Downgrading to '98 fromXP on a Toshiba Satellite

Stormtroopman · 03-23-2008, 10:09 PM

So, I have a Toshiba Satellite notebook that is several years old - it's from the era when XP was new.

The trouble is that it's not quite manly enough to handle XP - my wife's father bought it and basically picked out the cheapest laptop he could find at Best Buy. It's slow, and soon became unusable, so for the longest time it collected dust in our office.

What I'd like to do is wipe the laptop and install Windows 98 from the CD-ROM. Most recipes for doing so seem to call for a floppy boot disc, but this little gem of a laptop doesn't have a floppy drive. I was teetering on the edge of making a go of it without one, after having set the BIOS to boot from the CD-ROM drive, but I figured I should come here for instruction from smarter people first. >.>

How do I go about doing a system wipe, then? Format c: and have it boot from the Win 98 disc? I really hope it's that simple but I don't think I have that kind of luck. What do you guys think?

**OldGrayGary** · 03-25-2008, 01:25 AM

Hi Stormtroopman

I'd recommend first checking the Toshiba support website to see if Windows 98 drivers are available for download for your model Satellite.

I'd also imagine that XP is actually a superior choice than 98, and that what is likely holding it back is a lack of memory & perhaps an overabundance of unnecessary background processes. If getting the system memory up to 512mb is possible at a reasonable cost, I'd bet that it would help quite a lot. For a primer on how to trim startup processes, paul collins' old article still holds up pretty well --- http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php

Another reason to try fixing-up your current Windows XP installation is that Windows 98 is getting so difficult to secure for Internet use: few anti-malware vendors support it any longer.

If you do decide to go with Windows 98, and you have a Windows 98 2nd Edition CD available to you (legally, of course) -- many of the Win98se CDs are bootable. You can use fdisk to delete the old partitions, then create a new Primary DOS Partition, mark it active, and then let Win98se Setup format it for you (remember to say "Yes" to "Enable Large Hard Drive Support?").

You can also simply copy the /Win98 folder from the Windows 98 CD onto the hard drive beforehand, and boot the PC with a bootable DOS CD ( --- http://www.k1ea.com/hints/Creating_a...CD_V%201.5.pdf ) or simply borrow a friend's external USB floppy drive.

Another interesting option, should Win98se drivers be available, would be to dual boot. You could wipe the drive, then create two partitions .. perhaps a 7gb partition for Win98se, and a 12+gb partition for Windows XP. Install Win98se first, on the smaller partition. Then install Windows XP on the larger partition. XP will setup the multiboot menu for you. .... You could disable the network adaptor in Win98se, and just use if for playing older games, and keep the network adaptor enabled while in XP, for Internet and networking use.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

03-23-2008, 10:09 PM	#1 (permalink)
Stormtroopman Registered User Join Date: May 2006 Location: Tennessee Posts: 22 OS: Win XP Home SP2	Downgrading to '98 fromXP on a Toshiba Satellite So, I have a Toshiba Satellite notebook that is several years old - it's from the era when XP was new. The trouble is that it's not quite manly enough to handle XP - my wife's father bought it and basically picked out the cheapest laptop he could find at Best Buy. It's slow, and soon became unusable, so for the longest time it collected dust in our office. What I'd like to do is wipe the laptop and install Windows 98 from the CD-ROM. Most recipes for doing so seem to call for a floppy boot disc, but this little gem of a laptop doesn't have a floppy drive. I was teetering on the edge of making a go of it without one, after having set the BIOS to boot from the CD-ROM drive, but I figured I should come here for instruction from smarter people first. >.> How do I go about doing a system wipe, then? Format c: and have it boot from the Win 98 disc? I really hope it's that simple but I don't think I have that kind of luck. What do you guys think?

03-25-2008, 01:25 AM	#2 (permalink)
OldGrayGary Mentor, Microsoft Support Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Woodland Hills, CA Posts: 2,007 OS: Windows 98se/2000/XP/Vista	Re: Downgrading to '98 fromXP on a Toshiba Satellite Hi Stormtroopman I'd recommend first checking the Toshiba support website to see if Windows 98 drivers are available for download for your model Satellite. I'd also imagine that XP is actually a superior choice than 98, and that what is likely holding it back is a lack of memory & perhaps an overabundance of unnecessary background processes. If getting the system memory up to 512mb is possible at a reasonable cost, I'd bet that it would help quite a lot. For a primer on how to trim startup processes, paul collins' old article still holds up pretty well --- http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php Another reason to try fixing-up your current Windows XP installation is that Windows 98 is getting so difficult to secure for Internet use: few anti-malware vendors support it any longer. If you do decide to go with Windows 98, and you have a Windows 98 2nd Edition CD available to you (legally, of course) -- many of the Win98se CDs are bootable. You can use fdisk to delete the old partitions, then create a new Primary DOS Partition, mark it active, and then let Win98se Setup format it for you (remember to say "Yes" to "Enable Large Hard Drive Support?"). You can also simply copy the /Win98 folder from the Windows 98 CD onto the hard drive beforehand, and boot the PC with a bootable DOS CD ( --- http://www.k1ea.com/hints/Creating_a...CD_V%201.5.pdf ) or simply borrow a friend's external USB floppy drive. Another interesting option, should Win98se drivers be available, would be to dual boot. You could wipe the drive, then create two partitions .. perhaps a 7gb partition for Win98se, and a 12+gb partition for Windows XP. Install Win98se first, on the smaller partition. Then install Windows XP on the larger partition. XP will setup the multiboot menu for you. .... You could disable the network adaptor in Win98se, and just use if for playing older games, and keep the network adaptor enabled while in XP, for Internet and networking use. Best of luck . . . Gary __________________