Win98 Startup disk

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I have win98 on CD-Rom and a seperate boot floppy, is there any way i can make a copy of the CD and make it bootable so that i can rid myself from floppys forever? I don’t think this is piracy as i have a valid licence and an original copy of win98.

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Unless someone has created a boot image for a Windows 98 CD (and knowing how the Internet is there probably is something like that somewhere), the short answer is no. To my knowledge no Windows 98 CDs were pressed as bootable copies and all required the floppy to install.

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Theoretically, it might be possible to boot from a copy of a Windows 98 installation on a cd-rom, if your BIOS will support booting from a cd-rom; but would your 98 installation fit on a single disc? In any case, data access from a hard drive is much faster than from a cd-rom, so why would you want to – unless you don’t have a hard drive?
If you mean that you want to be able to reinstall an unbootable Windows installation without needing a floppy, then I guess the question is, ‘Can I have DOS and WIndows as dual-boot’. No idea what the answer might be, though I have often wondered. If you can, copy the contents of the Win98 directory from the cd-rom to your hard drive. You can run setup from there, but first you obviously need to get to a command prompt, hence the need for some version of DOS, normally supplied by the boot floppy.
Win2k, Me and (I think) 98SE are bootable (into steup).

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Can I have DOS and Windows as a dual-boot?

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I may have misunderstood this question, but the short answer is, you can’t have it any other way if your OS is Win 9x. Win 98 sits on top of DOS, so DOS is always there. If you want to boot straight into DOS, remove the line ‘Win.exe’ from the autoexec.bat file. This takes you to a 100% functional DOS prompt. For quick boot from there into Windows, I re-programmed PgDn to type’ Win’, CR.
You get a similar arrangement by pressing F5 (or is it F8?) during boot-up, before Windows starts to load. However, I’m not sure this helps answer the original question…

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But if your Windows installation becomes corrupted and unbootable, then DOS is gone with it (and it wouldn’t work at all for Me). Short of an HDD failure, a seperate DOS installation gives you a basic operating system for emergencies (or legacy software); but a boot floppy makes more sense to me. Add a few diagnostic tools to it and you’ve really got something useful.

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I think you guys mis-understood me, my fault, i wasn’t clear. I only want to do it for when i format my HDD and want to re-install windows, i don’t want to boot from a CD-ROM EVERYTIME, just when i want to format my HDD and re-install windows!

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You can put all the setup .cab files on to your hard disk, so you don’t need the cd-rom; but without even a basic version of DOS, eg from a floppy, you can’t get a command prompt. A PC is just a collection of electronic components, without an operating system.
An installation of DOS, seperate from Windows, would enable you to run the setup files from either HDD or CD. Hence my suggesting dual-boot with DOS, but frankly, keeping a boot disk in a drawer is a lot less hassle!

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so that i can rid myself from floppys forever

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Why on earth would you want to do that? You got an iMac or something? Even Windows 2000P uses floppies for emergencies (4 set-up discs, which when made preserve your current Registry). Then there’s the Emergency Repair Disc, which restores a default version of the Registry. They work in conjunction with the Emergency Repair Console, but also alone if your hard drive goes elliptical. You need floppies to enable you to boot with CDROM support if this happens. i.e. there may come a time when ONLY floppies and the programs they hold will let you start. I have a doc about it over on my web site. (Cleanboot).
btw in Win 2k, making the Set Up disks is the only way I’m aware of of backing up the Registry.

Rgds

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> making the Set Up disks is the only way I’m aware of of backing up the Registry.

In Win95 & Win98 I backup up mine, first boot of each day, with a DOS batch file.

I’ll Post it here if you like/if allowed.

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Please Chris:
if you’re going to quote me, quote the whole sentence. Out of context is out of order.
What I actually said was In Win 2k i.e in Windows 2000, the only way to back up the Registry is to use the Set Up disks. If you know of any other, do tell.
There are several different ways of backing up the Registry under other OSs. If you pop over to my site one or another of the info docs will put you straight.

Rgds

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My apologies. I saw the Win2K reference, but figured that was a figure of speech, much as i would say “I’m running a Win98 system”, but that with that system installed I still have options to backup registry files.

So, please tell me, in Win2000 are the registry files still *’DAT files, and can you exit from Windows, completely, and run a DOS prompt?

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in Win2000 are the registry files still *’DAT files, and can you exit from Windows, completely, and run a DOS prompt

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No to both questions, I’m afraid.

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Is there any way i can make a copy of the CD and make it bootable?
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It’s not perfectly legal, that’s why probably nobody wants to give you an answer.
You need a ripping software, say, Roxio Easy CD Creator 5.
Copy entire contents of your Win98 CD to your hard drive in separate folder, for example, tempwin98
Open a new sesson in Easy CD Creator and choose File | New CD Project | Bootable CD
When prompted, insert your Setup floppy in the floppy drive and choose “Generate image from floppy…”
On the Source pan, open your tempwin98 folder and choose all files (or Ctrl + A). Press Add button.
Insert blank CD and press Record CD
That’s it.

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Cheers, thats what i wanted to know! But i can’t see why it would be illegal, i’m only ‘Backing Up’ my CD, it’s not like i’m going to make thousands of copies and sell them, i just want to be able to boot from my CD-ROM instead of a floppy.

Thanks
Jamie

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Is your system new enough that you can select “Boot from the CD’ in the BIOS?

Your system MUST have the built in CD drivers to do this.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Yes my system can boot from a CD-ROM and the Start floppy that i have loads drivers for my cd-rom. I made a boot CD and it works fine, thanks to all!

Jamie

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