How to Install Windows 98 SE onto a Flash Drive

[jokis111]

Hi,

Can I use this method in computer without hard disc? If I just enter flash drive in to computer's usb and try start Windows from stick?

What you think?

[britishskiing]

Hi there

Once the install gets to 'Copying files needed to install windows', it hangs.

Any suggestions

Doing this from a Lenovo T400 Win 7 Pro

[seison5]

are we watching mission impossible or a tutorial?? :P

[MrDinov4]

When I type setup /c /it /p a;b it's run miscrosoft scan disc an than I waited and computer restarts and I again booted from usb but it vas oly win98 startzp picture and after 1 hour i pres esc and it only stand's Microsoft(R) Windows 98  (C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1998

What to do?PLS Help mee

[wmm7130]

I started playing with this, and I had some setup booting issues (invalid disk errors). thanks for the setup prompt command! I'll give it a go! YAY!

[Guckensens]

music sounds a little bit like metal gear solid

[Chamath5B]

thanks so much 

[OSDolphin]

Can I upgrade to Windows 2000 after doing this?

[smallville0forever]

it really works you are magician thanks very much "

[hoppip11]

that pc of yours isnt even made for MS-DOS

[oooz2live]

What about the register product key? how do we get around this?

[MooseHeadMoosic]

@oooz2live

...Just download a serial, yo.

[benjaminmullin96]

LOL I have a kingston DataTraveler as well!!!

[gigasea]

what happens if i cannot format it to fat? can i do fat32?

[FedericoGlamour]

hi,

I follows all step and when I start the command setup /c /it /p a;b start the installation process but after the checks the GUI show me that I must insert the DISK1 for proceed the installation.. I click on OK but null, and when I click on Abort the alert show me "impossible to read WSETUP/WIN98/mini.cab

but the file there is into a usb pen...

help...

[hto1971]

lol one time i took a pc that was pen 3 and 512 ram lmao it was very fast i did a full install

[ProgWare]

Great work !

[WinVistaUser2]

Question: Is there a way I can use two of my nVidia Graphics cards (the old one for 98SE and the modern one for my server)? I have an nVidia GeForce MX 4000 PCI Video Card and an nVidia e-GeForce 8500 GT PCI-E x16 Video Card installed in my system. I hate taking out my graphics card for my server since Windows 98SE doesn't support modern hardware (graphics cards that use PCI-E, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA: Hard Drives and Optical Drives, and HD Audio), except the memory, CPU, and USB.

[JUSXTREME96]

It will run slow if you use a PC with 256MB Ram because I tried it on my laptop with 256MB of ram but it was reading the USB Drive slowly and the PC Froze at some points. My laptop does support Windows 98 and ME on the HDD by the way though I wont put it as I have Windows 2000.

[WinVistaUser2]

@JUSXTREME96 Install the USB 2.0 Function since Windows 98SE only supported USB 1.1 (slow file transfer rate). USB 2.0 depends on the USB functionality on your laptop. My dad's old laptop had USB 1.1 I have 12 USB 2.0 ports on my server :D \m/

[OSDolphin]

Will this install partially on the USB Drive and install the rest of the files on my Windows 7 partition erasing Windows 7? (It happened when I was installing Windows XP on a usb drive.)

[OSDolphin]

@OSDolphin Never-mind my question, it does not.

[abdulbasitm93]

What will happen if I install the "System Bus" driver? please reply.

[01tommrazek]

@CrAZeDsoLdDieR Are you sure you selected the right drive? if yes, then you drive doesnt work with fat. this happens to my external hdd

[npgilbertson95]

If only i could get a flash drive.........

i dont have the $ damnit. and i wish i wouldn't have to format anything. cause i have a suitable hardrive!

[katetem11]

can i connect to the internet?

[JUSXTREME96]

@katetem11 You can if you find drivers for it. I tried with a USB Drive on my laptop which had Windows 98 drivers available and it worked. It may not work if you are using a much newer PC as there may not be any Windows 98 drivers available.

[Windows7TechGeek]

cannot put a temporary directory error?

[BronzeOrwin]

Where can I get a working free serial? o: pls help.

[matthew65536]

@BronzeOrwin I have one it is g68yk-vrm38-2wdtt-7w9rp-bq64t

[silverstone0206]

I INSTALL WIN95 TOO!

[KiLerZolika]

Can we will Play DOS Games under Windows 98?

[skeebz830]

Oh, and one more thing...

To set your computer to "boot" from the usb, u must use your bios.

