There are a few possibilities here.
1.
When you reinstall windows the floppy is only need for the initial bootup. The problem that comes with laptops is getting a CD driver that works in dos. If you have such a beastie then add that to the win98 boot disk and try a couple of boots but selecting the "start computer with CD support" and NOT the "run Windows setup ...." option!
If you can then access the CD, then go for the install as the floppy is not accessed again. I would recommend formatting the HD, copying the entire win98 dir from the CD to HD and running setup from there. That saves having to carry the win98 CD with you.
2.
Check to see if your laptop will boot from CD. The win98 CD is bootable and you can run setup immediately.
3.
If you have the recovery CD's that came with the laptop they generally have a hot key which you hold down when booting (with the CD in the drive). You then follow the prompts for re-installation..........This totally erases EVERYTHING on the HD so if you have a network connection make sure your data is transferred
MAx