[paake411]

Yes, its a Dell Latitude LS. I install a new hard drive but don't know how to install windows 98 on it because it doesn't have a cdrom drive on in it. If anybody can tell me how thank you ! Sorry I'm a noob Bought it from ebay, didn't come with hard drive! Now I don't know how to install windows 98 on new hard drive without cdrom drive because I'm new at this thanks for any help.

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Possibly the system is bootable from a usb flash drive or a external cdrom drive. By default it looks like this system uses a floppy drive.
You would need a windows 98 installation disk or in your case windows 98 floppy disks..
If not you would need to contact Dell to see if by chance they can sell you a set of recovery disk. By researching I found it does have a floppy drive which means a lot of disks to use.
You can go HERE to get all the original drivers for your system.
You may try to even contact Dell about a set of original disks but being that old I would be very suurprised if they still carry them.

Edited by rshaffer61, 24 May 2010 - 08:27 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Possibly the system is bootable from a usb flash drive or a external cdrom drive. By default it looks like this system uses a floppy drive.
You would need a windows 98 installation disk or in your case windows 98 floppy disks..
If not you would need to contact Dell to see if by chance they can sell you a set of recovery disk. By researching I found it does have a floppy drive which means a lot of disks to use.
You can go HERE to get all the original drivers for your system.
You may try to even contact Dell about a set of original disks but being that old I would be very suurprised if they still carry them.

Edited by rshaffer61, 24 May 2010 - 08:27 PM.

[paake411]

I can't locate a floppy disk drive on it! But I have a flash drive (pen drive) and a external dvdrw drive. If I can do it with one of those could you tell me how to? If not, do I need an external floppy drive because it doesn't seem to be one anywhere that I can see (interanl floppy drive)? With external dvdrw drive I try to go to bios F2 and try to boot windows 98 from there but nothing responded.

Edited by paake411, 25 May 2010 - 04:11 PM.

[rshaffer61]

As I said some system can boot to a flash drive or a external usb drive.
Being that it is a 98 based system I doubt the USB route is a possibility.
What I would suggest is to see if there is a recovery partition on the drive by doing the following.

The key combination is CRTL + F11 pushing the keys at the same time at the the dell screen during post. Once you push them then you want to release them.
It should go into the recovery partition so you can do a system restore. This may give you a option of two different recoveries.
Non Destructive saves your data and repairs the OS
Destructive formats the system and returns it to factory settings like it was new. THIS WILL CAUSE A LOST OF ALL DATA SO BEWARE.

[Neil Jones]

What I would suggest is to see if there is a recovery partition on the drive by doing the following.

The key combination is CRTL + F11 pushing the keys at the same time at the the dell screen during post. Once you push them then you want to release them.
It should go into the recovery partition so you can do a system restore. This may give you a option of two different recoveries.

The OP says the hard drive has been replaced. Therefore there will be no recovery partition.
A lot of Windows 98 machines would have had separate CDs, as opposed to being on the hard drive.

[rshaffer61]

At this point without a cdrom, a floppy drive and not knowing if it will boot to a USB or flash drive I can't see any other way to correct this without contacting Dell. Even then without a way to input the OS this is not going to happen.

[peter99]

It can be done if you still want to know

[123Runner]

Your right peter99, it can be done, but its going to involve a lot of playing in DOS and use of another computer.

[RoseTaylor]

OK, first thing we need to know is, does it have a newer OS on it already? Like Win 2K or (God help us) Win ME? If so, you need to reformat the hard drive. Even if not, still sounds like it needs a reformat.

I hope you have either 1) a bootable Win98 floppy (a "recovery" disk) or 2) a bootable CD-ROM

You get the "E:\>" prompt with the install cd in it? Sounds like you can boot from CD then. At that prompt type "format c:"

Warning! All files currently on drive C: will be erased! Do you want to proceed?

Once the format is done, at the E: prompt tye "setup <enter>". Sit back and enjoy the ride

Edited by sari, 22 June 2010 - 08:53 AM.

[123Runner]

[quote name='RoseTaylor' post='1854745' date='Jun 20 2010, 03:14 PM']OK, first thing we need to know is, does it have a newer OS on it already? Like Win 2K or (God help us) Win ME? If so, you need to reformat the hard drive. Even if not, still sounds like it needs a reformat.

I hope you have either 1) a bootable Win98 floppy (a "recovery" disk) or 2) a bootable CD-ROM

You get the "E:\>" prompt with the install cd in it? Sounds like you can boot from CD then. At that prompt type "format c:"

Warning! All files currently on drive C: will be erased! Do you want to proceed?

You need to re-read post 1 because it is a new hard drive and therefore no OS. Also there is no floppy and no CD drive.

Edited by sari, 22 June 2010 - 08:54 AM.
Removed spam link that was accidentally quoted from previous post

[Bing7]

the laptos is at least 10 yrs old ,you should have left it on ebay .it is running a 400 mhz cpu .need i say more

[artm12]

Hello Friend,
Download Windows 98 bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com . Make the floppy and Boot from the floppy.Create and format a partition for w2k setup. It should be 600MB+ is you skip point 7, 1.2GB+ if not. All the tools you need are on the floppy. Reboot from the floppy. Run smartdrv from the floppy to make things go faster. Run winnt.exe from the CD (or HD if you did the copy thing).

Thanks,
James

Tech Support

Edited by wannabe1, 16 July 2010 - 06:27 PM.
Remove link to pay tech site