Is it possible to...

[someolboy]

install windows 98 from the W98 Cd without a 3-1/2" floppy drive present?
My machine has a add-on 100mb Iomega IDE Zip drive, for which, I have
assigned the drive letter "A". The computer recognizes this drive with a zip disc in the drive only. (?)

Will it be necessary to create a start-up disk on a zip disk?

[edfair]

If your machine can access the CDROM drive as a bootable device the 98 CD is bootable.

On boot enter setup, ususally 2nd screen, "boot order", CD first. Exit, save, and have the CD in place.

[someolboy]

will try... yes I can do that, cool, thanks...

[allannabas]

i have tried to reinstall windows ME on my dell laptop without the floppy module present and i booted from the recovery CD. Setup always would freeze at the point where it was inspecting my configuration.

[someolboy]

is what I always considered that version to be. Always gave me a hard time while trying to set up new high speed customers...

Hmmm... did you change any configuration in your hardware, between the time you bought it and when you ran the restore CD?

Proprietary software bundles always seem to require more 'digging' for info to get things re-situated. What did Dell say about it?

[someolboy]

with my current OS, (WinXP Pro), you can only install W9x , before you install XP.... maybe I can make the W9x drive the master boot drive and XP the slave boot drive, with the master, slave options on the drive jumpers. Hmmmm.

[glc]

You don't have to INSTALL 9x to use an XP upgrade CD, just have a 9x CD ready to put in when the install does its compliance check.

[someolboy]

I have XP Pro (NTFS) on drive c, master and W9x (converted to NTFS, with Partition Magic) on drive d, slave.
I'm trying to create a dual boot option, computer. I installed the 9x, d: slave drive after XP system was up & running. XP OS couldn't see the D: drive until I converted it to NTFS.
I haven't tried changing the drives boot order in the BIOS yet.... hmmmm....?

[GaryRouth]

If you had Windows 98 on drive D, and then converted it to NTFS - you'll need to start over. Windows 98's native file system is FAT32. As far as I know, it's not possible to run Windows 98 on an NTFS partition, except in emulation software (like Virtual PC, and others).

So, if your goal is a workable dual-boot system where you choose either Win98 or WinXP from a menu at boot time, you can
1) Reformat the D partition, using the FAT32 file system this time (I believe Partition Magic can do this for you). I would not advise trying to reconvert the existing Win98 installation back to FAT32 from NTFS - it might work, but I would be surprised if there weren't little "gotchas" down the road. Just reformat D, use FAT32.
2) Then install Win98 on the D partition. When you start the install, try booting with the CD to the command prompt (select "start computer with CD-ROM support"), and from the prompt, type "setup /ntldr" [without the quotes] = which should add the Win98 installation into the WinXP bootloader without overwriting the XP MBR (master boot record). If this doesn't work, you can simply install Win98 onto the D partition, and then fix things later from the XP Recovery Console = a method is mentioned in HPro's thread in Tips & Tricks http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=24831 --- but try installing your Win98 with the setup /ntldr command [it used to work for adding Win98 to Win2k installations, I've not tried it for XP - so I'd give it a 50/50 chance - it'd be nice if it works, since it's nice and simple].

Best of luck, post if you have questions
. . . Gary

P.S. ... The wrinkle in this is that you've been using Partition Magic: which I believe uses it's own sort of MBR. I usually just use XP's disk tools to work on partitions - so I'm not sure you'll be able to try the setup /ntldr trick or not: you might want to check in your Partiton Magic manuals for details. --> Also, many versions of Partition Magic contain PowerQuest's bootloader "Boot Magic" - check in the manual for info on that, as it might offer more flexibility in your dual-boot options.