Boot Disk

[confuzeled]

I am trying to reformat my windows 95 computer. It is a packard bell, and when I got to the boot disk (which I got from bootdisk.com) it goes through it, then it ends on A:\> what do I do?

[enat66]

Does this tutorial help:
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/tutorials/tutorial.php?id=37


(directions may vary a little bit because you have windows 95) Make sure that you have the Windows Cd- Key before partitioning/reformatting

[confuzeled]

Unfortunately I don't think it helps, after I put in the boot disk, and restarted my computer, the following comes up

CD-ROM Device Driver for IDE (Four Channels Supported)
(C)Copyright Oak Technology Inc. 1993-1996
Driver Version: V340
Device Name: BANNANA
Transfer Mode: Programmed I/O
Drive 0: Port=170 (Secondary Channel), Master IRQ=15
Firmware version : VER-

MSCDEX Version 2.25
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1986-1995. All rights reserved.
Drive R: = Driver BANANNA unit 0

A:\>

____________________
AND THAT IS WHERE IT STOPS

[GretaP]

Hi confuzeled,
What you see there when you boot from the startup disk is looking good, actually. It has loaded a generic CDROM driver, so you can have access to your CDROM in DOS in order to install WIN95 after you format the drive(or are you attempting to install a different operating system after the format??). It boots to an A:\> prompt because you have booted from a bootable floppy disk, and the floppy drive is drive letter A. The prompt is now waiting for you to key in commands as to what you are wanting to do. What you're probably wanting to do is format drive C, so at the A:\> prompt, you'd key in:
format C:
<ENTER>

I hope that you realize that formatting the drive will destroy all the data that is currently on the drive, and have backed up any files that you would be loathe to lose.

[confuzeled]

Thanks I'll try it, and I know it will or has delted everything, and I have got it backed up. The computer I am working on was unable to use anyway, so I figured I'd try it. Thanks again!

[GretaP]

You're welcome. Let us know whether you need further assistance with this.

[confuzeled]

ok i did that now it says Colume Serial Number.............

A:\>


what needs to be done now? Thank you in advance

[GretaP]

Since you've now gotten the drive formatted, you need to boot with the startup disk, choose to start WITH CDROM SUPPORT (unless you have a startup disk that automatically loads with CDROM support, which I'm suspecting you have), put the Windows install CD in the CDROM drive and, at the A: prompt, key in:
setup
and hit ENTER

Setup should run from the A: prompt. If it doesn't, then switch to the drive letter for your CDROM (if you're using the same bootdisk where you see "Drive R: = Driver BANANNA unit 0", then the drive letter for your CDROM is Drive R for this session). You switch to the CDROM drive letter by keying it in at the A: prompt and hitting enter:
R: <ENTER>
When it's at the R:\> prompt, key in setup and hit ENTER.

Let me know how you're faring with this!