On my computer, I press delete during the start-up tests, if not it should say what key to press on the bottom of your screen.

Or a shortcut, so that you dont need to permanently change your boot device and therefore have to change it again, on my computer is F11 at the same screen. this allows you to select what to boot from right there.

hope this all helps

[skeebz830]

Ok, watch the video and pay attention to what he says... i did this in like 15 min.

U need enough room to copy windows 98... my windows 98 disc is 622mb. Right off the bat i know i need at least 1GB to ensure i have enough space after formatting etc.

Now, i dont know much, but if it was possible to use any other os, then he would have said so, otherwise, use what he said.

UT00ber50... it dosent matter what you put it on really, but if you WANT to use a usb drive then this is what you do.

[jcber34]

When i put in CD/Wsetup it says bad or invaild i cant rember what but i need help other wise its working

[arwynj55]

will it work on a 256 MB usb? if I use 98 lite?

[KiLerZolika]

@arwynj55 Dude, the Guy said, atleast '1 GB" so you need to Get 1 GB or no Bootable Windows 98 :D

[silverstone0206]

NEVER! BUT YOU CAN INSTALL WIN 95

[UT00ber50]

I watched the video twice...where are you specifying that you want to use the USB drive as your harddrive during setup? What I see is that you are installing windows onto your harddrive which is not the same as install windows 98 onto a usb flash drive.

[crank21897]

and how can i install to the pc's hard drive?

[GrimReaper9761]

Can You Do The Same Thing With Windows XP!? Cause I've Been Trying Soo Long To Find A Way To Install Windows XP To A Flash Drive And Yet No Answers! Please Reply..

[hiervince]

I like the music in the video, care to tell me the title? :)

[Tilty17]

when i put in the setup /c /it /p a;b line it says bad something or other, well whatever it says, nothing happens when i put that in

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@Tilty17 Make sure you are in the same directory as the Setup.exe

[kibaman211]

@TheiAnimeNetwork but how do i do that.

please i need your help. i have the same message

[Twiggy732]

Someone PLEASE tell me what's wrong?! my computer suddenly shuts off during the setup process!!! I have 4 GB of RAM and that's all that matters!

[Twiggy732]

BRILLIANT! So simple! Thank you for finding a straight answer for us all! The music ain't half bad either. *downloads the music* lol

[an65001]

AWESOME.

[TheHayRap]

can i install it on my external hard drive ?

[SuperAntGuy]

Incredible video!!!

[windchannel1]

and btw can i install with 2Gb of RAM, theanimenetwork ?

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@windchannel1 You should be able to as long as you follow the instructions. I'm 99% sure :)

[Elevationary]

If your some one who wants to delete the old Linux partition,remember to download "fdisk.exe" other wise you will be downloading win98 straight to your usb stick,FDISK will tell you what drve your partion is on c:\,d:\ or E:\,if its not there then you are using a non windows operating system,you need to remove the old operating system partition from the main hardrive, like linux or operating system 10,and reformat the main hardrive,THIS GUY DOES NOT MENTION THAT?,win98 does not target partitions

[Elevationary]

I just want to say,great video,you dont need to set your allocation table to FAT, FAT32 will do,you only use FAT when formating cd-roms,USB does not apply,once you have the command boot files on the main directory,there is no problem,for any one out there having problems with Linux,this is your best option,they have changed many of the commands in linux down through the years,and they have many Distros to piss a singel user off,this is probably the best option if you hate commands......WIN98

[tmaiaTDU]

Problem fixed with another w98 iso

[tmaiaTDU]

I can't insert the last msdos command, the one with setup/c/it/pa;b

[ieatlotz]

@tmaiaTDU Make sure to put a space between all of the commands. Cheers!

[imre1205]

Nice vid but fucking ANNOYING music!!!

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@RyanFun8 Oh, your trying to install windows xp to a flash drive? ._.

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@RyanFun8 Lol, so did you end up fixing the problem? :D

[boneawl]

@RyanFun8 Ah, got it. Too bad whenever i get past the scandisk it says cannot write to temporary directory or something. :(

[sirdrumsalot100]

actually haha ummm mine now says it cant find setup files what do i do :(

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@sirdrumsalot100 Where did you put the setup files?

[sirdrumsalot100]

FInally something that worked!!!!!! SUBSCRBED THANKS SO MUCH

[boneawl]

Freezes on Scandisk

[spongeyperson1000]

hey! i noticed you have an Acer aspire one netbook, you have the same netbook as me and i am putting windows 98 on it as well, i've noticed cuz the screen looks exactly the same as mine and this screen is only available for the acer aspire one series! Anyway, does all of the drivers work when 98 is installed?

