trying to install OS

[naijatexanstud]

A friend donated her old computer to me and she formatted the hard drive according to someone else's instructions. I'm still not sure what she did, and I don't think she does, either. I'd like to install Win 95 or Win ME on it (it's really old), but right now when I try to boot it I don't even reach a prompt. After the first screen or two, it just takes me to a flashing underscore character (not a prompt and not a flashing cursor). I tried sticking a boot disk in the floppy drive, but it just said there was a disk IO error (not the typical message you get when you leave a non-boot floppy in the drive during reboot), and in the BIOS it's set to boot from the CD first, but nothing happens whenever my old Win95 or WinME CDs are in there. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[TheMajor]

Is it set to boot from floppy?

 

[naijatexanstud]

Yes - after CD and before hard drive (and remember--if a disk is in the floppy drive, it gives me the disk IO error, so it knows something is in there).

 

[Mordrec]

Can you verify that the boot disk that you used that gave you the I/O error is working properly in a different PC. My PC gives the same disk I/O error when it has a non-bootable floppy in the drive.
Your windows 95 I believe is not a bootable CD (unless you made your own) Your Windows Me CD should be bootable and should work as long as its just a regular store bought Windows Me disc and not a disc from a prefab system like an HP, or Compaq.
I would mailny double check that Boot disk and make sure its working properly in a different PC. You probably checked this to, but just to make sure that the BIOS is detecting the CD-ROM at boot up.
Also have you made sure that your windows disks are reading properly. I know I have on more than one occasion fallen prey to a scratched up disk (Usually do to my tendancy to use them as Ninja stars, hehe)
Oh well I hope any of this helps

 

[naijatexanstud]

I'll try all this when I get home.

One question: that WinME boot disk was one I had made a long time ago. I do have a computer with Win ME on it, so I should be able to just go and make a new one that should work from within Windows ME, right? However, it will then need the CD, right? Well, the CD is an upgrade CD, so...do I just need to try to make a boot floppy disk for my Win 95 CD? Can you even do that if you don't have Win 95 actually installed on any machines?

Am I just making this too difficult? E.g. should I just try to make a new Win ME boot disk and go from there...

 

[derrmc]

A friend donated her old computer to me and she formatted the hard drive according to someone else's instructions. I'm still not sure what she did, and I don't think she does, either. I'd like to install Win 95 or Win ME on it (it's really old), but right now when I try to boot it I don't even reach a prompt. After the first screen or two, it just takes me to a flashing underscore character (not a prompt and not a flashing cursor). I tried sticking a boot disk in the floppy drive, but it just said there was a disk IO error (not the typical message you get when you leave a non-boot floppy in the drive during reboot), and in the BIOS it's set to boot from the CD first, but nothing happens whenever my old Win95 or WinME CDs are in there. Any ideas on how to fix this?

You have your other pc so make sure what your using, works in it first. yes, looks like you need to boot to a me floppy or 98, same thing, run fdisk. I would stay away from 95 because of to many issues to deal with when you want to put other things on it. also without a boot disk or cd, did you give the pc plenty of time? older pc's can take a lot of time to give you the bios errors.

 

[Jorsoft]

Your best bet may be to get a dos bootdisk with CD Rom drivers. Try searching for a DOS 7.0 disk. It's legal to download since you own a copy of Win95. Once you boot and load the cd rom drivers (it'll be automatic), then try installing 95 from the CD using the dos prompt. You'll probably want to format the HD, however, just to make sure it's done right.

 

[wead]

Check the bios. If anything reset it via the switch on the motherboard. Usually you just put it one way for a couple secs then back.