Member Avatar for ronbtas

Hi
I have an IBM PIII notebook that I need to run under Win98.
As the machine has a USB CD drive the Win98 setup CD won't run.
I have tried putting the HDD into a Desktop PIII machine and installing Win98 on it which works fine but when I move the HDD back to the notebook it can't dind the OS. HDD boots fine in desktop.
Any one got any idea???

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

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Short, practical checklist and a reliable hard-disk install approach for older notebooks (for and anyone else trying a Win98 install on legacy hardware). These steps avoid relying on an external drive that the laptop might not boot and focus on the common disk- and BIOS-level issues that stop an OS from starting.

Before you reinstall — quick checks:

  • Confirm the BIOS actually detects the hard disk (model and capacity shown). If not, stop and check power/connector seating.
  • Make sure the target partition is a primary, active partition formatted FAT16/32 (Win98 era). Hidden or logical partitions will not boot.
  • Repair or recreate the boot sector with the startup disk tools if Windows refuses to hand over control to IO.SYS/MSDOS.SYS.
  • Verify BIOS drive mode: if the machine has newer SATA controllers, switch to legacy/compatibility/IDE mode when possible.

Hard-disk install method (works when external media won't boot):

  • On any PC, use a bootable DOS/FreeDOS floppy or USB to run FDISK and create a small primary FAT32 partition on the laptop disk; mark it active.
  • Use the startup disk to FORMAT C: /S (or use the startup utility) to make the partition bootable and copy the minimal system files.
  • Copy the full Windows 98 installation folder from the CD into that partition (for example C:\WIN98).
  • Boot the laptop from the startup media and run C:\WIN98\SETUP.EXE to start the installation from the hard disk.

If it still fails: run SMART/surface tests from a rescue stick, reseat or swap the drive cable/adapter, and check for BIOS quirks. In many threads contributors like and looked at boot options; the HDD-based method above avoids those boot-order issues and isolates whether the problem is software, BIOS translation, or a physical connection.

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Member Avatar for Spriggan

So in the BIOS is there no "boot from USB" option?

it could be that there is an issue with the hardware, try installing linux on the HDD and booting from that.

Member Avatar for ronbtas

The problem was an intermittent connector on the HDD. I have resolved the issue now.

Member Avatar for joshSCH

Glad you got it worked out.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Hit F12 as soon as the laptop boots up and choose Removable Device as a boot option.

I have this on my PIII 128mb ram, winNT4 thinkpad R30

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