[lennonSystems]

How can i add "FAT" format ?

i have windows 7 !!!

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@lennonSystems The USE HP USB DISK FORMAT TOOL should allow for formatting in FAT.

[boneawl]

@lennonSystems I also cannot format it as FAT, only fat32

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@boneawl Fat32 should work too. As long as you still make a dos startup disk with it

[windchannel1]

how many RAM did you have ?

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@windchannel1 I had 1 GB

[newblurbal]

works well up until the last part of the install, it bluescreens at "Detecting System Bus" no matter what option you choose. any ideas?

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@newblurbal Did you happen to install every driver? because if you install all the drivers it could make it crash like that. The first time I got it working I told it to install almost no drivers just to be safe. It's different for every computer I think.

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@newblurbal Actually, in the instructions I mentioned not to install the system bus drivers ;)

[Doubleringer]

Can you install and run dos games ?

[nanren1000]

hey there i follow your steps but i didnt have the cd so i downloaded the win98 from the web, didnt work, can you tell me what i did wrong, or what im missing..thx..

[kumbah2006]

Oh, now he tells me ... [ high FIVES! :)

[kumbah2006]

This is GREAT idea, except tutorials should have someone speaking so that the viewer can follow along instead of attempting to read the "illegible" text from the program screens (and trying to decipher certain aspects of where to find the programs) ... try lowering the music and adding your voice so that you can convey

some pertinent information along with your visuals. Thanks! :)

[theSamuelq]

If I install this on my USB, can I go to the internet?

>sorry for my bad english<

[Peice0Cornbread]

when i open tool it wont let me click anything

[MrLauster123]

Is that Danny Elfman music??

[Byrtus21]

hi...do i have to copy msdos as well???

[ndlc00]

not work for me too, stuck at the copying files, i tryed two OS and two flash drives, what to do? pls help in need win 98

[funtonite]

HELP!! I did this and now my Windows XP will not boot. It just stays at the loading screen with no disk activity. I did many tests of the system, so I know that it is just Windows XP. Good thing I still have Linux!

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@funtonite You may have coincidently installed windows 98 on your hard drive instead of your flash drive. Check to make sure you only edited the flash drive.

[99olo]

Someone, anyone... is there anyway to have the OS on the flashdrive, and not have to configure it to every computer go to?

[driftyy91]

Thank You! I did in that way and its worked! :)

[evertonengrazia]

It freezes when it starts copying the files for the installation. I left it alone for the whole night and didn't pass that screen. Any idea how to fix this?

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@evertonengrazia you may have a corrupt file. are you using windows 98 second edition or first edition??

[evertonengrazia]

@TheiAnimeNetwork I'm using the Second Edition. Already tried with different flash drives, and different isos. And I'm still getting stuck at the same part.

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@evertonengrazia Hmmm, you should go over the instructions again. You seem to be missing something :/ Did you run the setup using the setup switches I mentioned?

[ChujowyToster]

Can i install Win98 on 488MB flash? I got only 488MB and 8GB flashe's.

Sorry for my bad english

[ChujowyToster]

@ChujowyToster I forget - i have Win98 on CD - i must copy the installer into USB or i can install Win98 form CD to USB?

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@ChujowyToster 488MB is a bit small, :/ I wouldn't recommend trying it. The smallest I would go is 1 GB. =)

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@CleoEngineer What formats does it let you use?

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@CleoEngineer Your welcome! :] I think the speed issue may have something to do with USB Drivers. You may need to install USB 2.0 drivers manually because my Windows 98 comes with USB 1.0 (USB 1.0 is much slower).

Google is your friend :)

[geraldo180]

How to make the boot disk on an 8GB pen drive? FAT16 partitions can hold up to 4GB only... Tried making a 4GB FAT16 partition with a partition manager and copying the boot files manually, but didn't work... :S

Any help?

Thanks in advance

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@geraldo180 Are you formatting it with HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool? You need to format it at fat32 and using "HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool"

[rawux1228]

omg soved my problem ( I updated my PLoP manager to newer and it works now)!

Thanks man!!!

[rawux1228]

my pc restarts when enter setup/c /it /p a;b pls help!

[rawux1228]

stucks for me when i enter 'setup/c/it/p a;b'

[nullbyte94]

Will this method work with Windows 98 First Edition? The software I need to run is made specifically for Windows 98 FE and won't even work correctly on 98 SE :[

[nullbyte94]

Nevermind, I tested it and it works for 98 First Edition also.

