PCem won't grab Win 98 installation ISO nor img file

[Techguy1]

I'm trying to set up a Win 98 machine. Here is the config: https://pastebin.com/KYynua4Y. It might be that I dont know how you would install a OS back in the day, but it doesn't seem to catch the ISO nor the A: drive. Is my hardware too "modern"? It's just that the recommended procesoor for the games I want to run, is a Pentium II. Boot priority is A, CDROM, C if that helps.

[harrison98]

You don't need a boot floppy for that motherboard with Win 98 SE. Eject the floppy, set the boot priority to CD-ROM first, put the CD-ROM in, and reboot. That will save you some trouble. Not sure why the boot floppy didn't work, though - it should.

[eddman]

It's not a PCem issue. Only OEM windows 98 CDs are directly bootable and don't need a floppy. For any other type, a 98 floppy boot disk is also required. The boot sequence for the latter should start with drive A; the rest don't matter.

If it still doesn't work, go to the D: drive (might be E:, with some floppy boot disks) and type "dir" to check if it can even see the CD image.

If it doesn't see the content, then maybe the CD image is bad, or in a format that is not compatible. PCem can only read CUE/BIN and data-mode ISO files. Anything else, including raw ISO don't work.

Also, the data-mode ISO file should have the "ISO 9660" file system, not UDF.

P.S.

A Pentium 2 requires a host CPU with high single core performance. If the emulation speed drops below 100%, don't be surprised.

[Techguy1]

It's not a PCem issue. Only OEM windows 98 CDs are directly bootable. For any other type, a 98 floppy boot disk is also required. The boot sequence should start with drive A; the rest don't matter.

If it still doesn't work, go to the D: drive (might be E:, with some floppy boot disks) and type "dir" to check if it can even see the CD image.

If it doesn't see the content, then maybe the CD image is bad, or in a format that is not compatible. PCem can only read CUE/BIN and data-mode ISO files. Anything else, including raw ISO don't work.

Also, the user-mode ISO file should have the "ISO 9660" file system, not UDF.

P.S.

A Pentium 2 requires a host CPU with high single core performance. If the emulation speed drops below 100%, don't be surprised.

It seems that something just went wrong with the download. Redownloaded the OEM SE from Winworld, and it works now with the boot order A,CDROM, C. It worked by using my hosts virtual E drive. I guess the boot order should be changed when I've installed Windows, so it doesn't restarts the installation process?

[eddman]

OEM images don't need a floppy, and can be booted with the boot sequence set to CDROM.

There are many guides online showing how to install windows 98. It's not a PCem matter.

[harrison98]

Only OEM windows 98 CDs are directly bootable and don't need a floppy.

Oh, right - if it's a retail Win 98 SE CD it won't be bootable. Thanks.

I guess the boot order should be changed when I've installed Windows, so it doesn't restarts the installation process?

You can leave it at that - just eject any bootable CD-ROMs before starting the PC.

[Techguy1]

Like I said, its probably me not knowing OS setup from those days I'm from 1995 after all

[Arjen42]

Like I said, its probably me not knowing OS setup from those days I'm from 1995 after all

Well, you call yourself a tech guy, so you would probably want to learn things anyway.

I suggest your install MS-DOS first, from floppies. Extract the CD-ROM drivers from the Windows 98 boot disk. (They are inside the EBD.CAB file and you'll need the EXTRACT.EXE. View the autoexec.bat to see how this works. )

After you get the CD-ROM working in MS-DOS. Try installing Windows 98 from DOS. (Or install Windows 3.1 instead and upgrade that to Windows 98.)

Good luck!