To Create a Boot Disk that allows you to access your CD-ROM so that you can Fdisk (Partition) and Format your Hard Drive then Install Windows 95.
FIRST A VERY SPECIAL NOTE:
Before you Partition and Format your hard drive and do a
clean installation of Windows. Make sure that you have all the drivers for things such as: Modem, Printer,
Video Card, and Sound Card handy because it's more than possible that the version
of Windows that you are installing, won't have the correct drivers for those items and will ask for an
installation disk or CD
for those things.
Here is what you must do:
First back up any files that you want to keep regardless of whether or not you are
planning on formatting the drive and starting clean. Files to keep may include word processing documents, address books, email, bookmarks,
favorites, financial records, lottery numbers, custom cursors or icons and so on.
Next you must create a bootable disk by launching Windows Explorer, scroll
up and right clicking on your A: Drive Icon and
from the drop down menu select: Format. When the Format Window appears make sure that there is dot in the radio circle to the left of the word: Full, and lower
down that there is a check mark in the box to the left of the words: Copy system
files.
SPECIAL NOTE: If your current copy of Win 95 is an UPGRADE copy and if you don't have the WIN 3.x disk 1; put a file (any file) on a floppy
and name the file WIN.CN_ and use it when asked for disk 1. You can create the file using Notepad and save it to the boot floppy with the
name: WIN.CN_
Once you have a bootable disk you must place some files on the disk.
A CONFIG.SYS file such as the one below:
DEVICE=A:\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=A:\EMM386.EXE RAM
FILES=10
BUFFERS=10
DOS=HIGH,UMB
STACKS=9,256
DEVICEHIGH=A:\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001 <<<OR
YOUR CD-ROM DRIVER>>>
LASTDRIVE=Z
You also must have an AUTOEXEC.BAT file with the following:
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
LH A:\MSCDEX.EXE /S /D:MSCD001
You can create the autoexec.bat and config.sys files by opening a Windows
Notepad and copying and pasting the lines that I have written above, then saving them to your FLOPPY drive as Autoexec.bat then copy and
save the Config.sys file. Remember you will have to copy your CD-ROM's driver to the boot disk and you will have to EDIT the
Config.sys file to reflect your Driver and not the one that I have
listed.
You Must also Copy these files to the boot disk:
OAKCDROM.SYS <<<OR YOUR
CD-ROM DRIVER>>>
HIMEM.SYS
EMM386.EXE
MSCDEX.EXE
EDIT.COM
FDISK.EXE
FORMAT.COM
Most of the files that are listed above can be found in your
C:\>Windows\Command and or
C:\>Windows folder.
Your CD-ROM driver should be on the installation disk that came with it!
If you can't locate your CD-ROM driver, you can download the
generic one below:
After you create the boot disk, try booting with it to see if you have access to your CD-ROM.
To check access to your CD-ROM place your Win 95 CD in your CD player and at the A:\> prompt type: D: [Enter]
If you get a D:\> prompt, type: Dir/W [Enter] Example: D:\>Dir/W [Enter]
If doing that causes the contents of the CD to be
displayed on your screen, then you do have CD access and can change back to your
A:\> drive by
typing: A: [Enter]
First you must Fdisk (Partition) your hard drive before you can
Format the
drive..
(Additional
- Notes on Fdisk & Format
)
FDISK
To partition the drive:
Leave the boot disk you created and tested above in your A:
drive as it contains FDISK.EXE.
At the A:\> prompt type: Fdisk
[Enter]
Example: A:\>Fdisk [Enter]
HOT NOTE: If your FDISK.EXE
is from Win 95 B or later
one of the first things that happens is you are asked if you want to Enable Large Disk Support. If
your Hard Drive is over 2 Gig in Size and you only want one large Partition to be
created using FAT32: Answer Yes!
Note. If you have two or more drives in your system, the menu displays five options. Option five allows you to select the drive you want to
partition. Make sure you select the correct drive.
Select create DOS partition or logical Dos drive. Press ENTER.
Select create primary DOS partition. Use the maximum available size for your primary partition and make the partition active for Drive C.
This puts the entire drive on one partition and allows you to load the DOS boot information on the drive. Press ENTER for each subsequent
selection.
After all of the appropriate selections are made, the computer restarts itself.
LEAVE the Boot Disk in the A: drive and wait for it
to reboot then perform a format.
FORMAT
High-level formatting
High-level formatting verifies the information written by the low-level format and builds the file allocation table (FAT) used by DOS to access files on the drive. If you put more than one partition on the drive, you must high-level format each partition.
Use the DOS FORMAT utility to high-level format the drive as follows:
Type the following command at the A:\> prompt: format drive:
/V/S
Example: A:\>Format C: /V /S [Enter] drive: designates the drive you are formatting. If you are formatting the boot drive or If your system contains only one drive, type C: To format a second drive, type D:
/V tells the computer to create a volume label for the partition
after it is formatted.
Labeling can prevent someone from accidentally deleting the partition and losing your data.
/S tells the computer to copy the necessary system files to the
drive to make it bootable.
When the computer prompts you for a volume label, you can assign a name to the drive volume, of up to eleven characters or leave blank. Press [ENTER]
After Fdisking
and Formatting
your drive, you will need to copy
all the files to the Root Directory of the Hard Drive.
[Example] A:\>copy *.*
C:\*.* [Enter]
After the files have been copied; change to your C:\ drive.
[Example] type C: [Enter]
Next using EDIT go into the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys
files
on the C: Drive and change the Paths to reflect
C:\ instead of A:\
To do that type: Edit Autoexec.bat [Enter]
when the Edit window appears change the following lines:
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
LH A:\MOUSE
LH A:\MSCDEX.EXE /S /D:MSCD001
To Read:
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
LH C:\MOUSE
LH C:\MSCDEX.EXE /S /D:MSCD001
After doing that; on the menu click: File and from the menu
select: Save, Next click: File then Exit.
Back at the C:\> prompt type: Edit Config.sys [Enter]
and when the window appears change the following lines:
DEVICE=A:\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=A:\EMM386.EXE RAM
FILES=10
BUFFERS=10
DOS=HIGH,UMB
STACKS=9,256
DEVICEHIGH=A:\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001 <<<OR YOUR CD-ROM
DRIVER>>>
LASTDRIVE=Z
To Read:
DEVICE=C:\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\EMM386.EXE RAM
FILES=10
BUFFERS=10
DOS=HIGH,UMB
STACKS=9,256
DEVICEHIGH=C:\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001 <<<OR YOUR CD-ROM
DRIVER>>>
LASTDRIVE=Z
After you have changed the lines, click File, and from
the menu select: Save. Next click File then Exit.
NOTE: You have to change the paths because before Win 95 is finished
installing itself it will reboot, and if the all the files on the
floppy are not on your hard drive; it won't finish installing.
After editing the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys
files; remove the floppy and reboot your computer. At the C:\> prompt change to
your CD-ROM drive by typing D: [Enter]
PS: If you have more than one hard drive your CD-ROM letter will be the drive letter following the letters of the
hard drives. For Example if you have two hard drives, your CD-ROM drive letter would be E: and so on and so on!
When you get to the D:\> prompt type: Setup
[Enter] Example:
D:\>Setup [Enter] and the Windows 95 installation routine should start.
eric.groves (at) verizon.net