Win95 Installation

[Alaron]

Im having some trouble installing Win95 on an old Dell system. The 1.2gig WD hard drive it had in it was failing so I want to replace it with an 800meg Maxtor that I have. The Maxtor has Windows98 and files on it already. I want to wipe the drive clean and install 95. No need for backing up.

I hooked up the Maxtor to the system and booted. After canceling through all the "Found New Hardware" popups, I could run Windows98 normally. I am not sure how the reformat the drive so I can fresh install 95. When I put in the Win95 install disc, nothing happens. The cdromdrive is not recognized in Device Manager either. Is the drive not recognized because of the new hard drive or has it gone dead? The IDE/power cables are fully in place.

Any help figuring out the cdroms problem and then installing 95 would be a huge help. TIA

[RJ]

Hi,

first: The Windows 95 CD is not bootable (unless Win98, ME, NT, 2K, XP), so you will need a boot disk with cdrom drivers (i.e. from www.bootdisk.com).

Then just boot Windows 98, click on start, shut down, restart in dos mode, run fdisk, remove the partitions.

Then reboot, boot from the Win95 startup floppy.
Run FDISK and create your partition(s). Format them and run setup from the Windows 95 CD.

HTH,

RJ

[Alaron]

Thanks for the help RJ, Im downloading the boot disk now. I have a retail version of Win95A but it did not come with a floppy disc. Odd.

Will the CDROM work once I can boot to the setup? I suppose it wasnt recognized because the hard drive had old cdrom files on it?

[Sauron]

The bootdisk will have cd-rom drivers, put that in your drive, put your cd-rom into your drive, make sure that it sees your cd-rom drive, if it does, you should up and running

[Alaron]

I just tried the installation and Im having a few problems. I used the boot disk to remove the partitions. There was just one primary partition, which was the size of the entire drive, 813megbytes. I tried to format from the a drive but it said "logical parameter missing - " I dont know what that means. I put in the CDROM and ran setup from that. It said "Setup initializing, Windows needs to preform a routine check of your system. If you want to continue press ENTER". I pressed ENTER and it said "Setup initializing, Windows requires 734002 bytes on drive C. Then it goes to the CDROM drive letters prompt, which is R. Its sitting like that now, just showing "R:\" with the flashing underscore, doing nothing, no activity lights, noise, anything.

Did I miss a critical step? Any help is appreciated, TIA

[GaryRouth]

Do you have the Dell recovery disk? That should offer to reformat/reinstall Win95 & apps all in one step. Dells might keep a hidden proprietary partition on the drive to protect their 'intellectual property' (the custom setup & software).

Not sure if 800mb will be enough room for all that.
. . . Gary

[Alaron]

Thanks Gary, I dont have Dells recovery disks, nor do I have Maxtor's, which the new drive is. This new drive came from my old Packard Bell system, which I suppose could have the same kind of hidden software.

I do have Maxtors Diagnostic program on a floppy disc. Could I somehow use that to wipe the drive clean so that I could do the installation? How do I proceed with that, because Ive never used a program like that before.

TIA

[GaryRouth]

If the disk you have is MaxBlast, yes - that will wipe the drive completely clean for you. It's one of the options in the Powermax diagnostics part of the MaxBlast software. Heck, you can run diagnostics on the drive, too - just to make sure it's in good condition. The MaxBlast floppy is "bootable" - you just put it in your floppy drive & boot your computer from that drive & it will start MaxBlast.

It sounds like the Win95 setup couldn't find a Primary DOS partition on your 1st try (since the error message said bytes, not megabytes). . . So wipe the drive clean, create one Primary DOS partition, and format it in FAt16 for Win95. . . then you're ready to run Setup from the CD (should finish OK . . . I had Win95 on a little 540mb drive, no problem).
. . . Gary

[doubledragon5]

Question why do you want to use such a dinasoure OS like win95? when 98 is much better and more stable than 95 ever was? And 2 with HD so cheap why not buy a bigger one? Unless you plan on internet only you won't be able to install much on a 800 meg HD.

[GaryRouth]

doubledragon - remember Win95a has a 2gb limit with FAT16. It increased with the OSR2 release & FAT32. & most of the bigger drives would be UDMA - unlikely that there's any of that happening on that old motherboard. There's a lot of useful word processing, faxing, business tools, & even database use in those older systems, along with the Internet capablilities.

Alaron56 - if you do like the idea of a newer, larger hard drive, I'd suggest a new build to house it. That starts to get into more dollars.

. . . Gary

[Alaron]

Thanks for the help Gary, Ill use that Diagnostic program tommorow, and tell you how it goes.

DD5, Im using Windows 95 because the computer is so old, as are the games being played on it, that WIn98 would run slower then molasses on it. When I boot this one up, it takes a full 2-3 minutes for 98 to boot, whereas the other computers at the school with win95 only take a minute.

I dont want to upgrade the drive simply because its only use is for preschool games, not for any kind of heavy activity or Internet use. Im also trying to save some money, since so much has already gone into them to this point.

Thanks again Gary.

[Alaron]

Ok, Im having more problems. I am getting to the point of buying a new drive. I used the PowerMax diagnostic program for the correct model to attempt to clean the drive. When I run "Installation Confirmation" it tells me "Partition info absent, The SMART enable function failed and SMART enable command failure on error.

When I ran the "Basic Test", the SMART test is Failed. When I run the "Write Disk Pack", the test gets to 1,250,000bytes and freezes. I then get "Verify Command failure, busy timeout (Whole Disc failure).

I think the drive is worthless, since its own Diagnostics give so many errors. Any other ideas before I buy a replacement drive?

TIA

[GaryRouth]

I just called Maxtor a few days ago for an old 2gb Maxtor that a friend of my cousin's asked me to look at - it died with very similiar errors - did you get an error code like R01 or R03, along with the "verify command failure" message? You get those when it can't read a physically damaged portion of the drive. Then it's time to try a different drive.

KronoLegionaire had an 8gb drive for $20 down in the For Sale forum a few days ago (it's hard to find drives small enough for those old systems). . . or you can try Ebay. If you go up to an 8 or 10gb drive, might as well go to Win98, so you can use the whole drive?

Good luck: rest in peace to that old drive, probably at least 7 years old - not too bad.
. . . Gary

[Alaron]

I got the R01 error. I am ordering a 4gig Seagate from Just Deals. They had a 2.5 but its out of stock, this one should do. Im just glad Ill be able to install fresh without any problems on the new drive.

Thanks for all your help Gary, its much appreciated.