Windows 98 First Edition - Floppy Disk Edition

[marxveix]

Hi,

FE=First Edition / FDE=Floppy Disk Edition

Windows 98 First Edition - Floppy Disk Edition help needed. For Win95 it is possbile to unpack and put fdd version to hdd or cd and install it from there, but with Win98fe it is not possible. Win98fe installation starts fine and after some time, inside Win98fe installation it will ask next fdd, even if all files are from same folder. It does not help if I select the folder where are all unpacked windows 98 fe - fde files. Someone know the way to do it without using real, 3.5-dmf formatted floppy disks? 

Floppy to usb or floppy to usb emulators support up to 1.44mb and do not support dmf (1.7mb) floppy size.

Floppy Disk Edition Win98 has less cab files and is bit smaller than regular Windows 98 FE version.

I am thankful at any help or solution!

[Goodmaneuver]

 About DMF "- download FDFormat (from »www.winimage.com/othertl.htm ). Under DOS (or the Windows 95/98 command line without the graphical interface - this is accomplished by pressing F8 and selecting 6 when booting) try 'FDFORMAT A: F168'. As is true with WinImage, FDFormat uses the BIOS. If FDFormat cannot format a disk at 1.68 MB, WinImage will also be unable to." Quoted from http://www.winimage.com/wimushlp/wini1a1y.htm

Is there a reason not to split the data over 2 disks?  SimplyZip can split it then use the emulator for example.

Interesting reading https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20050819-10/?p=34513

Edited June 15, 2019 by Goodmaneuver

[jaclaz]

By unpacked files you mean the .cab files that ar inside the DMF floppies, right?

I don't think I ever attempted to install the "floppy only" version of 98 FE, in theory if you have all the .cab files in a folder on the hard disk it should work (just like 95 versions worked before and 98 SE later worked), but it is entirely possible that there is *something* preventing that.

 

The good news maybe are that a guy with a lot of patience posted a video (more than two hours long) of a whole install of 98 FE for actual floppies, maybe you can in it find the exact point (i.e. which exact floppy or .cab file) when the issue happens:

jaclaz