[Fujitsu3258]

@nullbyte94

the cpu ur running on is under 2.1ghz?

i cant get my 98FE to run on a faster processor (pentium 4)

i saw somewhere, i dont remember that i can only run FE in safe mode but second edition wrks

with faster processers.

[nullbyte94]

@Fujitsu3258

I'm using the method in this video with 98FE on a netbook that has an Intel Atom 1.60GHz processor.

[bluesteel6498]

worked well though handles even ms dos software and drivers miserably

[bluesteel6498]

This is pretty cool though i need to know 2 things. Will it mark C:/ as a usb drive?

also will i need the windows 98 original install cd?

[ieatlotz]

@bluesteel6498 Yes. It shouldn't load the hard drive at all.

Yes, you need the original disk. :) Good luck!

[henriDell]

quite cool,

but can we install windows on USB flash drive without formatting C:\ ?

[ieatlotz]

@henriDell "C:\" should be the flash drive if you've done the steps as the video demonstrates. You may be able to check it by typing "dir" in the dos prompt before you format anything. You should be able to see whether its your flash drive or hard drive. =)

[bigxow666]

with this method we always have to plug the USB to boot from 98 rigth??

cant we ready and permanenty install it on the HDD via USB??

i'm formating a netbook wich means no DVD/CD drive =/

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@bigxow666 This method wouldn't work for installing in the hard drive via usb. Why do you want windows 98 on your netbook anyway?

if you want a lighter os you could always try windows 2000. But thats only if you could get the drivers for it.

[bigxow666]

@TheiAnimeNetwork its for college work, i need full access to all I/O's and i'm not sure if i can do that from the USB, ill try though

[blomymtfe]

Hi I did what you said with great success.I would like to ask you two things.First of all can i use the same usb for 2 computers?Probably not I suppose because different computers- different drivers.If there is a way pleas let me know.

Also once i did this my computer shows two local disks.the one is my original.The other one i do not know why it has it.How can i remove it?

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@blomymtfe No, I don't think you can use the same usb for two computers. I think it has to do with the motherboard being different. There may be a way around it possibly o.O

What is inside the second local disk?? Is it the flash drive?(the one u dont want)

[blomymtfe]

@TheiAnimeNetwork when i try to open it asks me if i want to format it.Did this help you?

[11125Hunter]

are you kidding me why would i want windows 98 its the slow computer of all times vista/mac/windows 7 ROCKS!!!!

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@11125Hunter Eh, It was just something that people were telling me was impossible so it got me hooked on trying to figure it out. just for fun lol ^^

[szpara16]

@11125Hunter

benchmarking :D

[szpara16]

@11125Hunter

benchmarking :D

and you might have remember win98 as slow os because you have only experienced it on older machines

[chiggerskido]

So basically, by putting the boot disk files and 98se setup to the usb device, windows 98 setup will think the usb device is a fat hard drive?

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@chiggerskido Yes:) The setup also checks for usb devices during the setup and thats where the switches (/c /it /p a;b) come in.

[chiggerskido]

@TheiAnimeNetwork Thanks for the confirmation. Just wanted to be sure :).

[amin7326]

the theme is from dextors laboratory cartooon

[davidmaker14]

Hey, this dosen't works to me. I don't want to start boot from USB... When I press F12(boot menu) on pc starting i got 4 USBs. All 4 don't work. :/

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@davidmaker14 How far into the whole video did you get into before this boot issue?

[davidmaker14]

@TheiAnimeNetwork

3:16

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@davidmaker14 Try going into boot setup (usually f2) and change your boot order to have usb before hard drive. Let me know if that works :)

[davidmaker14]

I like this. How should I start Windows 98 then? Every time start it from USB or I will have dual boot? Can you explain me that.?

At 5:21. How do you think "boot via hard drive"

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@davidmaker14 This shouldn't mess with your boot manager so it wont make it dual boot or anything. You just click f12 on boot (it may be different for you) and it will ask what to boot from. Choose USB Device.

Hope this helped. If you have any more questions or are confused let me know :)

[davidmaker14]

@TheiAnimeNetwork

Well, thanks ! This will be very helpful for me. :)

[AAAllleeecccsss]

mie nu mi merge! cand introduc comanda 'setup /c/it/pa;b' imi zice bad comand.....

[TheiAnimeNetwork]

@AAAllleeecccsss

You need to put spaces between each of them /c /it /p a;b

[ieatlotz]

Great video! Works perfectly