installing win 95 on clean laptop

[er nurse]

I bought a laptop on Ebay. It was clean but had been formatted and fdisked. It previously ran Win 95. I first tried to install driver for IO Magic external CD rom but of course it was a windows application and the computer wouldn't read...so I found a download of the DOS version of the driver for IO Magic...still no luck...the computer froze up during installation. Then I decided to attempt to load Windows 95 on floppy disks. I found a site and downloaded all 13 disks. I am now getting an error message that reads program can not run in DOS. I really don't know what to do next...if anyone does I would appreciate the help. Thanks,

[jtdoom]

Hi and welcome...

because of their nature, you will not be told how to work with the downloaded 95 "diskettes".

we can only help you try figure out how to enable CDROM support on this machine so you can load from legal media.

to do that, we need more info on the machine you bought.
brand, model, and model of external CDROM drive (and how it is connected)

etc...

[er nurse]

Thanks for answering. Okay, the Cd rom is an io magic. The laptop is a Dell Latitude XPI p133. I do have the legal wind95 cd that I bought years ago...I don't know how much more info you need but I really appreciate the help...The computer has 40 megs of ram and a 1.5 gig hard drive...
Penny

[jtdoom]

well, you have another machine you are currently using.
and you have internet access...
I am assuming you have these assets at home...

we have to properly install the cdrom drivers to that laptop, and get you going with legit software..

and you ought to be able to do this, if it ain't broke...

was there any CD or floppies supplied with the laptop?

[jtdoom]

found only two external models, and they are CD/CDRw external USB devices...
is that correct?
USB??
both are NOT supported in DOS

http://techsupport.iomagic.com/support/cdrws/magicwriter4x4x6/drivers.htm

http://techsupport.iomagic.com/support/cdrws/external40x12x48/drivers.htm

[jtdoom]

if the drive IS USB, ther still is a way...
if you have a cable to connect the laptop to the desktop or tower, you can laplink them using direct cable and DOS...

the files you need are in that windows 95 CD
a laplink cable is easily found.
slow, but it works.

[jtdoom]

Oh, and you are apparently advised to NOT upgrade it to 98 or beyond.

http://www.bugnet.com/analysis/reports/win98_2.html

looks like you bought a stinker?

[er nurse]

I think that this is way beyond my scope of knowledge about computers. I am going to give in and bring to a computer shop tomorrow. I appreciate all of the help and I will post anything that I learn from the technician....may help others in the future. I hope its not a stinker...but I will find out soon...
Penny

[jtdoom]

I am surprised you gave up.

there is a simple way, IF you have (or know someone that has) the gizmo for it.

I am talking about an IDE to IDE connection converter to fit a laptop hard disk to a desktop IDE ribbon...
copy the win95 folder and the drivers for that laptop, and put it back.

the laplink solution is also fairly simple (I once tried it for the heck of it) and it cannot handle long filenames.
(so you do make sure you can copy the drivers by putting them in folder with DOS 8.3 conventional names.)

the files you need are interlnk.exe and intersvr.exe
They can be found on a win 95 CD

explanations
http://www.micra.com.au/Using_null_modem_msdos.htm
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/5704/inter1.html
http://www.microcozm.com/interlnk.htm


The Interlink program is run on the client machine to allow it to use the servers disk drives.
To use the Interlink program add the following lines to the CONFIG.SYS file on the client computer:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\INTERLNK.EXE /AUTO

LASTDRIVE=Z

Then re-boot your computer.

The Interlnk program will then scan the available COM and Printer ports looking for a connection to an active INTERSRV server.

There are a number of command line options for the Interlnk program, check your MS-Dos manual for more details.

Note: The server must already be running the Intersrv program for the Interlnk program to work.

Once the connection has been made the server’s drives appear as additional drives on the client machine.
(the server would be the desktop running intersvr.exe, with the files you need to copy on its hard disk)

[er nurse]

Thanks for the information...that is probably what the tech did. I am better with the internal human that is in need of repair than with the mechanics of a computer, but I printed the information that you so kindly took the time to post so that I will have it for future reference. Have a good day!
Penny