I recently formatted my laptop, which has no CD-ROM drive, and I was wondering if it is possible to install win95/98 (or any other OS) with only a floppy drive?

Sure - the original 95 upgrade kit was 13 floppy disks (mostly 1.68Mb DMF). Later versions of Windows were considerably larger, and it would be a staggering task to convert the 98 installation files to floppies.

Easier would be to copy the installation directory to the hard drive with a laplink style cable using the LPT port (parallel file transfer) or to connect the HDD to another machine and copy the files that way.

That way you can run the setup from the hard drive.

Of course, there is the question: what were you thinking when you chose to format the drive?

We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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Hi,

Possible but tedious.

First, I don't know where you'd get 9x on floppies.

Better bet: format the HD and make it bootable with, let's say, w98se. Then copy the 98se CD directory ['folser'] \win98 to the HD, c:\win98 using laplink, interlink or whatever you have and install from HD.

BUT, most laptops need more than plain vanilla OS, because of drivers specific to the machine, especially the display, pointing device etc.

M2

Mechanix2Go@Golden-Triangle.com

Hi jboy,

Was it Marty Driewitz who told Adrian Cronauer, "I'm on your frequency."

I guess you were writing you msg while I was writing mine, but you type faster.

M2

Mechanix2Go@Golden-Triangle.com

Now that's a blast from the past.

Yep, grade 9 typing class came in handy ; )

Is it my imagination, or are we seeing a whole lot more of "I don't have a floppy drive, but... " questions?

We have nothing against ideas. We're against people spreading them. - General Augusto Pinochet of Chile

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itsmeemike:
if you find yourself a copy of superformat on the internet,{it's free} & format your floppies as 1.66 mb the cab files for either win95b = osr2.1 or win98 will fit on the floppies, a slow way to install but will work.
format your hard-drive with this command = format c:/s , then when the formatting has finnished type this exactly as this :=
{ md c:\win95 } without the brackets either side ,then press enter - for windows 95 or { md c:\win98 } then press enter - for windows 98 . When you've started to copy either your win95 or 98 files to your floppy's take the boot-disk out of the floppy drive & place the floppy's with the new files you just copied in the drive & type this { copy *.* c:\win95 } for windows95 or { copy *.* c:\win98 } for windows 98. the * is the little star above the top number 8 key.note the space between the copy word & { * }now you should see the floppy transfer files to the hard-drive,as its finished copying each floppy to the hard-drive change to the next floppy to copy & just press the F3 key once then enter. do this until you;ve copied the entire Win95 or Win98 directory to the hard-drive. When you've copied all files reboot the computer with the boot-disk & type this to start the install of either win95 or 98
type C: then press enter, then type win95\setup then press enter - or win98\setup then press enter.you'll now be installing the operating system the way it should be done.! -Well in my opinion-