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Edit: The big problem with either 95 or ME probably is that the boot cd(stick) IS the primary partition and there's no way to spoof it as a floppy or CD. such a pain that the dos files are in the way of the installing os.

I got Windows ME Boot Disk to run on a USB-Stick just like Win98 Boot Disk can by using a hex editor and changing 2 hex values from 75 to EB because WinME BOOTCD DOS'ability to install on hard-drive's or USB is crippled (What version of MS-DOS does Rufus use to make bootable USBs?)

IO.SYS            000003CC          75 -> EB 
COMMAND.COM       00006510          75 -> EB

Now it's recognized as a hard-disk and boots from C:. FDisk and DISKPART can't format 2 T-BYTE drives.

I just found a link which answered me that I "will need to use the manufacturers setup disk for the hard drive or a 3rd party partition program."

http://www.largeharddrivesupport.windowsreinstall.com/winme.htm

My most important question is:

  1. Does the Windows 9X/ME oemsetup run the same FORMAT.COM as FDisk or does OEMSetup support formatting large 2 T-BYTE drives? - No, use HIRENS BOOTCD (DISKPART doesn't work though).

If it does support those drives unlike FDisk:

  1. how to get OEMSetup running from the same C:\ USB-Stick as the BootDisk without being asked to insert a boot disk into drive A: and to restart. - It does not support 2TB drives, but I still don't know how so use Setup.exe, not oemsetup don't forget to change setup's drive letter to D:.

If it is the same as FDisk:

  1. I'll guess that's fair and try to format the hard-drive with Windows 10. I'll use Setup.exe which supposes to install it on my BootDisk USB Drive C:, but I'll simply change the drive letter once formatted.

Here is the same thread on Software Recommendations: https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/66916/how-to-get-win-9x-oemsetup-working-from-same-c-usb-stick-as-the-boot-disk

SCREENSHOT: https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=F7630475FBE8A2FA&id=F7630475FBE8A2FA%2124361&parId=root&o=OneUp

Ciel Ruby
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3 Answers3

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REAL DOS 8.00 capable of starting from HDD without any modifications to its files (io.sys, msdos.sys, command.com) is placed on Windows Me OEM CD inside X:\tools\nettools\fac\ltools.dta file, which is CAB file with changed extension, that can be extracted by any CAB extractor, including Windows extract.exe. X is CD drive letter. These three files are slightly different than other instances of themselves in Windows Me, but they works good as supplementary REAL DOS to Windows Me and they can boot to DOS from separate primary HDD partition. This REAL DOS works as is without any patches, etc… NO SYS command needed, simply copy IO.SYS first, next copy COMMAND.COM

user1746099
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Conclusion: Windows ME OEMSetup gives the same message as FDisk, so I suppose It's the same. I guess LBA48 would work anyway, so in my case I'll format it using Windows 10 on my second Hard-drive, If you haven't Señor CMasMas suggested to use HIREN'S BOOTCD. I'll use FDisk to check if the letter got assigned properly and in Setup.exe, I change C: the USB stick to D: the hard drive.

I hope you are now able to install Windows 9X with an USB Stick. On modern PC's you may expect visual glitches during the installation and they may be even heavier when you try to boot it. I recommend to not turn the power off during the installation.

Edit: Installing Windows 95 did not work since It installed half of the resources on the USB and the other half on the actual hard drive.

Ciel Ruby
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I got Windows ME Boot Disk to run on a USB-Stick just like Win98 Boot Disk can by using a hex editor and changing 2 hex values from 75 to EB,

Why? Installing windows 9X/ME off a bootable USB is a standard thing. Why involve a hex editor?

now it's recognized as a hard-disk and boots from C:. Also Diskpart only works on Windows 2000, XP and up. FDisk can't format higher than 64GBYTE drives (59XXX MBYTE).

FDISK never formatted disks anyway. You have the FORMAT command for that.

I just found a link which answered a few things for me:

http://www.largeharddrivesupport.windowsreinstall.com/winme.htm

ok

My most important question is:

Does the Windows 9X/ME oemsetup run the same formatting tool as FDisk or does OEMSetup support formatting large 2 T-BYTE drives? If it does support those drives unlike FDisk:

FDISK(for windows), is/was a partitioning tool. Doesn't do formatting.

how to get OEMSetup running from the same C:\ USB-Stick as the BootDisk without being asked to insert a boot disk into drive A: and to restart.

From what I recall, Windows setup is in a directory of the ISO called i386 so you can make a directory on the USB can be calleed i386, and copy that to the USB.

Your problem is your computer isn't even booting off the USB.

You need to do step one which is make a DOS/Win9X boot disk.

Then from there you would start i386\setup.exe

I'll guess that's fair and try to format it with Windows 10.

Well, even the Windows XP format command won't help you. As it makes a strange kind of Windows XP disk but not a bootable thing. The GUI of XP has an option to make a bootable DOS disk. Still though that's not USB.

You need to format it as a DOS boot disk. If it was a floppy disk you'd use format /s A: in Win9X. That won't work on a USB though. Since it's a USB, you can use Rufus.

You need to make a bootable USB. Rufus has an option for 'freeDOS' or, better, you can point it to an image of a bootable DOS disk.

See my answer here for some info on that Is it possible to boot DOS from USB?

One other point is the setup will be slow unless you load something, I think it's called SMARTDRV and the disk should really include an AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS and the CONFIG.SYS should include a line that loads HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE

barlop
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