Install Windows 98 from USB with RUFUS
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2024
- We use RUFUS to create USB flash drives and install Windows 98 SE onto a Retro PC. We need to create two USB flash drives. One contains a Windows 98 SE Boot Floppy for partitioning, formatting and making drive bootable. The second one will boot into FreeDOS and then we can copy the Windows 98 SE setup files onto our Retro PC.
Resources:
RUFUS: rufus.ie/en/
Windows 98 SE Custom Boot Floppy: www.bootdisk.c...
Windows 98 SE: winworldpc.com...
USB Storage Driver: www.philscompu...
7-Zip: www.7-zip.org/...
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Наука
My personal method that works great for thin clients (also desktop PC's with SATA drives) is to use a Hiren's Boot CD. Process is to boot to Mini Windows XP, use the disk manager to partition the drive into 2 partitions, format both as FAT32, then swap out the Hiren's CD for the Windows 98 CD (while still in XP environment), copy Windows 98 files to the second partition, reboot again to Hiren's CD, then choose DOS, then from DOS change the directory to the second partition and run setup. This is convenient for also copying the drivers you need to the second partition while in the XP environment for easy access to them as soon as you boot into 98 for the first time. Only caveat here is you need at least 256MB of ram to run the XP mini environment.
Yea I tried some Linux, maybe Puppy Linux? Worked well.
I haven't used Hiren's for maybe a decade now, but it has always worked flawless. That's a really nifty way of isntalling.
@@Dreijer94 there is the restored edition, but that one uses a win10pe
@@scudsturm1 FYI, I use Hiren's version 15.2
@@scudsturm1 dude I remember BartPE
Great stuff Phil. I'm actually working on a RetroPC build myself right now, so perfect timing on this one :-)
Hope the retro build goes well. You going to make a video about it?
Also, did you know that if you choose the right settings and graphics cards you can make a KVM PCI-E passthrough setup for Win-98 and Win-XP? Might make a cool video if you want to try it. I have it set up on my Huananzhi x99f8 board, Win XP works great, Win98 doesn't work as well but at least it mostly works. I had to use some weird patches to get 98se stable, and even then many games don't like the 3.2ghz cpu. Almost all DOS games don't work at all, but that's to be expected (CPU is just way too fast).
Love both you and Phil's channels!
Hey Phil, I don't usually take the time to leave a comment on videos but I just really wanted you to know how much this tutorial, and your website, helped me out with my recent Windows 98 SE retro build. From installation to all the appropriate drivers, like USB, CPU chipset, and GPU, you are seriously such a time and headache saver. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I couldn't have built my retro PC without you.
Absolutely amazing. Never thought I'd be installing Windows 98 on a modern(ish) laptop. No way I could have done it without this concise tutorial!!!😁
Great to hear!
Older OS(s) are used on Most Complex modern machines to excess and manipulate the hardware in Hacking Codes Experimentation. Newer OS(s) don’t let you go close to that level … not even using the com-ports freely. BTW “Hacking” is now taught as a normal subject @Stanford, && @MIT. The coding is done in UNIX based ‘C’ and modded ‘C++’.
For anyone that is using this tutorial in 2023, do not use the custom boot disk because Rufus cannot burn an IMA file to USB. I recommend using the USB installer for FreeDOS to partition and format the drive. It has the same tools and the instructions are almost the same as seen in the video.
After spending hours trying to troubleshoo this I finally find out the same
Guys, i'm wondering if i can do the same but installin Windows 2000 instead of 98.
On the retro Pc i'm using Plop Boot Manager cause the bios can't boot from USB, usb bootable drive done with WinSetupFromUsb. When i try to boot usb from Plop, i get a black screen with a blinking line at top left.
Usb installer link
FreeDOS doesn’t have diskpart? I cannot get a list of programs and a description of what is on the rufus drive. Attempted to migrate Win98 boot disk exe to the rufus but the program wouldn’t run citing wrong version of dos
I was trying to create the bootable FreeDos but I`m not able to run fdisk nor format programs from it. Now I would like to install Win98 retro computer but without formating the disk it is not possible. How can I run fdisk and format programs from usb bootable drive?
Much easier than constantly finding CDs! Most modern ATX cases don't have 5.25 bays!
