reinstall windows95

[kirkpritchatt]

i need help with reinstalling windows with reboot disk as i cant seem to get it installed. tried r: and setup but says hpfs/ntfs need ms-dos boot partition. how do i do this can anyone help?

[Alfons]

Originally Posted by kirkpritchatt

i need help with reinstalling windows with reboot disk as i cant seem to get it installed. tried r: and setup but says hpfs/ntfs need ms-dos boot partition. how do i do this can anyone help?

What boot disk are you using for this?

Can you give us an overview of your computer's hardware configuration?

[kirkpritchatt]

Originally Posted by Alfons

What boot disk are you using for this?

Can you give us an overview of your computer's hardware configuration?

mesh pentium-s 133mhz. i am using startup disk which i got from bootdisk.com for win95a( mscdex version 2.25). i cant get it to install all it gives is a:\> tried setup.exe no luck, so tried to format using fdisk but say's no dos partition. any suggestion

[slipshod]

Go here and download Killdisk. Read the instructions to wipe your hard drive. What size is the hard drive your using?

[Alfons]

Originally Posted by kirkpritchatt

mesh pentium-s 133mhz. i am using startup disk which i got from bootdisk.com for win95a( mscdex version 2.25). i cant get it to install all it gives is a:\> tried setup.exe no luck, so tried to format using fdisk but say's no dos partition. any suggestion

A startup disk only starts the computer and prepares it for the Operating System Installation - it doesn't have Windows installation files on it, for that you will need the Installation CD or the group of Installation Floppies (about 18 give or take).

The a:\> is called the command prompt - this is how you communicate with DOS.

If you do have, or eventually get a W95 CD to install, you should use the Windows 98 startup disk because the W95 startup disk doesn't have CD-ROM drivers on it.

[GretaP]

I assume that this is the same computer for which you posted this topic. Taking that information combined with the error messages you're now receiving (i.e., "hpfs/ntfs need ms-dos boot partition", format "say's no dos partition"), it's definitely sounding like your hard drive may have gone south on you. If you boot from the startup disk and invoke FDISK at the A: prompt (assuming you don't have a Dynamic Drive Overlay installed, as you shouldn't use FDISK if this is the case), does it give you an error message that reads something like "No fixed disks present"?

[kirkpritchatt]

Originally Posted by GretaP

I assume that this is the same computer for which you posted this topic. Taking that information combined with the error messages you're now receiving (i.e., "hpfs/ntfs need ms-dos boot partition", format "say's no dos partition"), it's definitely sounding like your hard drive may have gone south on you. If you boot from the startup disk and invoke FDISK at the A: prompt (assuming you don't have a Dynamic Drive Overlay installed, as you shouldn't use FDISK if this is the case), does it give you an error message that reads something like "No fixed disks present"?

no it doesn't say that it say's cdrom found but i think it all started when i tried to install windows 2000 and turned off system. i also ran the killdisksetup but it say's dos can't run this

[Alfons]

Originally Posted by kirkpritchatt

no it doesn't say that it say's cdrom found but i think it all started when i tried to install windows 2000 and turned off system. i also ran the killdisksetup but it say's dos can't run this

What GretaP (and some of the rest of us) would like to know is this:

Does your BIOS recognize that you have a hard drive or not?

If the answer is no, then there's not much anyone can do.

If the answer is yes, then run FDISK and select menu item #4 and post exactly what it says (assuming it goes as far as the menu, if not then let us know exactly what happens when you try to run FDISK).

[dandielionous]

Originally Posted by kirkpritchatt

i need help with reinstalling windows with reboot disk as i cant seem to get it installed. tried r: and setup but says hpfs/ntfs need ms-dos boot partition. how do i do this can anyone help?

Sorry if I seem a little slow. I am trying to understand what a reboot disk is? Does that mean you're using a boot disk?

I see you downloaded a bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com that is a good place to start. If I remember correctly on that site you should be able to download a win95 boot disk with cd-rom support.

Do you have a full operating system cd for win95?

I see you have been told to run and have run killdisk. That will make your hard drive blank for all intents and purposes. Although what I really think it does it overwrite the data so it can't be recovered.

Why are you typing "r". What in the world does "r" have to do with anything?

You have lost your boot sector on your hard drive or you need more room for a boot sector assigned in your partitioning.

Now that you have run kill disk I would guess you have lost your boot sector.

A boot sector is a boot strap loader which a computer starts powering up and looks for all of it's parts to see what it has. For example in looking for a monitor it is like looking for it's head. It goes "head, head do I have a head? Ahhhh yes I found my head. It has a monitor." The process is completed with a keyboard, mouse, etc.

You computer is not able to do that.

When you first ran fdisk I don't know what you did with your partitioning.

You may have not allowed all the hard disk space for the primary partition. You may have tried to create more than one type of partition assigning too small of space for the primary making it so the boot sector had no room to function.

I think you are at another level now.

Now I think you have no boot sector because of the kill disk.

I would suggest going to this site: http://www.programmersheaven.com/zone16/cat911/ and downloading a boot manager.

Other than that maybe if you still have a boot sector go back into fdisk and remove all partitions primary, logical and extended then create on primary partition assign 100% of the hard disk to it and make it active.
Then quit fdisk.

I doubt at this point that would work for you.

After getting your boot sector going again. You need to fdisk as mentioned above.

Format you hard drive which I will call c: not knowing any different. Format it with a slash s. Example (format c:/s)

You do this from the a: prompt.

Then put your cd for your operating system in your cd rom and go to the drive designation for that which I will assume is d:.

At that prompt type in dir/p or dir/w to see if you have a .exe file called install or setup. Type in whichever is appropriate.

You should be okay from there.

To reiterate you need a full operating system on a cd.

dandielionous

P.S.

You need to download whatever bootdisk is appropriate for whatever operating system you're trying to install.

Why are you posting in win95 if you're trying to install win2k?

What are the specs on your computer? Name of computer? Pentium? Which Pentium if you have one? What os you have on cd???

P.S.S.
fdisk and format create the MBR (master boot record) and FAT (file allocation tables) reference this link. http://support.microsoft.com/default...NoWebContent=1

Run fdisk and assign all of the hard disk (100%) to the primary partition.