Building a Windows 98 Startup Disk

There are a few ways to approach this depending upon your individual situation.

As an example, the Windows 98 CD-ROM contains a program you can use to create a startup disk that is capable of creating and reading FAT32 partitions.

The basic system boot disk:

You can create a basic boot disk by inserting a floppy disk into the floppy disk drive and then double click on My Computer. Place your cursor on the 3.5" floppy drive icon and then right click and choose format. When the format window comes up, you have a couple of choices, one of which is to do a full format and at the bottom of that windows, choose to copy system files. This will provide you with a bootable floppy disk.

To use the disk, place it in the floppy drive, and then restart your computer. Note, however, that this disk does not contain all the programs that would be included on the Windows 98 Startup disk, especially CD-ROM drive support, ram drive etcetera.

Creating a full features Windows 98 Startup Disk:

To create a Windows 98 Startup disk that supports the FAT32 file system, use either of the following methods:

Method 1:

  1. Place the Windows 98 CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive, and have a floppy disk available.

  2. Click Start, point to Programs, and then click Windows Explorer.

  3. Open the following folder on the Windows 98 CD-ROM:

    Tools\Mtsutil\Fat32ebd

  4. Double-click the following file, and then follow the instructions to finish creating the disk:

    Fat32ebd.exe

  5. Write protect the floppy disk.
Method 2: (Standard Windows 98 Startup Disk):
  1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
  3. On the Startup Disk tab, click Create Disk.
  4. Follow the instructions on the screen.

To create this Disk if on a Windows 3.1 machine:

Follow these steps:

  1. Place the Windows 98 CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive and have a floppy disk available.

  2. Type each of the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line

    windows\smartdrv.exe <drive>:

    cd\tools\mtsutil\fat32ebd

    fat32ebd.exe

    NOTE: where <drive> is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive.
    NOTE: Smartdrv.exe is not required to create a Windows 98 Startup disk. It is used only to speed the creation of the startup disk.

  3. Follow the instructions to create the disk.
  4. Write protect the floppy disk to prevent the disk from erasure or virus infection.

For more information about the Fat32ebd.exe program, read the Fat32ebd.txt file the Tools\Mtsutil\Fat32ebd folder.

Note: If, for any reason, you cannot make a bootable floppy disk, you can download all of the necessary files and save them to a floppy. Just follow this link to our Boot Disk page.

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