Help me instgall Windows 98 in the Virtual Box.

[Geek-9pm]

Help!
I have never used the VM thing.   

I watched a you Tube video and I thought 'I can't be that difficult'.
Well, I found out. I am lost.


The host Windows XP SP3 with updates
The VM Virtual Box ver. 4.2.36

The Windows 98SE install CD is in drive I:
The VM can not boot the install CD.

It says the drive is empty, but it is not!   

What did I skip? 

[BC_Programmer]

You ahve to appropriate configure the CD-ROM drive in the settings for the Virtual machine, Under Settings->Storage and with the CD-ROM drive selected in the list, there is a combobox on the right indicating the guest attributes- what the Virtual system sees. You want to click the button to the right of that combobox, which will allow you to map that Virtual drive directly to an actual CD-ROM drive (or an ISO image file).

[Geek-9pm]

Thanks for the help. I didn't know that.
Sounds goo.
So maybe I might  use a ISO file?
That would make the install faster, -right?   

[Salmon Trout]

So maybe I might  use a ISO file?
That would make the install faster, -right?   

If it does, it may not be as much as you might think. The installer program spends quite a lot of time unpacking compressed files -- you can often hear the CD/DVD drive spinning up in bursts -- and it is going to be the same with an ISO. The chief advantages of ISOs are, I think, that they work with computers that do not have optical drives, and you can't scratch an ISO file.

[strollin]

IMO, installing from an ISO would be significantly faster than installing from an optical drive since optical drives are notoriously slow when copying files.  My preference would always be to install from an ISO or a USB thumb drive over a physical CD/DVD.

[Geek-9pm]

Thank you all. 
It is morning here on the west coast. After doing morning worship, I will be back this afternoon and work on my computer. First things first.   

[Geek-9pm]

OK. Back again.
Failed again.
The documentation I have is for version 5. Version 4 is no longer supported.
To use version 5 I will have to use either Windows 7 or Windows 10.

I seldom use Windows 7, so I will install VB 5on my  Windows 10 partition.
But I will not give up.Not yet. 

[Salmon Trout]

Read this tutorial carefully

Tutorial: Windows 95/98 guest OSes

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9918

Windows 9x is not officially supported by VirtualBox team, which means, that it lacks Guest VM Additions, and it runs slowly, because VirtualBox is not optimized to run Win 9x.

Most CD-ROMs available for Windows 95/98 are not bootable, which means, that you must boot from DOS floppy, install DOS first and only then install Windows 95/98.
*It does require DOS skills*
Official bootable CD media is starting from 98SE. So if you're newbie, you should use Windows 98 SE bootable CD.

[Salmon Trout]

Version 4 is no longer supported.

So what? Were you going to call them? I think the "not supported" means "not commercially supported" and/or "not updated or patched any more since support end date".

Old versions:

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds

VirtualBox 5.2 (active maintenance)
VirtualBox 5.1 (active maintenance)
VirtualBox 5.0 (no longer supported, support ended 2017/05)
VirtualBox 4.3 (no longer supported, support ended 2015/12)
VirtualBox 4.2 (no longer supported, support ended 2015/12)
VirtualBox 4.1 (no longer supported, support ended 2015/12)
VirtualBox 4.0 (no longer supported, support ended 2015/12)

They go right back to 4.0.0 if you click "older builds"

[Geek-9pm]

Salmon Trout,
Thanks for the suggestion. This will take me some time because I an no up to speed on the buzzwords used in the displays. I don't grasp what I am supposed to do. The only documentation I found is for version 5.0 and up and I am not sure how it applies to version 4. 0 virtual box.