Jump to content

Old Windows 95 box


jErikoATo

Recommended Posts

I'm trying to breathe some life into an old Windows 95 lappy.  Back in the day it ran some old DOS games pretty well.  Problem is, it can't boot off a CD-ROM, the floppy drive broke a number of years ago, and I wiped the hard drive while trying to do something  :-?.

Does anyone know how I can get a fresh copy of Windows 95 installed on it (I've got the CD)? I created a few images of the HDD before I wiped it, but putting them back on the HDD doesn't seem to be working.  I've got access to a partially functional Windows 98 SE, but I've moved in the Mac direction, and I don't have any other Windows stuff lying around.

I figure I'd need to stick something on the lappy HDD that it can boot off of and that has a CD-ROM driver so I can install Windows from the install CD.  Any ideas?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a similar device. It hates modern boot loaders except GRUB. However, the BIOS doesn't present the CD drive and allow GRUB to boot from it. I managed to get DSL installed using there ripped off Knoppix boot loader. I installed it by connecting the drive to another computer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a step in the right direction. I'll see if I can figure it out. Not much hope getting Windows on there then?

Possibly. If when windows requires the first restart, instead of letting it boot, place the hard drive in the laptop, might work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a step in the right direction. I'll see if I can figure it out. Not much hope getting Windows on there then?

Possibly. If when windows requires the first restart, instead of letting it boot, place the hard drive in the laptop, might work.

Do you mean the CD? It doesn't have drivers for the CD drive, so the BIOS doesn't even recognize it as (boot) device, even though the CD gets a quick spin when the laptop boots. Ever since I wiped the HDD, the laptop doesn't recognize it as a system disk. I'm trying to figure out what it would take to make the laptop think the hard drive is a system drive. I tried putting the contents of a bootable floppy on it, but that didn't fly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

does it have a floppy drive, and if so, is it working? You can use the win98 floppy to format the hdd and then copy the floppy contents over to the hdd, then edit(id dos) the config files to point to c: instead of a: and when it boots, you will be in dos(using a ramdrive) from the hdd. Then you can load drivers for the cdrom drive and then install windows. once windows is installed, delete the win98 boot files and it should boot off the hdd. I had to do this with an older compaq laptop in order to load windows 98 on it because the cdrom and floppy shared a swappable slot, I had to get the floppy boot files onto the hdd and then swap the fdd with the cdrom, then install windows.

Hope you understand what I mean, but ti was a pain in the ass to get it done the first time around, thinking back to it, you shoul dbe able to do the same thing only instead of win98 cdrom, just use the win98 floppy files in combo with the win95 cdrom. It should work for you so long as you can get ahold of a win98 floppy and the lappy has one that works.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you mean the CD? It doesn't have drivers for the CD drive, so the BIOS doesn't even recognize it as (boot) device, even though the CD gets a quick spin when the laptop boots. Ever since I wiped the HDD, the laptop doesn't recognize it as a system disk. I'm trying to figure out what it would take to make the laptop think the hard drive is a system drive. I tried putting the contents of a bootable floppy on it, but that didn't fly.

Perhaps my one line explanation of missing vowels and bad grammar did not convoy enough clarity. Connect the hard drive to another computer that will boot off a CD. Perform the first part of the installation (Windows loves restarting when it's been installed). When windows wants to restart, let it restart the computer and power it off. Place the hard drive back in the laptop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

does it have a floppy drive, and if so, is it working? You can use the win98 floppy to format the hdd and then copy the floppy contents over to the hdd, then edit(id dos) the config files to point to c: instead of a: and when it boots, you will be in dos(using a ramdrive) from the hdd. Then you can load drivers for the cdrom drive and then install windows. once windows is installed, delete the win98 boot files and it should boot off the hdd. I had to do this with an older compaq laptop in order to load windows 98 on it because the cdrom and floppy shared a swappable slot, I had to get the floppy boot files onto the hdd and then swap the fdd with the cdrom, then install windows.

Hope you understand what I mean, but ti was a pain in the ass to get it done the first time around, thinking back to it, you shoul dbe able to do the same thing only instead of win98 cdrom, just use the win98 floppy files in combo with the win95 cdrom. It should work for you so long as you can get ahold of a win98 floppy and the lappy has one that works.

