# Looking for Windows 98 Boot Disk



## RandellDavid

Hello All,

I remember seeing it in a post under hardware where ya can go to dl the win98 boot disk, but I cant remember which thread it was under so I figure I would ask as that might be quicker.

Thank You


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## Byteman

Hi, Here are some: Remember, you run the downloaded program that will prompt you to put in a floppy disk, don't just download the file to the floppy.

http://www.startdisk.com/

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/floppies.htm
(scroll down page to "You Can Download a win98 Boot floppy image"

Here is a site with more disks than you will ever need, for all sorts of OSes including server editions>

http://www.nerdlabs.org/bootdisks/

I've made one bootable for win98 CD, using Nero Burning Rom and info about making a customized bootdisk image I found here:

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=10700681

It's great, loaded with tools that just cannot fit on a floppy, but you should still have at least one or two floppy diskettes, for the pcs that cannot boot from CDs.


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## Jedi_Master

Howdy RandellDavid...

If you are talking about the boot floppy you can go here...

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Just download the file, double click it once it is downloaded, let it create the boot floppy, then boot the pc with it...

OOPS looks like I was beaten to the link ...


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## Bob Cerelli

I have a section with instructions for creating a boot disk at:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/floppies.htm

There is also the generic one which you can download and at:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/software/win98_img.exe

Just insert and floppy and run the program after you download it. This will automatically format, copy the files to the floppy disk.

There are a lot of the DOS utilities there that don't normally get added when you make one from Win98. For example Diskcopy, Doskey, Format, More, Move, Sys, Edit, Chkdsk, Deltree, Extract, Updated Fdisk, Attrib, Label, Mem, Scandisk, Scanreg, Smartdrv and Xcopy.

Not only are there more utilities on there but it starts much faster since it doesn't have to create the RAM disk and then expand the cab file from the floppy to that RAM disk.

It automatically loads with support for a generic CD ROM and assigns it the drive letter of X:

There is also a CD ROM boot image you can download at:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/software/win_boot.iso

In addition to all the other DOS utilities, the CD version also has:
DELPART - For deleting DOS and NTFS partitions. Can delete extended NTFS partitions.
FDISK121 - FDISK with additional options - See the documentation, and 
READNTFS - Read and Copy files on a NTFS partition.

The CD image needs to be burned using a program that recognized ISO images.

A small, free program to do this can be downloaded at:http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/burncdcc.zip. It is a single executalbe that is under 200k.


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## Elvandil

Useful boot disks that contain additional tools, such as NTFS access and gdisk, can be obtained here:
Boot Floppy--> 
Boot CD--> 
These contain a guided GUI for installation of any Windows operating system, with gdisk and fdisk for partitioning, as well as additional useful tools.

These run in a RAM disk, speeding application execution and allowing you to remove the disks in order to access other disks while it is loaded into memory.

You can get a standard Win98 SE boot disk here and the equivalent bootable CD here.


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## Bob Cerelli

Byteman,

Thanks for the link. It's appreciated.


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## Byteman

Hi, That is one of the fastest moving bootdisks I've used!


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## Bob Cerelli

Yep.

Did a little time comparison between a straight floppy load with all the utilities on it just as files as opposed to one that has to create a ram drive and uncompress all the files from the floppy drive before you can use them (whether you need them all or not). 

On the same hardware with a 20 gig drive, the straight floppy booted, deleted an existing partition and rebooted and started to format in less than half the time it took the one with the ram drive to even boot. 

As an example, I'm not so much concerned about how long FDISK takes to load from a floppy or a ram disk, since the time is so short ether way. But I am concerned about how long it takes me to get to run FDISK. I'll take the shorter time any day. 

Thanks for noticing. 

I do this all the time and that's why I created it years ago. Just got tired of waiting for than darn ram drive to fill up with all those utilities when I might just need one or two.


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## Elvandil

Byteman said:


> Hi, That is one of the fastest moving bootdisks I've used!


It really depends whether you want the speed at the beginning or during the execution of tools. If the floppy needs to be accessed each time you run a program, it slows things considerably.

But without the RAM disk, you won't be able to remove the disk and insert an installation CD to start setup from DOS on a machine that has only one CD-ROM, like laptops.


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## jubalsams

Or: Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk tab. No need to download anything.


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## Wolfeymole

Jubal
Allow this paragraph from Bob C to say it in a nutshell;

"There are a lot of the DOS utilities there that don't normally get added when you make one from Win98. For example Diskcopy, Doskey, Format, More, Move, Sys, Edit, Chkdsk, Deltree, Extract, Updated Fdisk, Attrib, Label, Mem, Scandisk, Scanreg, Smartdrv and Xcopy."


These folk have not designed these bootdisks because they have nothing better to do on a wet Sunday afternoon.


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## Bob Cerelli

Elvandil said:


> But without the RAM disk, you won't be able to remove the disk and insert an installation CD to start setup from DOS on a machine that has only one CD-ROM, like laptops.


Sure you can. Just did it twice on two different computers.

Booted with the CD. Partitioned and Formatted a drive. Took out the CD. Put in a Win98 CD. Ran SETUP from DOS. Installed Win98.


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## RandellDavid

Thanks for the info everyone.


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## Bob Cerelli

Looks like you have a few to select from. Just wanted to make sure your decision for whichever one you choose was at least from correct information.


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## Elvandil

RandellDavid said:


> Thanks for the info everyone.


No problem. Good luck.


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## bnwild

Nice info..Adding a new HDD was hard when the shop installed it as slave on the cd-rom cable.(pavilion 6730)..Be fore finding this page , I was here and this guy was posting a problem I had.

He states: "Anyway, I have already tried fixing the himem.sys file and the repairing the registry. Ultimately these solutions don't work. As stated above, I have a missing partition on the computer. I'm after the files in that partition but since I can't get the computer to boot up and stay up (not even in Safe Mode), I can't get those files. I've heard of Win98 boot CD's and I think that might allow me to boot up using the CD and then run a recovery app.""


I found thr Options\cabs , this is the location HP installs win98se files on HDD.

From there I ran setup...This loads like you had a win98 cd.
This booted windows. Then it wanted the license agreement.
This was a problem because you can't get it off the HP recovery CD, that I know of.

The solution. I oced burned a cd using backup agent in 2002.
I used the boot floopy with rom support and copied the CDbackup to windows\temp.

OH, ypur womdering how I access windows. I accidently found out I could force a Safe mode start without the License thingy shutting down the compter.

when booting up, on beep hold CTRL key. this gives you the options safe mode etc..just using safe mode option fails and your computer will shut down.

I used the step by step method...loaded only what is needed.
WHEM YOU ARE ASK< IF YOU WANT TO INSTALL THE WINDOWS DRIVERS SAY NO...

This forced my computer to boot to a safe mode...
Note, in this mode I didn't have use of the cd-rom or other hard drive...

I was able to use backup agent though and when ask for the file, I pointed to the temp folder...Then it ask about(I forgot. wanted location.) I just proceeded without changing the setting it showed...Sorry i don't remember the exact ending info.

Then I rebooted and windows didn't ask for the license.

Done! Maybe this will help someone..

Charles

P.S. My BIOS wasn't detecting the slave on the rom cable...maybe 5 percent of time. With a cd in drive it would see it about 70 percent of the time. Windows explorer was seeing it...

If this happens, Don't try fdisk in a dos prompt window. I found that it would see the Drive...But if you do get it to see the HDD(my situation) from the floppy the information won't be right.


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