It's somewhat easier than Easy2Boot method and works well so far :)
Why would you install window 98 in at these days?
@@riskbreaker9 You must be new here. This is a channel for retro hardware and retro gaming. Not all games work on modern hardware with Windows 10.
@@riskbreaker9 Retro PC........
@@riskbreaker9 Ah shit, here we go again...
hey nice to see you again
Hey hey!
G'day Phil,
I love these 'How to' videos for older OS, especially as you add links for Safe Versions of all the tools needed,
So many Links to Downloads have Junk or Scams attached to them these days & they are the ones that are at the top of searches
Thanks so much for the effort you put in to help others 😁
Lets hope the links stay up for the future :)
@@philscomputerlab yes they did! im building my 98 gaming pc from a compaq 510. the links still work!
I've been trying to use a single USB all day long and couldn't figure it out this was a big help
I'm pretty sure you can use only one USB stick with the Grub4dos and all needed floppy images and files. And there was a method of speeding up USB with the PLOP driver.
The next level is installation from network with PXE.
Fucking PTSD kicked in every time he ejected that damn flash-drive. That sound used to mean that my shitty phone's charging port was acting up again, and I always hated readjusting that thing. XD
For motherboards that don't support USB boot, a great option is the PLoP boot manager (included with Ultimate Boot CD or throw it on a floppy disk)
PLoP was great when I wanted to boot Puppy Linux on an XPS R400 I had.
Windows Just Got Better
This is a nice instruction video, really handy. Thank you for taking the time to make this.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Rufus is awesome. Haven‘t even watched the video but i can tell it will be very helpful to a lot of people, nice!
Another fantastic vid, thank you, Phil. If it would be possible, I would give you ten thumbs up for this!
Thank you so much i was searching for this all day!!!!
I am attempting to follow your directions from the video, but as soon as I get done with the first usb, and go to hit eject, the usb is not listed in explorer. I am attempting to get win98 onto an optiplex 760, and when the pc attempts to boot from usb, I get a 'disk I/O error - replace the disk, and then press any key'. Could you please assist me with this?
Hey, did you ever figure out what to do? I have the same "I/O error" issue. Thanks.
@@nostalgicsoul76 I think we just wet to a different OS.
Nice video as always
But there is something I'd like to ask. I am not sure, but is it possible, that your talking style (don't know how to call it better) changed a bit since you made this long break few weeks ago....? Maybe i am wrong.
Great video! Always nice to have another way of installing windows. For machines without USB you should be able to follow this using a different machine and transfer it to the non-usb machine before running Win98 setup.
What kind of PC does not have USB? I have a ZX Board here with a Pentium III 500 on it and it already has USB 1.0 on it ... and there is no problem either, cause there are CF to IDE adapters, that can be hooked to the onboard IDE-connectors and used as a HD drive - together with a cheap card-reader, that was build into a lot of PCs over time, you can set up everything on your live system, similar on how he has set up the USB stick.
this is like going back in time
Not sure if I will get a response. But I am getting a "Disk I/O error - Replace the disk, and then press any key" when I insert the first flash drive that has the BOOT98sc.IMA file that I used RUFUS with @1:59 in the video. Has anyone else experienced this?
same :(
Awesome videos Phil, and it's perfect timing! I was getting ready upgrade my Retro98 Voodoo5 build, by swapping out a failing 32GB Maxtor drive, for a 120GB SSD using a SATA to IDE adapter. This will makes things a lot easier! 😀👍
You found a Voodoo 5 at a decent price?
Nice video !
CompactFlash IDE adapter + CompactFlash USB adapter and a CF card = best DOS/Win98 pendrive :)
As for next video : I would love to see DOS6.22 + Win311 + Win95 + Win98 multi boot using DOS boot menu (not on the same drive, but selectable as boot options).
Or a Virtual Floppy emulator options for Win10/11 x64 ?
Superb work Phil, looks excellent
I have some that would require using Plop because the bios is not USB boot capable. I like using Easy to Boot, but I found Plop doesn't like to handover control. So in that case it has to be a dedicated live or install image on the USB. Then again some laptops/PC's aren't Easy to Boot friendly and require a dedicated install USB. Not many can, or want to remember the days when the internet was dial up. Back in those days getting files transferred between computers was a pain. Especially if your floppy decided to die and you didn't have a CDROM burner because they were to expensive, and even though your motherboard had USB connections. Windows 95 and DOS didn't really know what they were. That left you with swapping an internal hardrive between computers to share files. That is unless you knew how to do the null modem cable thing, or ftp if you could even get the drivers working. I personally appreciate modern file transfer convenience.
boot disk link is not working
For retro stuff i´m sticking to CD-R´s as booting from USB is sometimes a big issue on old hardware.
