Bill Cunningham wrote:
I have an ISO of win98se and can't get that vitual pc 2007 to boot it. I
play with the bios and it just won't boot from a virtual cdrom. Or a floppy
either for that matter. Does anyone know how to deal with this thing or
suggest another virtual machine ? Virtual box I can't get to work because it
says something about COM. And an error.

Bill



Already done it. Years ago.

In my collection, I have a Win98 CD, plus an
Upgrade version of Win98SE.

You install Win98 first, then apply the Win98SE Upgrade Disc.

Using the Cygwin version of "disktype" program...

*******
disktype /dev/sr0 # with Win98 CD in tray

--- /dev/sr0
Block device, size 624.2 MiB (654528512 bytes)
ISO9660 file system
Volume name "WINDOWS 98"
Publisher "MICROSOFT CORPORATION"
Preparer "MICROSOFT CORPORATION, ONE MICROSOFT WAY, REDMOND WA 98052, (206) 882-8080"
Application "CDIMAGE 2.38 (08/27/97 TM)"
Data size 623.9 MiB (654219264 bytes, 319443 blocks of 2 KiB)
El Torito boot record, catalog at 20
Bootable 1.44M floppy image, starts at 21, preloads 512 bytes
Platform 0x00 (x86), System Type 0x00 (Empty)
Windows / MS-DOS boot loader
FAT12 file system (hints score 5 of 5)
Volume size 1.390 MiB (1457664 bytes, 2847 clusters of 512 bytes)
Joliet extension, volume name "Windows 98"

*******
disktype /dev/sr0 # with Win98SE Upgrade CD in tray

--- /dev/sr0
Block device, size 623.0 MiB (653219840 bytes)
ISO9660 file system
Volume name "WIN98 SE"
Publisher "MICROSOFT CORPORATION"
Preparer "MICROSOFT CORPORATION, ONE MICROSOFT WAY, REDMOND WA 98052, (425) 882-8080"
Application "CDIMAGE 2.39 (12/04/97 TM)"
Data size 622.4 MiB (652603392 bytes, 318654 blocks of 2 KiB)
Joliet extension, volume name "Win98 SE"

*******

Notice the subtle difference ? That's got to make a difference
to the whole exercise.

You need both ISO files anyway, as the Win98SE will prompt
for "proof" you have a Win98 disc.

Since I don't remember what I did at the time, I would
probably try...

1) VPC2007, clean virtual disk (at least 4GB).
4GB was the size of my hard drive back then...

Install Win98, using win98.iso from VPC menu (before BIOS boot starts)

2) After Win98 install is finished, try presenting
win98se.iso . See if the setup.exe autoruns, and
whether it'll agree to do the upgrade install
from the running OS. (As opposed to trying to boot
the win98se.iso...)

HTH,
Paul