Installing win95 on old computer with no CD-ROM 1

[realtree]

Ok. I've tried alot of things so far, here's my situation. I have an old computer (Rhino VL+ ,486DX) that used to have win95 on it. Now it has nothing. I need to install win95 again.

Things I've tried:
#1: connecting my CDRW combo drive as a slave. boot disk can't find it, BIOS won't detect it. I don't think the MB will take a CD drive at all.

#2: xcopy32 the contents of the CD to the D: drive using a newer computer, the C: drive is clean. Left out the DEMOS folder (assuming it's not necessary) because the system only recognizes disks smaller than 504 MB (or else I'd partition D: to it's 800MB+ limit), and the CD won't fit with it. When I run setup.exe, right after I click Yes to the EULA, it says "SUWIN caused a GPF in module SUWIN.EXE at 0008:15F2".

#3: Same as #2, but using a program I found called fakecd. Nothing different happened at all. I think all it did was SUBST the folder. setup did complain about SUBST possibly interfering.

If I could identify exactly why SUWIN.EXE is crashing that would be a good first step, because installing from a hard drive doesn't seem to be such a problem for others using laplink.

Is there a better way to do this, maybe install it from CD using the newer computer, and switching the drive at some point to finish the install? Maybe some way to allow the computer to recognize a bigger HD? I'm very sick of switching both drives and the floppy (it's the only floppy drive I have) every time I need to use the CD drive.

 

[electronicsfreak]

Try this as its kind of same way as your last writing. Put the hard drive in another computer, remove the current one and use it as default, install windows 95 as you would any os. When it finishes dont install any drivers for that system. Now put the drive back into the old system and boot up and install drivers. Give that a shot.

 

[edfair]

When you get it back into the original machine go to safe mode and get into regedit and delete HKLM enum folder. This will delete anything that snuck in. It will rebuild on the next boot.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[realtree]

could you be more specific as to what registry key to delete?

 

[wolluf]

Using the second hard drive should work (you only need the \win95 folder from the install CD). I take it the target drive is partitioned/formatted ready to take the install?

When I've seen a SUWIN error, there's usually some sort of hardware issue.

 

[mainegeek]

or...You could slave the hard drive to another PC. Create a directory ie: Win95.Copy the Win95 cd to the directory. Put the hard drive back into the original PC.Boot with a floppy to the C:\<prompt>

Type CD\Win95 to change to that directory and then type setup and it should install.

 

[edfair]

Hkey-Local machine-Enum folder. The folder will regen.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[realtree]

I got the cd install from the new computer to work. I thought I had the drives in the wrong order on the IDE ribbon, because when I brought the drive over to try the install, I found I had the wrong drive. I don't know for sure if this is the reason, but I think those older computers and/or OSes are really picky about the master's position on the cable. I don't know why, but right before win95 starts for the first time it says 'windows protection error' something to do with IOS. That was in the new computer, so I don't really care about that.

So I formatted the drive and put it in the old computer again, in the right order for sure, and as I was doing this I noticed that the 5 1/4" floppy was plugged in. I thought I would have left it unplugged since I tried to use my CDRW with that power plug. I left it and re-enabled it in the BIOS. I moved just the win95 folder from D to C. Now it works perfectly. I think the problem was having the big floppy installed and not having it enabled in BIOS, because right about where it crashed last time, the floppy drive blinked and farted.

Thanks wolluf. Now time to try Win98 Upgrade...

 

[edfair]

It isn't a matter of the OS being picky. Usually an indication of a ribbon cable for cable select being used with master/slave.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[xit]

Look around for a set of Win95 floppies, about 25 in all, I have an original set I use to install Win95 on my old computer without a cd drive.

xit