My Pentium III laptop has a built in USB port and plob boot manager will allow booting from USB but 1.1 speeds aren´t great.
PCMCIA add in cards aren´t supported by plpbt to my knowledge.
So booting from USB on my Pentium MMX laptop simply doesn´t work as it doesn´t have a built in USB port but a PCMCIA USB card.
Unfortunately i don´t have an old desktop that may or may not have USB boot support and prices on ebay are going crazy right now.
But plop boot manager deserves a mentioning as it´s adding USB boot support to many old pc´s
However my Pentium III laptop at 500Mhz and the ATI rage mobility 8MB graphics is fine for less demanding games.
It can even run Half Life at low resolutions with playable framerates so for retro gaming it´s still great.
Also Sound Blaster compatibility built in, plays some DOS games under windows just fine.
Love your videos and hope that you never stop making them. :-) One small note from me, though.. The new filmstrip transition hurts my eyes. That's not my creative opinion and I have no problem with it conceptually. I mean they literally cause me some discomfort and it takes a second for me to refocus afterwards each time. I don't know why.
Thank you so much for this. I've be knocking my head for the past few months on installing win98.
Please do more videos on making the drivers work❤❤❤
What drivers do you need help with?
@@philscomputerlab I will be installing windows the way you described. I still don't know what problems I will encounter because I have various hardware that I will be using and I may be looking it on the web
Still one of the most helpful videos about this topic.
Good stuff for Retro PCs without floppy and cd driver
haha i was just preparing a 20GB hdd for w98 and needed this, thanks!
Well, now NO ONE can dislike Phil's video's anymore:P
???
@@philscomputerlab The last days I noticed that we can't dislike any video on youtube anymore.
I guess RUclips went nuts.
@@Trancelistic OMG I see it now! That's so silly...
@@philscomputerlab I agree mate, what if a video had 3 mil views, 2 mil disliked it and 400k liked & 600k never 'voted'. Now People can't see it was/is a bad video. THey will only see now the 600k likes and no more the 2 mil dislikes.
this was a tutorial i needed...it is extremely useful, thank you Phil!
Glad to hear it!
Anyone got this error : "Disk I/O error. Replace the disk, and then press any key" with the 1st usb key (containing the IMA file copied with Rufus) ?
This saved me probably another 6 hours of work
no matter what I do, I always get 'Missing Operating system' after following the steps for the first usb drive. Has anyone been able to get past this?
Thanks, another thorough tutorial. Quick questions:
1 Did you use Super Fdisk as you did in a dedicated video?
2 Would it be the same procedure with W98 SE? Or it does include USB Drivers already?
Thanks!
I did not use Super Fdisk in this video, but you can use it! Yes works with Windows 98 SE as well.
Thanks, I always watch your guides both to refresh my knowledge and to learn something new.
When I have time I need to try this myself. I have a ton of older systems to work with. Some however are older than bootable USB. Always interesting stuff Phil.
You can use PLOP boot loader on a floppy disk to boot some computers off usb that don't support it.
@@Jackpkmn Seconded; I've used PLOP also. Very useful.
+1 on PLOP
I can't boot from the boot disk image USB. Followed ur instructions to a T but doesnt seem like it wants to work. Bios finds the usb as a USB-HDD but doesnt boot from it. It gives me some intel boot agent errors when i try do start from it. Do i need to have both USBs plugged in when i do it?
That ISO looked like it was bootable so Rufus should have been able to use it to create the USB drive - none of the messing around with other flash drives, etc.
Go try it then 😅
Yes! I'm waiting for it! Gonna watch that after my laundry! Hahah! Thanks Phil! =D
Hope you like it!
