Why doesn't Microsoft make the Win98SE Upgrade CD bootable, and why isn't there a program to do this similar to nLite for slipstreaming and making bootable Win2k, WinXP and Vista CDs? I plan to replace my floppy drive soon with an internal card reader, and I found a solution to make bootable Win98SE CD and incorporate the Win98SE Startup disk into the boot CD. Using Nero "Make Boot CD" I first selected files to add from the Win98SE Startup floppy, then selected to add files on Win98SE Upgrade CD and finally selected "Read files on drive A:" option for boot files source to burn CD. The resulting CD does the normal auto run to do Win98SE install when inserted into CDROM, and it boots to the CD same as Win98SE Startup floppy only much faster than from floppy. However, it does boot as drive A:, and it's necessary to type "X:" and press "Enter" in order to access "Setup" or other files on the CD where "X:" is drive letter of drive containing CD. Another advantage besides bootable and faster than floppy is FDisk or other programs which may not be on Win98SE floppy may be added to the compilation before burning. In addition CDs have much longer shelf life than do floppies as many already know. Just thought I'd share this idea if there are others with similar goals as mine.

Because it's an unvelievable old operating system perhaps?

Nice

You could modify the autoexec.bat to do that.

Why on earth would you install Windows 98 on a system that's gotta live through the year 2008?

I thought about modifying autoexec.bat, but the drive letter for CDROM may vary from 1 system to another. I use Windows 98/Windows 2000 dual boot because there are some older applications that won't run in Windows 2000, but I use Windows 2000 for everything it will run.

You can use MSCDEX to set up any drive letter you want.

Command Line Switches

The following is the command line for MSCDEX.EXE:
MSCDEX.EXE: /D:x /M:n /E /V /L:x /S /K
The following table defines the MSCDEX.EXE command-line switches:

Switch Definition

/D:<device name> - Allows you to specify a name for the device
driver. This name must be identical to the
device name used in the CONFIG.SYS file.

/M:<n> - Specifies the number of sector buffers used
to cache the path table of a CD-ROM disk.
Typically, each drive should have a minimum
of four to five buffers. The larger this
number is, the less your computer will have
to read directly from the CD-ROM drive.

/E - Tells MSCDEX.EXE to use expanded memory if
your system is using expanded memory.

/V - Displays information on memory usage
when you boot your PC.

/L:<drive letter> - Allows you to specify the letter you want
to assign to the first CD-ROM drive.

/S - Allows the CD-ROM to be shared on MS-NET
based systems.

/K - Tells MSCDEX.EXE to use any KANJI (Japanese)
file structures, if present, rather than the
default of alphanumeric file structures.


So use MSCDEX /L:Q and it will always be the Q drive.
Remember to set LASTDRIVE=Z in the config.sys.

Strange. Windows 2000 should be perfectly able to emulate a Windows 98 setup using the additional parameters in the properties of the .exe or .com file.

I never had a problem with this. Long, long, long ago, I made boot cd's out of all of my boot floppies, including win 95, Win 98, and Win M.E. I install the OS this way. I use the Win M.E. boot disc to install Win 95 and Win 98SE because it does not have a hard drive size limitation for fdisk that the earlier OS did. I have not used a floppy disc in years. That is what cd rw's are made for, to go along nicely with boot cd's.

What I did was combine the Win98 Startup disk and the files from Win98 setup CD into a single CD making it unnecessary to change disks to install, and I also included my original Win3.1 on same CD which makes it unnecessary to insert floppies or another CD when prompted for original Windows version during Setup for the Win98 Upgrade. Using the resulting bootable CD I'm able to do all that's necessary without changing any disk; I simply select path to Win3.1 folder on the CD when prompted by Setup for original Windows.

I also did the Win 3.1 trick. I just did not think anyone had that OS any more. For myself, I never use upgrade OS, only for other people.