How to build a bootable USB DOS flash drive:

You need a few tools, HP Flash Utility, Windows 98 MS-DOS System Files, and a USB Flash Drive.

  1. Download hpflash.zip and win98boot.zip from my website, http://www.krowtena.net/Support/USB-Boot
  2. Extract the HP Flash Utility hpflash.zip to a location on your hard drive (ex. C:\Bootdisk-build)
  3. Run the installer and follow the simple on screen instructions.
  4. Extract the contents of win98boot.zip to a location on your hard drive (ex. C:\Bootdisk-build\win98boot)
  5. Run the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.
    • Choose your flash drive from the drop down list at the top.
    • Also make sure that the file system is set to FAT32.
    • Under Format Options, select the “Create a DOS startup disk” option.
    • Click the “…” button, navigate to the location of the win98boot.zip files you extracted (ex. C:\Bootdisk-build\win98boot).
    • Tip: select “Quick Format” under Format Options to speed the process up.
    • Click the Start button.
  6. Once you click the Start button, you should receive a Warning box that the flash drive selected will be formatted.
  7. Once completed, you can drag things like BIOS updates for servers, desktops, that do not necessarily have a Windows OS to use the common Windows method to update the BIOS.