@@philscomputerlab Nice, got tired with the laundry last night, hahah! What I saw is you still have to tinker with USB Driver for Windows 98 via DOS and outsource another USB to Format the New Storage, I hope someday some mad moders will create a Win 98 SE ISO with Drivers, built-in Storage Formatting Program and others needed as a ready to go ISO for RUFUS! BTW, thanks Phil! =D
Thank you Phil, you re awesome
Win98 in 2021 is always gonna be the obvious OS.
Boots much faster :D
@@philscomputerlab My C64 boots faster! Granted, it doesn't really have much of a DOS. 😛
Thank u so much I thought I was guna have to battle some people in a bid war over the disks 😂 great work as always Phil were ever u go in life let it a grand one
This works great for semi-modern pc that can boot from USB; but for old pc that have for example usb 1.0, there is no way to boot from USB; so you need a W98 boot floppy to start dos and then you can use the USB stick with the software on it
Nice idea with Rufus. I used usbit (USB Image Tool) instead but is less known. Another option is HP USB disk storage format tool that can make bootable with msdos system any USB drive.
Great video, very helpful.
There are so many tools that can get the job done, thanks for sharing :)
@@philscomputerlab Thank you for putting together a very comprehensive step by step tutorial. It is one of the best I ever seen.
Thanks from Russia!
When following your procedure exactly for flashing an USB drive (32GB Sandisk Cruzer Blade) with the boot98sc.IMA file, all goes well.. but when trying to boot from it I get "Disk I/O error" from the USB drive.
I can't get any MS-DOS bootables to boot at all, freeDOS can boot, but then I get problems with installing Windows 98..
It seems some machines just don't like booting from USB. Try the workaround with PLOP boot manager, I did a video about this, it lets you boot from USB on machines that don't support USB booting natively. Otherwise consider investing into an optical drive and / or floppy drive.
@@philscomputerlab Thanks Phil! Just minutes ago I managed to get it working with your easy2boot tutorial instead ruclips.net/video/7_GEsE2_j4Y/видео.html worked great on the HP T5710 machine! I'm using Windows 98 again for the first time in what.. 20+ years... AMAZING!! All thanks to you also 😀
Thanks for your reply! Will check out PLOP as well, could be nice to know that solution also.
Nice video - been doing basic stuff since I learned basic codes on an Acorn in 1982, but learned some useful tips here (well I am getting old!). The boot disk image files are no longer available on the link listed - but Winworld does have them for download as well, so not a worry - I have my original boot floppy anyway, from 1997 - even my Win95 one! Thanks.
Thank you for this great content!
Glad you enjoy it!
Woah, great video mate!
awesome video.. thank you for your work
You're truly doing the lord's work with this tutorial. I tried to use the custom boot image but I wasn't able to get my computer to boot to it. Is there some trick I'm missing here?
freedos doesnt come with fdisk and all the other commands, and the win98 folder doesn't contain them either. am I doing something wrong?
This works great! Unfortunately, the systems on which I am putting Win98SE most don't support booting from USB. :
Thanks. at last working solution!
why can’t you extract the files from the boot floppy for use with HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool before extracting files from the ISO to root to create a bootable USB that way?
Also why not copy the contents of the Win98 folder to \WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS for easy default driver installation?
Absolutely amazing. Perfect!
Great video thanks Phil
Glad you enjoyed it
Thank you Phil. I am becomimg more and more fan
Burning the midnight oil! Thanks Phil for the tips, handy to get around computers without CDRom or floppy drives
it worked! thank you so much!!
When trying to boot from the 98boot usb pc says DISK I/O error
Thank you for this tutorial man, this helped alot with reinstalling windows on and old schoo laptop of mine!
When I do C:\>dir
I don't have the config sys folder like you do. I just went and double checked the USB and I have all of the same files from the beginning. I copied all the files then when I restart computer it just says Windows 98 and doesn't boot. Any idea? Thanks!
The same problem
Thank you! Might try this later but I think it will works!
just got windows 98 up and running thanks to you! some criticism tho, would have been great if you actualy showed the hdd formatting as that was annoying to deal with. i had to pause a lot as the commands you showed went too fast. would have helped to say the commands you were typing too. had to switch the boot order a few times too to get to the places you were in the vid. but that off my chest... at least with that out teh way i wont have any toublw now i know what im doing! again thank you so much!
Next time! Thanks!
