Member Avatar for runswit2guns

hey, i am having trouble with my laptop. im trying to reinstall windows. i had xp and i wanna go to 98. i used delpart to erase the harddrive and then i ran fdisk to create a partition. and now i am stuck. i cant get the format command to work or nothing else. where can i get a good bootable floppy that can get format to work? i have never done it this way, so if anyone has a step-by-step, or even some advice, that would be appreciated! thanks

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Quick, practical walkthrough to finish a clean Windows 98 reinstall (for — building on ’s BIOS point). This focuses on a boot floppy that actually gives you the DOS tools and CD access you need, how to partition and format correctly, and the common hardware gotchas that stop the process.

  1. Make a proper Windows 98 startup disk that includes CD-ROM support and the DOS utilities (fdisk, format, sys). The easiest way is to use the “Create a Startup Disk” option from a Windows 98 CD so the floppy contains the CD-ROM driver. If your floppy drops to a prompt but format is missing, the startup disk you used is incomplete — remake it with the Win98 tools.

  2. Boot order / BIOS: if the machine won’t run the floppy, change the boot order in BIOS (key varies by vendor — watch the first screen for the prompt). Once you’ve booted to A:\, run:

    fdisk

    Create one primary partition and set it active. Reboot, boot the floppy again and run either:

    format c: /s

    (which formats and transfers system files) — or, if your floppy’s format lacks /s, do:

    format c:
sys c:

  3. With the hard drive formatted and system files on C:, insert the Windows 98 CD and run the installer from DOS:

    D:\setup

    (or whatever your CD drive letter is).

Troubleshooting & cautions

  • If the CD isn’t visible from DOS, the floppy lacks the correct CD-ROM driver — you need a startup disk with the laptop’s OEM CD driver.
  • Modern laptops with SATA/AHCI controllers may prevent Win98 from seeing the drive; switch SATA to IDE/compatibility mode in BIOS or use different hardware (or a virtual machine).
  • Back up anything important first. If drivers and hardware compatibility are a problem, consider running Win98 in a VM instead of on modern physical hardware.

This fills gaps not covered earlier: ensure the startup floppy actually contains CD drivers and DOS utilities, create a single primary active partition, transfer system files, then run setup from the CD.

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Member Avatar for runswit2guns

i went to a website and downloaded boot98.exe and then put that floppy with the unzipped files into my laptop and booted the floppy at startup. it then tells me to remove disks or other media then press any key to restart. why does it do that when i have a windows 98 boot up floppy disk and no cdrom disk inserted?

Member Avatar for tayspen

i went to a website and downloaded boot98.exe and then put that floppy with the unzipped files into my laptop and booted the floppy at startup. it then tells me to remove disks or other media then press any key to restart. why does it do that when i have a windows 98 boot up floppy disk and no cdrom disk inserted?

It sounds like you need to set the computer BIOS to boot from a floppy drive. If you dont know how to acess the BIOS or you dont know what to change. Let me know and i can walk you through it.

-T

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