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I have a problem trying to create a win98 startup disk. I have a winxp machine and no floppy drives so I was wondering/hoping if I was able to download the files somewhere on the internet and then burn them to a cdrom drive. Problem is I'm having an extraordinarily difficult time finding these files on the net. Everthing I find so far is an executable file that wants to extract stuff straight to a floppy drive...which I do not have.
Does anyone have any suggestions or know if or how I can do this? Thanks.
Hi knox, hi everyone
What would one do without the variety of search engines on the net? ;-)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Bootdisk+iso&btnG=Google+SearchI think this is what you are looking for:
Boot CD – Win 98SE boot CD with internal CD-ROM support
(http://www.answersthatwork.com/Downright_pages/Boot_Disks_and_Boot_CDs.htm)Best Regards and Wishes,
The Count, Co-webmaster of mesich.com
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"Does anyone have any suggestions or know if or how I can do this?"
Sure, buy a floppy drive & install it...lol.
For whatever reason, people tend to think that floppy drives are obsolete & don't bother installing them, then when they come across a time when it's actually needed (diagnostics, BIOS flash, SATA driver installation, etc), they spend hours scouring the net searching for a work around.
You'll find what you need here:
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thanks for the help. I guess I just kept looking in the wrong places. I'll give these a shot and hopefully all goes well.
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Hi knox, jam, hi everyone
You're welcome!
jam has made a excellent point! :-)
If not to much to ask, please, let us know how things turned out for you.
Best Regards and Wishes,
The Count, Co-webmaster of mesich.com
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"For whatever reason, people tend to think that floppy drives are obsolete & don't bother installing them, then when they come across a time when it's actually needed (diagnostics, BIOS flash, SATA driver installation, etc), they spend hours scouring the net searching for a work around."
OTOH, if you collect the tools to manipulate .iso images and/or pre-made iso images BEFORE you need them you won't need to buy a floppy drive or hunt one if you are away from home.
I do save old floppy drives (I find them to be well-made) but they don't get any use. A boot CD collection nowadays is as basic as a boot floppy collection was years ago.
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Stop! You're both right.
OTOH, Floppy's are more dependable, over time, than CDR's. I can't recall the last time I saw a post involving problems with a Floppy Drive. CD/DVD Drives-???
Won't matter if you have the Media if the drive is Fubar.
There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.
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Download the win98 boot disk from Bootdisk.com and then download UltraISO
and use ultraiso to make start up disk very easy:)
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dw333b
If you need to supply SATA or any other third party drivers when installing Win2000/XP you don't have the choice to use a CDR. If you don't have a floppy drive then the only other choice is to slipstream the drivers into the original CD. Sometimes this is a better option but it is time consuming.
Dumbob
I must disagree with your assessment of floppy vs. CDR. Floppies can get corrupted by simply setting around. CDR should last a long time. The main advantage of floppies is they are quick and easy. I always include a floppy drive in any computer I assemble. I would say the reason you don't see much about floppies is because the OEMs aren't including them anymore.
Back when everything was floppy or HDrive I had many issues with disks not reading between machines. Expecially 5 1/4 media. I have cleaned off 3.5 disks using full format and stored for future use. Pulled them out to use and the disk was NG. I know it was reading OK when I put it away. Never had that problem with CDR.
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"If you need to supply SATA or any other third party drivers when installing Win2000/XP you don't have the choice to use a CDR."
Only on installs on computers that have a floppy controller (not all motherboards support floppies) where you have no other computer to prepare an install disk.
I keep nlite on my utility Windows box so I can slipstream drivers very easily and crank out custom .isos for any box I build. I keep adding drivers to the original so it becomes even more useful over time.
Bashrats mass storage driverpacks are also useful for slipstreaming install CDs that will work on a variety of machines.http://driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/
If I were stuck with one blank machine that had a floppy drive, no access to another PC, and only a driver floppy disk then I would have to use it (once, since I'd use that machine as a slipstream box to make its own reload CD) , but otherwise making a specific install CD is more useful because it is reliable and facilitates future installs.
I slipstream the CD, install Windows, then toss the CD into the computer case so it won't get lost and will be available for future use.
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Are you trying to state that if you don't have a floppy controller then you will be prompted to insert a CD? How would that work. The drivers are not immediately accessed. How ould Windows continue to install without the Win2000/XP CD.
Doesn't matter weather or not you have a floppy controller or not, If you need to install third party drivers the ONLY prompt you will get is for a floppy disk. This is probably due to the age of those OSes but that is the way it works.
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"Are you trying to state that if you don't have a floppy controller then you will be prompted to insert a CD? "
Of course not. If I do an install on a PC that might be new enough to need additional drivers, I open the case and verify what motherboard is installed. I also turn it on to BIOS to determine if any SATA controller can be set to IDE Compatibility Mode so I can install Windows, then load SATA drivers afterwards and revert to SATA in BIOS.
"If you need to install third party drivers the ONLY prompt you will get is for a floppy disk."
I can ignore the prompt because I already looked up the drivers BEFOREHAND and slipstreamed them to my install CD along with any other useful drivers/progs that will fit.Here's a slick, interesting project for a "slipstreamed" Win98 CD:
http://www.msfn.org/board/Unattende...
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If you look above I already stated you have two choices the floppy of slipstreaming. I think the floppy is preferable for the casual user. They wouldn't want to deal with slipstreaming. Afterall these are the same folks that don't do any backing up.
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