@@philscomputerlab one thing tho, how do i get graphic card drivbers etc onto win 98 SE could i pretty much do that file copy thing if i booted the pc up in ms-dos ? or is there another way because usb flash drives it wont let me into and if i puit them on a dvd-rw it wont even read the disk (disk drivce is working) struggelign to find an answer to this!
You need to figure out why USB and CD drive don't work as these are the easiest options... You could use network but that's complicated. You can also remove the hard drive and use a USB adapter to connect to a modern PC.
@@afr_gem
@@philscomputerlab its a dvd rom drive and it works just couldnt read my dvd-rws hmm. the usb drive shows up but it wotn let me access it in windows 98 some error saying its not ready. and need a usb 2.0 driver for another. hmm ill have too look into that usb adapter, thanks! might just order some cheap cd-r /dvd-r and see if that works.
Thank you bro, you're the best
super helpful, the fdisk/mbr, totally forgot this tool
thanks so much
Hey Phil! Thanks for the video. I managed to install Win98. After I reboot, this message occurred:: "Insufficient memory to initialize Windows. Quit one or more memory-resident programs or remove unnecessary utilities from your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, and restart your computer." What should I do ?
Hi Phills, do you think WXP is better than W98SE for retro gamming?
Depends on the era of games you want to play. Both are fantastic OS.
Saving for future myself: format c: /s /q, thanks
i really need help when i put the freedos usb in my pc its always saying invalid partition table and i was trying with many usb sticks but its always the same problem
Seems easier to boot from an actual Win98 floppy and run a scripted install either from USB or CD.
Next time I build a retro system, I'll try out the USB method though, it may be quicker ;)
I like just to have two partitions on HDD and just start PC from CD and run installation from that second partition. Rufus I like to use just for 7 and later OS versions and Linux distros.
Your my savior man
I use a random dos boot CD. Works good. Even has my Win 3.11 files backed up on it.
I like the idea of having a universal FAT32 USB to boot from, but why not just copy all the install files to that flash drive as well?
I still have an old CD from my early sysadmin days that had OEM copies of Windows 95b, 95c, 98SE and (I think) WinNT4.0 SP6 and Win2k Professional. Absolute lifesaver back in the day before we moved to networked Ghost images!
It's a Boot Floppy, it holds like 1.4 Megabytes 😅
So informative, thanks a lot!
This doesn't work
What kind of error?
What about working Windows 9x from USB drive (not hdd) thats possible? :)
we hope that when this will expire you will post another
?
I downloaded the Windows XP cd image file (.iso file) and wrote the image to USB with Rufus. it worked fine on my old computer which has a 2008 Pentium dual-core 2.4ghz processor. Nothing had to be changed. Just worked flawlessly just like windows 7, 8, 10 does. No errors appeared and continued to work even after the first restart when the blue installation background with GUI items appeared.
The custom boot floppy mirrors are both gone.
Win98 has always been a little complicated
my pendrive started randomly identifying as a floppy :D
There's something ironic about needing a modern version of Windows to run the tool required for creating a USB drive to install an old version of Windows.
Unfortunately for me, my only retro PC capable of booting from USB at all, also only boots from USB FDD. So just like my S370, S1 and SS7 machines...USB is only used for mouse+keyboard, and I just burn what I need onto one of my many cheap CD-R/CD-RW. Realistically the only time I use my 52x CD burner.
I want to do a video on showcasing boot manager, which lets you boot from USB on machines that cannot boot from USB.
so the boot floppy link doesnt work anymore what do i need to do
Can you please do a video about dual booting 98 and XP? Is there a bootloader for that?
Install Win98 first, not using up the whole partition, then install XP on whatever's left.
@@the_kombinator How do I switch in between?
@@ozmobozo XP will install a boot selection menu. You have to put the older OS on there first though.
Very Thanks And Loving
does this method works with windows ME/2000?
links dont work
Works on my 4CoreDual, but not on my Gigabyte 775 mainboard. For me it looks like the later one doesn't like, that the 98img wants to be on "a:". FreeDos and other images work, as they use "c:". In the end I used a GoTek as a workaround (this would really be a problem for mainboards without floppy)
No works for me.
I've done the USB bootdisk 5 time with 5 different flashdrive and the message still "DISK I/O error. Replace the disk..."
one of the file download links doesnt work anymore so i cant get this to work
It's just awesome