designed for. If it wasnt' designed for the OS I plan to use, then I don't get that computer. Saves me trouble.

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If you want to play around on old computers, than you could get anything from a 80386 cpu, 80486, Pentium I, Pentium II, Pentium III............. with a 386 computer you can run DOS and Windows 3.1. With a 486 you can run DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95. With a Pentium I you can run DOS, Windows 3.1, and every Win9x OS. Pentium 2 and 3 you can run Win9x.

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Windows 98 will run fine with any one processor, I have a Pentium IV, or whatever it is called. Can even go on 3 or 5 gig processor, just make sure that the processor is compatible with the OS. It does not matter, just make sure it can run. However the OS will not take advantage of special features of the processor itself, as these features was not implemented, unless somebody makes a patch. You can see the features of the CPU itself but will not be able to use those features, again that depends, who knows???

This is not like running an emulator of an OS like windows 3.1, or an early version of Amiga OS, or something along those lines. Windows 98 is a really high end OS, and demands the real thing, if you have an empty drive nearby, give it a logical partitian, and have the install format, or better yet find, fat32format, and use that for faster work. Windows 98 needs the actual machine. Using an emultor built for Windows ( like one running in a Linux environment ), is more suited, even a PPC Mac OS X emulator environment is more heavier.

You can use a ISO to USB program, and that might work, or you can just write a disc, or use an extra drive you have lying around.

The setup, should automatically point to a driver, and then you have to browse the discs folders, or whatever drive location. If the setup pauses, that is because the location of the setup, is not in the correct location??? When the install asks for the drivers locations, this means the disc. Usually when you install, the D:/ drive is the CD-rom drive it is reading from. However when you use a dos boot disc, that disk ( which I keep in my computer all the time ) should setup the environment for minim dos usage, like installing the OS.

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Just find an old pentium 1, 2, or 3 computer (something with 900 MHz or less CPU). Computer manufacturers never designed anything beyond the above specs to support Windows 9x... at least not officially... and not without "issues." For example, my computer was designed for Windows ME use only. Since Windows ME was the last version of 9x, I would assume that any newer, faster computers, WERE NOT designed for Windows ME. Hence, I wouldn't bother installing Windows ME on anything more than, say, a Pentium 3. I'm sure there are plenty of "power users" on this board who have Win9x installed on better machines... but they also have a higher tolerance for troubleshooting. Me, not so much. For instance, before I get a computer, I check online to read the user manual and see what operating system the computer was designed for. If it wasnt' designed for the OS I plan to use, then I don't get that computer. Saves me trouble.

No, no, no. There is no "trouble" or "troubleshooting" to using Windows 9x on a wide range of hardware far superior to Pentium III. And no manufacturer is going to TELL you their machine is designed for an older system. They do what Microsoft wants them to do, and promote the "current" Microsoft OS of the time.

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What I usually do:

- search, grab and read the motherboard manual to find out CPU/RAM/HDD/etc specs and make sure hardware fits the specs

- search, grab and unpack drivers for the specific hardware installed in the target machine, right on its HDD, if possible on another partition (requires access to that HDD, either by booting a live Linux CD/USB or mounting the HDD on another computer)

- copy Windows setup files on target machine's HDD, if possible on another partition (see above)

- start windows installation from CD (or floppy if BIOS can't run CD/USB boot)

- if during installation the Windows CD is required and setup can't "see" the CD (because CD drivers are not loaded at that time), just point the installation to the Windows setup folder on the HDD

- if other specific drivers are required, point the installation to the specific driver folder on the HDD

Certain drivers come as a self-extracting executable file, so you may skip installation of such driver during Windows setup and install that driver at a later time, when Windows finished installing.

If you can't get access to the target machine's HDD prior to installing Windows, then try to build yourself a Windows bootable CD that contains USB drivers (NUSB by Maximus-Decim would be a good choice), install those drivers when Windows finished installing and then you can copy over the required drivers through an USB stick or external USB drive and install them when Windows is installed and running.

Good luck! ;)

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