How to install windows on old pc?

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Jim_96

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Oct 28, 2016
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Hello I have a HP OMNIBOOK 900 that can only boot from floppy.It has an exteneral dvd but it cant boot from it.It has windows xp and I want to install windows 98.When I try to run windows 98 setup from windows xp it says that I cant install windows 98 because I have a newer version of windows .Does anyone knows how I can install windows 98?
 
Solution
Chicano
I have used the BIOS Extender (Plop Boot Manager) in EasyBCD to boot on an old computer that doesn't boot from USB and it did work... rcently used it again in another even older computer without USB boot and it didn't work.. so it may be related to the computer age and BIOS capability.

Try this to boot the boot device HDD where the BIOS Extender is installed:
1) Set the BIOS first boot device as the HDD
2) Set the BIOS boot hard drives with the desidered HDD on top of the HDDs list.
3) Press the BIOS boot drive selection with the keyboard key that the BIOS suggests.. it's usually F12 though I've seen it to be F8 so check the mobo logo page for suggested keys to use to launch each BIOS function. The boot drive selector should...
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Wow floppies :) Ok so you can't install windows 98 from within windows xp. You can restart and then try to get into bios. Nowadays you press Del key repeatedly to get into bios but in your case, it might be some other key that was used. Just try pressing various F keys , Ins, Del, Home, End keys until you're able to enter setup. If your computer does POST during boot, it'll list you what key to press to enter setup. Then within bios, you go to boot devices, and make sure to set the dvd drive before your hard drive for boot.
Then you set your cd for windows 98 into the dvd drive, restart, wipe the drive and fresh install win98.
 
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You may be trying the upgrade/update install... try the clean install after formatting the HDD and you should have no trouble. You can also previously format the HDD from a Windows 98 boot disk, or from any bootable Windows installer, format it in FAT 32.
 
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/44-pin-2-5-IDE-HDD-SSD-Laptop-Hard-Drive-Female-to-7-15-pin-Male-SATA-Adapter-/271789100142?epid=1145499457&hash=item3f47e48c6e:g:UIwAAOSwrklU8BE~

Make a dos boot floppy first. Move the laptop hard drive (is it less than 127GB?) to a desktop with a 44 pin ide to sata adaptor. Open disk management remove the NTFS partition, then you can set it up with fat32 and make the partition active. Make a folder win98cab on the hard drive. Copy all the files from the folder on the windows 98 disk that has all the .cab files and setup.exe, move the hdd back to the laptop then boot off the floppy. Go to the hard drive enter the win98cab folder. Type setup and press enter to install windows 98.
 
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I have put the dvd first on boot list but it cant boot from it.Also the cd is bootable because it is the authentic windows 98 cd.Also i so a program that it is called EasyBCD2.3.This app installs in bios a programm that you can boot also from usb.Will it work?This laptop has a usb port
 
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If it'll allow you to boot using the usb drive using somehow the old booting system, sure. I don't know much about the program so really can't tell if it can do this or not.
Otherwise I'd try kraelic's solution since you can get away with just a floppy and a hard drive (provided that you have another desktop that will allow you to set up your HDD first).
 
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If he can make a dos floppy,he can make a win98 boot floppy wich will have cdrom drivers to start the install from the cd not to mention the readily made menu for installing.
http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/98.html
He could also make a plop boot loader floppy which will give him the ability to boot from cdrom and usb. (custom routines)
 
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But his DVD is USB, so the Windows 98 setup floppy won't see it. And OP says it sees but won't boot from USB device. I have not used any other bootloaders to install windows 98 before. I do not know if you can load USB drivers with DOS like you can IDE CD-ROM drives. I have always copied the install folder to the drive and installed from there so the system would have the files it needed to search instead of asking you to insert the windows 98 disc.
 
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I have used the BIOS Extender (Plop Boot Manager) in EasyBCD to boot on an old computer that doesn't boot from USB and it did work... rcently used it again in another even older computer without USB boot and it didn't work.. so it may be related to the computer age and BIOS capability.

Try this to boot the boot device HDD where the BIOS Extender is installed:
1) Set the BIOS first boot device as the HDD
2) Set the BIOS boot hard drives with the desidered HDD on top of the HDDs list.
3) Press the BIOS boot drive selection with the keyboard key that the BIOS suggests.. it's usually F12 though I've seen it to be F8 so check the mobo logo page for suggested keys to use to launch each BIOS function. The boot drive selector should include the HDD where the BIOS Extender is installed, or the HDD line should include a "+" indicating that should bring up a second selector to pick the propper HDD (with the Plop BIOS Extender). As Plop launches, it includes another Boot device list where you can select what you want to boot on to.
 
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Solution

Ahh missed the external bit and thought it was a normal drive.
Yes there are some usb stacks for dos that you can try, I made some usb flash drives accessible in dos so I know they (can) work.
https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1046069/yes-usb-drivers-dos

And sure, copying over the files is the easiest way but waiting a week for the hardware to arrive,or having to go out and get it is a drag.
 
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You can also try using a HDD as the Windows install media with "Universal USB Installer Maker"... it has an option to display the drive letters for all boot drives and partitions, so you can partition the HDD and the second partition to install the Windows 98 installer onto, and next install the HDD in the target computer, and it the Windows 98 installer should boot right up.

Wndows 98 is not included in the supported OSs but they don't necessarily must be included for them to work... you can use the "Windows to Go/Installers" line or the "Unsupported ISOs" line to install the ISO on the HDD...

Build the ISO from the Windows 98 Disk with IMGBurn and "burn" the ISO to the HDD with Universal USB Installer Maker

http://www.imgburn.com/
http://filehippo.com/download_universal-usb-installer/
 
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This dvd is not a usb dvd drive.It is a dvd with old connections that had 20 or 30 pins.And when it boots from floppy it cant read the dvd.The laptop hdd is devided in 2 partitions.So is there a way to install ms-dos to the second partition and boot from it?Also the hard drive is very old with 44 pins.So i cant connectbit to another computer.
 
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Need to make the 2nd partition logical and FAT32, then make the win98cab folder on it and copy the files from the disc to it. Then find an image for a Boot disk that has the tools and can handle NTFS disks. Then you remove the NTFS primary partition and remake it primary active FAT32, verify the sizes so you know which is which. Then you should be able to run setup from the 2nd partition and it install on the first when given the choice.
 
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