It has a floppy that doesn't work. I popped the HDD out, hooked it to a Windows 98 (SE) through USB, and drag-dropped the contents of a bootable Win98 floppy to the HDD (making sure I was displaying hidden files). The laptop didn't recognize the HDD as a system disk. Is there a way I can get Win98 to make a disk connected through USB into a boot disk?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

does it have a floppy drive, and if so, is it working? You can use the win98 floppy to format the hdd and then copy the floppy contents over to the hdd, then edit(id dos) the config files to point to c: instead of a: and when it boots, you will be in dos(using a ramdrive) from the hdd. Then you can load drivers for the cdrom drive and then install windows. once windows is installed, delete the win98 boot files and it should boot off the hdd. I had to do this with an older compaq laptop in order to load windows 98 on it because the cdrom and floppy shared a swappable slot, I had to get the floppy boot files onto the hdd and then swap the fdd with the cdrom, then install windows.

Hope you understand what I mean, but ti was a pain in the ass to get it done the first time around, thinking back to it, you shoul dbe able to do the same thing only instead of win98 cdrom, just use the win98 floppy files in combo with the win95 cdrom. It should work for you so long as you can get ahold of a win98 floppy and the lappy has one that works.

It has a floppy that doesn't work. I popped the HDD out, hooked it to a Windows 98 (SE) through USB, and drag-dropped the contents of a bootable Win98 floppy to the HDD (making sure I was displaying hidden files). The laptop didn't recognize the HDD as a system disk. Is there a way I can get Win98 to make a disk connected through USB into a boot disk?

Hook it up to a computer that can boot from a cd and boot linux. Toggle the bootflags, and try it again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has a floppy that doesn't work. I popped the HDD out, hooked it to a Windows 98 (SE) through USB, and drag-dropped the contents of a bootable Win98 floppy to the HDD (making sure I was displaying hidden files). The laptop didn't recognize the HDD as a system disk. Is there a way I can get Win98 to make a disk connected through USB into a boot disk?

You cant just copy it blindly. You have to format the c drive, then copy the contents over, then edit the contents to point to the c drive because it will try to point to the a drive by default and it wont find the contents it wants on the a drive since they are now on the c drive.

Like Sparda said, if your plugging it into another pc, you can just Image an OS onto it if you have a backup, or install any other OS so long as the hardware supports it. Win95 just might barf though after swapping it to the lappy after install because of drivers and shit, and you will probably get a windows protection fault because of the graphics card. 98 and xp are usually a little better at handling the swap from hardware to hardware though and will either start in safe mode to allow you to make changes or default back to 16 color or something like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

then edit the contents to point to the c drive because it will try to point to the a drive by default and it wont find the contents it wants on the a drive since they are now on the c drive.

How do I do that?

I cant remember what files it is since I would have to be doing it to look at them, but I think the autoexec.bat and some of the sys files contain paths that point to a: where you would need to edit them and point to c: until you get things isntalled. Then you delete the ramdrive files from the c drive and I think the autoexec.bat file and then it will boot off the hard drive. Its been so long I cant remember what files, but I am sure if you get far enough to copy the contents of the ram drive to the hard drive, you will be able to go through them and see which ones need to be changed. I should clarify, its not the files directly off of the floppy but what it creates in the ram drive(if I remember correctly), but even the files form the floppy would boot you into dos and it would create a ram drive every boot. My memory is a bit sketchy, but play around with it, you should be able to figure it out just from noodling around with it.

The other option is to just install windows from another pc onto the drive via adapter cable to another pc's motherboard then swap it back into the laptop. Thats probably going to be the easiest way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The easiest, cleanest way to install Windows 95 without any drives is to hook the drive up to another machine (via a 2.5"-3.5" IDE adapter or 2.5" IDE-USB adapter), install MSDOS, copy the Windows installation files from the CD to the drive (preferably in a folder) then put the drive back in the laptop.

It should now boot MSDOS. cd to Windows' install files directory, run setup from there, and install as normal.

You can also remove the DOS folder when you're done too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got a floppy lying around that I think is the laptop's CD driver so that it can install windows. I copied that floppy to the lappy's c drive, went through all the files, and changed all the file paths from a: to c:. When I try to boot off of the c drive, I still get an "Invalid system disk" error.

