can't reinstall windows 95

[sjstoner25]

I have an old 100 mhz laptop. I formatted the c:, and when I went to reinstall windows 95, the a: won't read my setup up disks' (have more than one). I've tried to get to c:, and d:, but it tells me invalid drive specification. The only drive I seem able to access is the a:. I feel as if I'm at my wits end. I have done this before in the past, and don't remember having so much problems with it. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

[Alfons]

Originally Posted by sjstoner25

I have an old 100 mhz laptop. I formatted the c:, and when I went to reinstall windows 95, the a: won't read my setup up disks' (have more than one). I've tried to get to c:, and d:, but it tells me invalid drive specification. The only drive I seem able to access is the a:. I feel as if I'm at my wits end. I have done this before in the past, and don't remember having so much problems with it. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

Hi sjstoner25, perhaps you could let us know:
1. What you used to prepare your hard drive?
2. Did you Partition only, or Partition & Format?
3. Does the BIOS recognize the HD on startup?
4. What are you using as a boot disk (floppy)?

[sjstoner25]

I formatted my hard drive from dos, not msdos, i couldn't get into windows, not even in safe mode. I typed c:\format. Yes the BIOS recognizes it. Since i've posted this i've been able to get to the c: prompt. I'm using the setup disk (floppy) for win95. I hope this is what you needed to know. I've done this before and never had problems, but this one's driving me nuts.

Thanks

[Topdog]

What you need to do is get to the A:\ drive. Just type A: When you get the A:>, insert your Setup disk into the floppy drive and type Setup .....If you have successfully formatted your C: drive, you will no longer have Windows, until you run Setup. I assume the floppies you have are the complete set for W95???

[Alfons]

Originally Posted by sjstoner25

I formatted my hard drive from dos, not msdos, i couldn't get into windows, not even in safe mode. I typed c:\format. Yes the BIOS recognizes it. Since i've posted this i've been able to get to the c: prompt. I'm using the setup disk (floppy) for win95. I hope this is what you needed to know. I've done this before and never had problems, but this one's driving me nuts.

Thanks

You're probably missing the CD-ROM driver. Try a W98Startup Disk. You can get the boot disk maker program for this from HERE - get the one called Windows 98SE OEM, save it to a folder where you'll find it easily, then go to the folder and double click on the downloaded file. This will cause it to run and will prompt you through the process of making the bootdisk. This boot disk will load the driver for the CD Drive and will tell you the drive letter for it, so use this and your problems might go away. Let us know.