Hi there,
You may know that most of Linux Distributions can be installed from a USB/Pen Drive. I’ve been away from Windows for quite a while and I’ve never done it before with Windows to begin with. My question is:
IS IT possible to Install Windows Me (or even Windows 98) from an USB Drive?
I have 4GB USB Drive and I used it to install Linux (Ubuntu and many other distributions) but I’m NOT sure whether I could do the same with Windows.
The reason I’m asking is because I have a very old laptop and it has no CD-Drive. It’s not mine, it’s for a friend and instead of keeping with the dust, I thought to use it. I tried my best to install Linux but the only OS that really worked was DSL (Damn Small Linux) and I don’t like it at all. I want to install Windows Me but again I need an USB Drive to do so.
So, is that possible?
Kindly be informed that I’m not willing to spend 0.1$ on that old laptop (HP Omnibook 4150) as it’s not mine beside it’s old. It has Windows XP SP2 (the owner of that laptop installed it) and it’s way slow. I was looking to install either Win 98 or Me, I prefer Me though.
So, if it’s possible, please guide me through the steps.
Thank you 🙂
I know that people have invented ways to install 98 or ME from pen drives so I know it’s possible. But it’s one thing to say it’s possible but quite another to be able to do it with the extreme hardware limitations you have. But let’s assume you get it booted up somehow and have access to the pen drive. The partition on the hard drive will need to be FAT16 or FAT32. If the drive needs to be repartitioned or formatted you’d need to do that first. Hopefully you can do that with Plop as normally you can’t partition or format the drive you’re booting from.
What I would then do is copy the installation files from the WIN98 directory on the 98 cd or the WIN9X directory on the ME cd onto the pen drive using another computer. Then create a similarly named directory on the laptop hard drive and copy the installation files there using the pen drive.
Ideally you’d want that hard drive to be blank except for those files and maybe the system files to make it bootable. And the installation may balk when it sees another OS on the drive. But again, let’s assume that’s not going to be a problem. To start the installation you’d go the directory with the files you copied and run SETUP.
Another more realistic method would be to remove the drive and connect it to another PC via a 2.5/3.5 adapter. Partition and format if necessary and use the 9X or ME SYS command to make it bootable. (Try to avoid partitioning as there will be problems setting the drive active since FDISK won’t set a second drive active in a system. You’ll need something like AEFDISK to do that. But if the drive doesn’t have a FAT partition then you have no choice.) Create a directory on the drive and copy the installation files from the WIN98 or WIN9X directory on the 98 or ME cd into it. Put the drive back in the laptop, boot it up, do a CD to the directory with the installation files and run SETUP.
Real men don’t use AntiVirus; they just reformat