Windows 95 wont install

[CHayes1126]

I am trying to install windows 95 on a clean computer. I have a boot disk I made with CD-ROM drivers on it. I put the A: disk in, it loads the drivers perfectly... I can access the CD-ROM and everything. I put the windows 95 disk in hit setup. It says windows is performing necessary task to install windows hit enter to continue. Then it says "Please wait while set up initializes... Cannot create temporary directory. If you have HPFS or NTFS installed on your drive you will need to create an MS-DOS Boot Partition to set up windows."

Now when I go back to the A: drive and hit format c: it says "Invalid drive specification." Now I cant format my c: drive because it says one doesn't exist! Any ideas?

[CHayes1126]

Ok, I got windows to install by running FDISK then formating C:. Now the only problem is I can only select 2 out of 7 Gigs as my primary partition and I cant access the extra 5 gigs on the drive. For some reason in FDISK it says the max for my primary is 2 gigs. I can set an extended partition but I cant access that in windows. Any ideas here?

[GaryRouth]

If you are using a version of Win95 earlier that the version known as "OSR2" (a later release, basically), you'll be limited to the FAT16 file system. The FAT16 file system is limited to partitions no larger than 2.1gb.

To use the rest of the drive, you have the option of starting over again, this time partitioning the drive into three partitions.

. . . just curious - why Win95?
. . . Gary

[CHayes1126]

well I only have the windows 95 full install and 98 upgrade. Ive just upgraded to windows 98 is there anyway to access the rest of the hard drive from here?

[GaryRouth]

You can use the Win98 upgrade disk to do a clean install of Win98.

Start again:
1) If the system can boot from a CD, start the system from the Win98 CD "Start computer with CD-support"
2) Use fdisk to delete the current partitions
3) Use fdisk to create a new Primary DOS partition, let it use the entire drive, and mark it active.
4) Reboot - let the Win98 upgrade CD start Setup
5) Win98 will detect that the drive has a partition that needs to be formatted - let Windows 98 format it for you. When asked "Enable Large Disk Support"? answer Yes: this will let Setup format the drive with the FAT32 file system & it will enable you to use your entire hard drive.
6) At some point during the install, Windows 98 will ask for proof of a previous Windows = at that point, it will let you insert your Win95 CD as proof.

Hope it goes well
. . . Gary

[p.s. --almost forgot = if the system can't boot from a CD, you can grab a bootable floppy diskette (use the Win98 diskette that matches your version) from http://www.bootdisk.com - to start things rolling: then switch over to your cdrom]

[CHayes1126]

I repartitioned deleted and started over, when I put the win 98 CD in like you said it never asked me to reformate with large disk support. Windows kept it at FAT16. Then when I installed windows I upgraded to FAT32 but the memory never came back. Any ideas?

[edfair]

Try your boot floppy again and fdisk to remove the existing partition. Then reboot with the CD. It should take you through fdisk for creation, automatically format, and start loading.

[GaryRouth]

[. . . Like edfair suggests: make sure to use a Win98 bootdisk, so you can create the larger partition. The Win98 bootdisk (whether floppy diskette or CD) will have a newer version of fdisk than Win95 . . .Use the newer fdisk both when deleting the current partitions and when creating a new large one]
. . . Gary