Windows 98 Setup

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Spirax

72 posts

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#324173 9-Mar-2026 13:21

I am attempting to set up an older PC with Windows 98. The PC is a Dell Dimension 3100 with a P4 CPU and 512Mb RAM. The BIOS is Award AO4 dated 2006. The HDD is a 60 Gb partitioned 15/45. Using Minitool Partition Magic on another PC I partitioned the HDD 15/45 Gb and formatted each partition FAT32. I confirmed this in properties.

When I put the HDD into the Dell and booting with a floppy disk it can only see one drive - C:. Using Fdisk it shows two partitions; one 15Gb NTFS - the active partition, and one 45GB xFAT.

Can anyone help me to get the Dell to see the HDD as FAT32 so I can install Win 98?

yitz

2238 posts

Uber Geek
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#3468101 9-Mar-2026 13:39

Why use Minitool Partition Magic on another PC instead of the FORMAT command (after FDISK)?

Do you have existing data you want to preserve or are you trying to revive an old system?

The Intel 915GV chipset board is of Vista vintage and seems too recent, haven't tried 98 myself on anything newer than 845 or 865 maybe.

wellygary

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#3468108 9-Mar-2026 13:55

From memory and a bit of Googling I though that out of the box '98 didn't support NTFS, so its odd that its reporting that as the partition type...

But as mentioned above, why not just blow the old partions away and let the boot disk reformat the drive as F32

Behodar

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#3468111 9-Mar-2026 14:32

You're right that 98 can't use NTFS, but it can probably still recognise it for what it is, since NT had been around for a few years at that point. I agree that you should be formatting the drive using 98's own FORMAT command instead of relying on something third-party.

Spirax

72 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 7

#3468131 9-Mar-2026 15:53

Thank you all

There was no data to save. The PC has an XP label and that system runs fine on another drive (NTFS).

I brushed up my Fdisk and format command knowledge and now have C: drive formatted F32 and D: drive formatting at the present. I forgot how slow HDDs are.