Other Errors

[AnonymousOne]

Ok I did what you said and it went to the a:\> prompt and when I type in sys c: it said invalid drive specification. I then tried to put in other letters like B: then E: but all they said was bad command. I type in B: and it said insert diskette for drive B: and press any key to enter, does that mean that I have to have two disks instead of one? If not how do I find out which drive is got the windows 95 program on it? any more suggestions thanx.

[mattpg1]

Windows 95 should be installed in the C: drive.

If no one else has a better idea, I think you should wipe the hard drive clean, install Windows 95 from scratch and hope your computer isn't physically broken.

First, what do you have as far as disks to reinstall Windows 95 from? Do you have a license or product ID?

[AnonymousOne]

I don't have any of the cd's or product keys, when I looked inside the computer the hard drive is the same size as a cd rom. It's very old but it has windows on it already but when I type in C: it says invalid drive specification. It did say Starting Windows so it's a start. I just need to find out where windows 95 is.

[AnonymousOne]

I don't have any of the cd's or product keys, when I looked inside the computer the hard drive is the same size as a cd rom. It's very old but it has windows on it already but when I type in C: it says invalid drive specification. It did say Starting Windows so it's a start. I just need to find out where windows 95 is.

[Idnew]

Did you try to see if it would boot in safe mode? Tap the F8 key continuosly while booting and see if it will go into safe mode.

[AnonymousOne]

It won't allow me to go beyond the the a:\> prompt. Everytime I try to put C: in it says error. I hope that the winows program is still there. But when I put the boot disk in it says starting windows 95 and then it goes to the A:\> prompt, and it won't let me do anything after that.

[mattpg1]

I hate to say it, but without a copy of Windows 95 to reinstall or repair from I think you're stuck.

Sorry.

[Murf]

When you boot with a floppy disk (Windows boot disk) it does not start windows, it only allows you to access the computer by taking you to the A:/> prompt.

At the A:\ prompt when you type sys c: (hit <enter>), you are telling the computer to transfer the system files from the boot floppy to the hard drive. The error you are getting "invalid drive specification", means the computer does not see the hard drive.

Drive letter "B" is a FLOPPY drive

Reboot the computer and as soon as the first screen comes up, start tapping the DELETE key to enter SETUP (or look at the screen and it will tell you what key to use to enter setup)

Once in setup, using the arrow keys, enter, esc keys (probably no mouse in there), see if you can find a setting or menu item that says something like:

AutoDetect IDE Drives, if you find it, highlight the entry and hit enter. If it finds your hard drive it will tell you. Then SAVE and EXIT and it should boot.

If it does not find the hard drive then you could have something physically wrong with the hard drive, or the ribbon cable (IDE Cable) could be bad.

[mattpg1]

Thanks Murf.