Re: Lock-in puzzle

It was common in the old days, to fdisk and format the HD with DOS (making
sure to format /S so it'll boot to DOS), then copy the WIN95 or WIN98 folder
on the CD to a folder on the HD (I usually named the folder WIN95CD.

If you have drivers you think you;ll need, copy them as well to folders on
the HD.

Boot the system to DOS on the HD, change to the folder containing the WIN95
files and run setup.exe from that folder.

This accomplishes two things.

1. Installation goes much faster than reading the files from the CD.
2. In the future if the system ever needs to access other files on the CD,
you don't need the CD, the files are right there on the HD. No more looking
for the damn CD.


<meow2222@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1182510634.486039.143550@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 22 Jun, 08:00, Franc Zabkar <fzab...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:14:20 -0700, meow2...@xxxxxxxxx put finger to
keyboard and composed:

Hi

I'm trying to get an old notebook pc running again. Its a low spec
machine, but is plenty for what little I'm going to do with it, which
is little more than text editing.

It has no floppy, the cdrom doesnt, no network socket, no usb and no
modem. So its a bit isolated from the outside world atm.

I can start win-dos in safe mode only, it cant boot up in normal win
mode (general protection fault). Win is messed and just needs a
reinstall, easy enough normally. Win setup files are on the machine.

BUT here comes the logic puzzle:
Win setup wont run from safe mode
Win normal wont boot
I cant get safe mode to reboot into dos
I cant use a floppy or cd to boot it

So it seems to be locked in, no way to get it to run setup. Any smart
ideas??

If all else fails I'll get an adaptor and get it going in a desktop.
However this is not a trouble free option, so would rather find an
easier way if it exists.

thanks, NT

Tap the F8 key during bootup. Then select the "command prompt only"
option from the boot menu.

- Franc Zabkar

Thanks for the suggestion. I wish though. It just boots to safe mode,
no menu ever appears. Its a faulty and heavily customised version of
95, without even the windows shell or memory manager.

Last night I was ready to bin it and get another. But this morning I
realised the solution: put hdd into a decent laptop, put whatever
software & drivers are needed on it, halfway install the OS then move
the hdd back to the dino for the hadware setup. Hopefully I'll soon
have a machine that can do text editing and upload the results online,
which is all its needed for.

Thanks for the suggestions!


NT

PS I'd not heard of usb via mouse port before, but I dont think 95a
supports usb.



.

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