Once the USB is bootable, copy the folder from your Windows 98 ISO directly to the root of the USB drive. This folder contains the actual setup.exe and installation data. Step 3: Boot and Partition
On the USB drive, create a file named AUTOEXEC.BAT with: boot windows 98 from usb
This makes the USB drive behave like a Windows 98 boot floppy, then loads Windows from the HDD. Once the USB is bootable, copy the folder
For retro gaming or hardware testing, use Method 1 (USB as installer). For a portable Windows 98 on USB, use Method 2 but expect stability issues unless your PC is from the Pentium III or early Pentium 4 era. For retro gaming or hardware testing, use Method
: Windows 98 crashes if you have more than 1GB of RAM. You may need to edit system.ini and add MaxPhysPage=20000 to the [386Enh] section to limit it.
You boot from USB to run the installer, but Windows 98 ultimately lives on the internal HDD.