Windows98 boot disk without W98....

[rubberman]

I got this old computer with a empty HD. Im gonna put XP on it but my ME boot disc doesnt work on it. I keep getting the 'IO error, replace floppy'. Wondered if there is a homemade way to make a w98 boot disc without having windows98? OR is there a way so the computer can recognize that the XP install disc is in the drive? The floppy drive still works, it can read files on the floppy. thanks

[ViRaL1]

You should be able to boot from the XP CD itself, just choose your CD-ROM drive as your first boot device in BIOS.

[Capmaster]

Since it's an old computer, it might not have the option to boot from CD

[rubberman]

Its a Dell and the BIOS is unchangeable with the floppy boot first. and i cant even change the floppy to not installed. damn it. Now my problem is that my XP pro disc is unreadable. It doesnt even look that bad on the bottom. 2 of my computer can read it so i can copy for a better read.

[redwudz]

For a W98 boot disk, go here:http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

[Jester700]

Just a thought... if it's old enough that it can't boot from CD, it MAY not be the best candidate for XP. You might be happier staying with win98...

[rubberman]

yeap i found bootdisk.com. I noticed that the disc is pretty transparent when held up to a light so i wonder if that is why it cant read it?

[Pop's]

Might try this rubberman. Just make sure you have 6 floppy's ready to go when you click the program. And a felt pen to mark them 1 thru 6..

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=55820EDB-5039-...7-4FED408EA73F

[smearbrick1]

Using a win98 boot disk will not help you to install winxp on your system. The winxp setup will not run from the dos prompt (ie: d:/setup). Running this command will result in an error message from the winxp setup routine. You will need to make the 6 boot disks described above to boot to a winxp setup. Just as an aside: how old is this computer that it will not allow you to move the cd rom as the first boot device? I had several 133 pentiums that allowed this. If your computer is that old, it doesn't even meet the min requirements for winxp. Like they mentioned above, best to stick with win98.

[rubberman]

sorry but it does work with a 98 boot disc. at the A: switch to the cdrom drive : insert the w98 disc and type 'smartdrv'. It installs SMARTDRV then insert the XP disc and type 'cd\i386' then type 'winnt'.
that starts the setup process. i did it the other day.

[Josef K]

Using a win98 boot disk will not help you to install winxp on your system. The winxp setup will not run from the dos prompt (ie: d:/setup). Running this command will result in an error message from the winxp setup routine.

sorry but it does work with a 98 boot disc.

Agreed. I think smearbrick1 might be thinking that WinXP's CD is using a different file system. All (PC) CDs use CDFS and so will work from DOS. All you need is to reach the stage where you can type 'setup' and hit enter. The installer will take care of the rest, including changing from ?filesystem to NTFS, at which point you don't need the boot disk anymore.

[smearbrick1]

sorry but it does work with a 98 boot disc. at the A: switch to the cdrom drive : insert the w98 disc and type 'smartdrv'. It installs SMARTDRV then insert the XP disc and type 'cd\i386' then type 'winnt'.
that starts the setup process. i did it the other day.

Sorry, never heard of this method before. Thanks for clearing that up.

However:

Agreed. I think smearbrick1 might be thinking that WinXP's CD is using a different file system. All (PC) CDs use CDFS and so will work from DOS. All you need is to reach the stage where you can type 'setup' and hit enter. The installer will take care of the rest, including changing from ?filesystem to NTFS, at which point you don't need the boot disk anymore.

This is incorrect, you cannot simply insert a win98 boot disk and boot to setup winxp just by typing "setup" at the d: prompt. At least, in the few times I've tried it you can't. Simply typing setup at the D: prompt after booting using a win98 disk will not begin the XP setup process.

[rubberman]

when you type 'setup' at the prompt it comes back telling you that installation cant run in DOS.