I took a windows 98 bootable floppy and tried copying that to the laptop's c drive. I went through all the files, but didn't find any file paths pointing to a:, so I didn't have anything to change. I got the same error as above when I try to boot with it.

The only other Windows I have access to is a Windows 98 sony Vaio with more quirks than Forest Gump (so a very non-standard system to begin with, and now almost unusable). So I can't really pop the Windows 95 laptop's HDD into another machine.

When I first started messing with this hard drive, I was using a Mac to access it. Could the mac have stuck some sort of HFS+ fork onto the drive that is preventing the old laptop from booting from it? Since it's HFS+, Windows 98 would completely ignore any stuff the Mac added when I format the hard drive in Windows 98.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I havn't made this clear alredy.

PLug the hard drive in to a 'normal' computer. Do the first part of windows install, stick said drive back in laptop.

I'm not a normal guy; I don't have a "normal" computer. If this is hopeless, just tell me and I'll stop bugging you guys.

I got rid of the HFS+ data fork on the hard drive, but the hard drive ended up in FAT32 (unusable to Windows 95). Now I'm trying to figure out how to get it back to FAT16...sigh

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Windows 98 will also do fat16(does win95 Rev B do fat32? anyway), just format it it again with the win98 disk. If your making it that far, why not just put win98 on there(if you have it). You would be better of with 98 anyway and it can still play games from win95 without any problems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You will have to attach the hard disk to another computer running dos.

Either do: format /s x:

or: sys x:

where x is the drive letter of the hard drive.

This will make the hard drive bootable.

In order to get the cdrom to work you will need to get a cd driver. oakcdrom.sys is a popular one that is easily obtainable.

You will need to add a line to config.sys like this:

DEVICE=x:oakcdrom.sys /D:MSCD1

Then get hold of MSCDEX.EXE and add a line to autoexec.bat like this:

MSCDEX /D:MSCD1

Reboot your computer and you should have a dos prompt with access to your cdrom drive.

You might also want to install himem if you don't want the windows install process to take an age.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You will have to attach the hard disk to another computer running dos.

Either do: format /s x:

or: sys x:

where x is the drive letter of the hard drive.

This will make the hard drive bootable.

In order to get the cdrom to work you will need to get a cd driver. oakcdrom.sys is a popular one that is easily obtainable.

You will need to add a line to config.sys like this:

DEVICE=x:oakcdrom.sys /D:MSCD1

Then get hold of MSCDEX.EXE and add a line to autoexec.bat like this:

MSCDEX /D:MSCD1

Reboot your computer and you should have a dos prompt with access to your cdrom drive.

You might also want to install himem if you don't want the windows install process to take an age.

This sounds like it could work. Thanks. What I'm running into is that the old laptop still isn't recognizing the hard drive. It's not even saying it can't boot from the drive.

I think the issue is that even after formatting the drive, it's still FAT32, and Windows 98 (the computer i'm using to format) doesn't have the /FS:FAT option like Win 2000 and xp so i can't tell it to format into FAT16.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

download the DOS 6.22 bootdisk image from the non windows based image file section of bootdisk.com: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Burn a bootable CD using that boot image file. You can use Magic ISO for this.

Attach the hard disk to your PC and boot from the cd you just burned.

Enter the following commands:

(assuming x is the drive letter of your hard disk)

format x: /s

copy autoexec.bat x:

copy config.sys x:

copy cd1.sys x:

copy himem.sys x:

Whack the disk back in the lappy and it should now boot into DOS 6.22 with the CD drive ready to use.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I got the old laptop hard drive back to FAT16 using fdisk, and I used "format /s x" to format it. I didn't change any of the system files on the hard drive just to see how the laptop would respond. I get an "invalid partition table" error message when I try to boot. I'm formatting this drive on a Win98, so I'm not sure why the Win95 doesn't like the partition table. How might I be able to fix this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You didn't create a extended partition did you?

I tried both a primary DOS partition and an extended partition. I also tried making a primary DOS partition of 500Mb in case a large partition was making something mess up. For both of the primary DOSs, I got the same "invalid partition table" error.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...