# Installing WIN 98 on new hard drive



## rosarioallenf (Nov 29, 2013)

Hard Drive on my old Latitude E6400 crashed so I successfully replaced it with a brand new 500GB from Dell. I am using the original WIN98 CD to boot but it comes up with the message "Device Driver not found: 'OEMCD001'. No valid CDROM device drivers selected.
How do i proceed so I can save my investment


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## prunejuice (Apr 3, 2002)

Is there a good reason for installing a completely unsupported operating system on a laptop that isn't even that old?


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

rosarioallenf said:


> Hard Drive on my old *Latitude E6400* crashed so I successfully replaced it with a brand new 500GB from Dell. I am using the *original WIN98 CD* to boot but it comes up with the message "Device Driver not found: 'OEMCD001'. No valid CDROM device drivers selected.
> How do i proceed so I can save my investment


The *Dell Latitude E6400* laptop is designed for and supports Windows XP and Windows Vista and Windows 7, 32-bit and 64-bit.

What "original Windows 98 disc" are you referring to?

Why are you trying to install such an outdated and unsecure Windows version in a modern laptop?

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I haven't installed Windows 98 in a computer in well over 10 years, but I do remember that you need to use a bootable startup floppy disk in order to format the hard drive and install Windows 98.

You won't find any laptop built in the last 10 years or so that comes with a floppy disk drive.

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## DreadStorm (Sep 14, 2006)

Despite all the "Why" and "What for" stuff, I'll give you an answer you can use.

I routinely use operating systems as old as Windows 3.10 & MS-DOS 3.3, so I have extensive resources in this matter.

Firstly, forget it. I'm sorry to say, but it's not gonna happen. The absolute best configuration I've been able to get Win98 to run on - without troubles and crashes - is as follows: (and this is 98 second edition, not first release)

- Pentium-4 3.06GHz non-HyperThreaded CPU. Beyond that, there's issues with the newer chipsets - namely lack of drivers. If all you have is a HyperThreaded CPU, then disable the HyperThreading in BIOS.
- 512MB DDR-400 (Win9x will only use up to 512MB, anything more requires a third-party memory manager. But even still, it's unstable. Win98 is best suited for around 128MB and that's flawless running...Well, flawless for Win98. And dual-channel memory is not going to work. Single-channel ("standard") only..
- No hard drive (or boot partition) greater than 137GB. Recommend boot partition about 30GB or so, and the rest on a secondary partition/drive. All must be formatted to FAT32.

And that's it. As good as it gets for Win9x/ME.

I had one motherboard that was socket LGA775 Pentium-4 that Win98 ran on. That was an Intel D915GAG motherboard (built for OEM - eMachines). But you'd still have to disable HyperThreading in the BIOS. And, of course, no more than 512MB RAM installed. I had 256MB in mine.

The reason it's not working on your laptop is because the hardware is simply not supported. Period.
There are no drivers for DOS that'll make the hardware work with it.
There are no known work-arounds or hacks to do so either.

DOS was built around a certain architecture and is not very flexible with it. The floppy systems are fairly standard, but the IDE and SATA controllers of today just simply aren't recognized by the older software.

The newer systems, laptop or desktop, have chipsets that just simply aren't recognized nor usable by DOS. And Win9x/ME is nothing more than a flavor of Windows running within a DOS shell. It's entirely dependent on DOS for drive access, and since these chipsets were built MUCH later than any last-supported version of any DOS, then DOS simply can't work with it.

So, I'm sorry to say, the best you can hope for (and it'll be hit-and-miss) is MAYBE getting Windows 2000 to run on it. But it's doubtful. It could happen, though.

If you really must have a Win98 machine, stick with the configuration noted above. Anything newer simply just won't happen - except perhaps in a Virtual Machine like VMWare.

I hope this helps. If you have need of further information, feel free to contact me.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

I've got 98se running (of sorts) on all my machines (No on-line access, deliberately)
Although they are by no means new. All have at least 2Gb memory and use IDE disks or SATA in IDE mode via BIOS


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## DreadStorm (Sep 14, 2006)

Yes, sometimes SATA running in IDE mode does work out. It depends on the manufacturer's BIOS. Usually, Award does the trick.

As far as laptops though...in my experience it's a hopeless cause. heh


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Actually both my Dell C840 and my Lenovo Thinkpad T43P also work with 98SE.


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## DreadStorm (Sep 14, 2006)

Yup, just looked those up, they would. Pentium-class. And built like a brick out house, from the reviews.

My current Win98 machine is an oldie. I call it my Packard Dell.
Has a Packard Bell P-II 333MHz with 128MB, built into a Dell case & Dell PSU.

Haven't got internet working on it yet, but then, I probably have a non-working NIC in it. (ISA 3COM 10mbps). I'll switch it out sometime and see if it goes. Then again, I saved all the Windows Updates for it.

Some of those oldie games just won't function right on a newer machine. Always best to have a classic to tinker with.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

I've got an ancient 486 based machine hidden under my desk. It uses 30 or 72 pin memory and is faster than most modern machines when running 98SE.
I keep it to support some of my customers who use garage and shop systems based on Dos and early Windows.


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## DreadStorm (Sep 14, 2006)

I kept one of every generation of computer from 286 on up to the Core 2 Quad-based machines. All with peripherals and hardware & software appropriately dated. Most I consider "museum pieces" and are boxed accordingly. But what I have out and use are these:

My Packard-Dell as described above. Once ran OS/2 Warp 4, when it was necessary.
AMD 5x86-P75 133MHz, 32MB, using DOS-6.22 & Win3.1
386-DX 25MHz, 16MB RAM, using DOS 6.22 only.
This one I'm on now, my gargantuan i5-3570 with about 12.5TB data storage RAID.
One in the living room, a Core 2 Duo 3.16GHz.
And my server, a simple Core 2 Duo 3GHz, with 1.2TB in a RAID.
Not counting the Commodores, Apples, TI's, and Atari computers I have out. heh

And probably enough junk to build about 20 more machines of varying ages. heh

I originally kept them as spares to support others, but it became a hobby where I'd collect instead. I still do some support for people, but it's very small-scale. I have more enjoyment out of building and installing, than anything else. Getting a dinosaur to work properly is extremely rewarding, I think.


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