HELP: Installing Win98 SE

F

fellanrawl

Bit poster
Hi --

I have a copy of Windows 98 SE on CD that I am trying to install in Parallels (build 1970)... However, Parallels seems unable to boot from the Win 98 SE CD. I also have a physical WIn 98 boot floppy, but no idea how to utilize it with Parallels to get the install going. If anyone can give me any suggestions or instructions, I would greatly appreciate it. When Parallels attemps to do the OS install, I get messages that boot attempts from the CD, floppy and hard drive all failed, and then a message that "No boot device available, press Enter to continue."

I found an older post about installing Win98 which seemed to link to an .fdd file, but I was unable to download the file.

Any help greatly appreciated. I am running WinXP with much success, but want Win98 to test in IE 5.5.

Thanks in advance!

--Carl.
 
Follow-up: installed, but not really working

Well, after some trial and error, I was able to get Win 98 SE to install, however during its search at the end of the install process for "plug and play" devices and subsequent attempt to install drivers, it found several things it could not find appropriate drivers for:

--Realtek RTL8029(AS) PCI Ethernet NIC
--PCI Multimedia Audio Device
--PCI Bridge
--Advanced Power Management support

And when I start up the virtual machine, I get several errors all starting with "Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a Windows application" for these files:

--vnetsup.vxd
--vnetbios.vxd
--vredir.vxd
--dfs.vxd

Then, when Windows finally gets into its GUI mode, I get one last error, about Windows Networking: "Unable to load the dynamic link library msnp32.dll. The system cannot find the file specified. Some or all of the following feature is not available: Microsoft Network."

Did I perform the installation incorrectly? Anyone have any tips or help? Thanks in advance!

Best,

--Carl.
 
Tried tools... Didn't work

Thanks for the suggestion. I did install the Paralells Toools from the image file available in /Library/Parallels, but it didn't seem to make any difference. I still get the errors, and still have no network connectivity.

Should I have done something different during the installation process perhaps?

Thanks,

--Carl.
 
More info on my exact steps

In case this helps anyone to point out what I might have done wrong, here are the steps I took:

--Created new virtual machine for Windows 98 (6GB in size)
--Booted from bootable CD .iso file (downloaded online) to DOS
--ran fdisk to do initial primary partition creation
--ran format c: to format drive
--rebooted, again from bootable CD iso file to DOS
--switched image file via Parallels controls to an .iso I made of my Windows 98 SE install disc, then ran setup off that disc
--Let Win 98 do its install process, not custom-configuring any options

Thanks,

--Carl.
 
If Windows 98 is starting up OK it's not an issue with the Windows installation, it must be the Parallels Tools installation that is incorrect.

You said something about installing from "/Library/Parallels/"? I load up the Windows VM, make sure I'm logged in to Windows, then hit "install Parallels Tools" from the VM menu. That seems to work every time.
 
Well...

I guess what I'm wondering is: is it normal during a Win98 install in Parallels to have the installer's plug and play detection not able to install proper drivers for networking, sound, etc.?

And should the Parallels Tools installation afterwards correct those problems?

Thanks,

--Carl.
 
It's a while since I installed Win98se, and I used a bootable CD (note Second Edition, not vanilla), so my install process was simpler than yours as I didn't need a bootable floppy image. I was also using an earlier version of Parallels Desktop.

I did have some problems with it crashing on the many reboots during installation, and I just rebooted it each time. I don't recall any errors concerning drivers, though.

When the installation completed it just came up in a 640 x 480 window, asked for a user name and password, and I then installed the Parallels Tools. It rebooted after the installation wizard did its thing. I could then select a larger resolution in Windows, and networking was fully operational.

When I have time I'll try building a new VM and see if I get any of the driver issues you are seeing.
 
AlanH said:
When I have time I'll try building a new VM and see if I get any of the driver issues you are seeing.
Click to expand...
I installed a new Win98se VM overnight. It went very smoothly from my bootable CD, no crashes during restarts this time, and it came up to a 640 x 480 desktop with no driver warnings. I then installed Parallels Tools from the VM menu option, adjusted the screen resolution within Windows, and it's a fully operational Windows system.
 
Got it working...

After several failed attempts, I guess fifth time's a charm. I didn't do anything differently, just kept trying the install. For whatever reason, this particular time I got no driver errors, and was abble to install Parallels Tools, and am now up and running. Guess all's well that ends well...

Thanks for the replies.

Best,

--Carl.
 
fellanrawl said:
Well, after some trial and error, I was able to get Win 98 SE to install, however during its search at the end of the install process for "plug and play" devices and subsequent attempt to install drivers, it found several things it could not find appropriate drivers for:

--Realtek RTL8029(AS) PCI Ethernet NIC
--PCI Multimedia Audio Device
--PCI Bridge
--Advanced Power Management support

And when I start up the virtual machine, I get several errors all starting with "Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a Windows application" for these files:

--vnetsup.vxd
--vnetbios.vxd
--vredir.vxd
--dfs.vxd

--Carl.
Click to expand...

I suspect you had prompts which said it can't find the CD-ROM directory for the drivers at some point. If you delete MS networking and then reinstall. the problems would have gone away except for the PCI Bridge and and Audio.

I got the CD-ROM working by booting from a floppy with the needed driver and copying the Win98 directory from the CD-ROM to c:\ and then deleting the disk controller in the device manager; this forces a reinstall of the device, and with the install files available on the local hard drive available it works properly. I'll seen similar issues with real hardware in the past.

The Audio Windows 98 install is documented in the PT manual; the drivers are in c:\program files\Parallels\... something or other and need a hand install.

I STILL haven't figured out how to get the PCI Bridge install.
 
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