Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Running programs on external hard drives.

Jul 3, 2012 3:41AM PDT

Is it at all possible to download, install windows98 on a hard drive and run the program when connected by USB to a laptop running windows7? I have older software that ran ok on 98 but is not compatible with windows7.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
No.
Jul 3, 2012 3:44AM PDT

Well at least it's not supported by anyone I know. Let's say you research this (I suggest google) and find out how to tweak 98 to run from USB.

Then you would have it solved.

-> But there is XP MODE and we have VirtualBox which I've used in such instances.
The nice part about those solutions is such has support. What you asked about has no support.
Bob

- Collapse -
Answer
Re: programs in external hard drives
Jul 3, 2012 3:46AM PDT

Yes, you can run a program from an external hard drive, even in Windows 98 SE, assuming the drive gets a drive letter (that's quite dubious, for USB flash drives a rather special driver was necessary, and external hard disk didn't exist then either).
No, you can't run the OS from an external hard drive.

The solution: install Windows 98 in Virtualbox (it becomes 'virtual' then) under a modern OS like Windows XP, Vista or 7. Virtualbox is free from Oracle. Download from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Kees