win 95 boot issue

[Hombner]

i just installed win 95 on a gateway solo 2500 and when it restarts i get the message that "this version of windows runs only on ms dos 8.00" and it then gives the c prompt. what should i do to resolve this issue

 

[SkipCox]

Windows Me uses DOS 8.00. Did you perhaps install Win95 on top of an existing Me install? It sounds like Me is trying to start under DOS 7.x.

Skip

http://home.comcast.net/~scox9/index.html

 

[Hombner]

yes i did install 95 over me, so what should i do now?

 

[SkipCox]

Answer one more question for me...do you have info on that hard drive you need to save?

If not, you can format the drive and install Win95. Boot disks can be found at (read the instructions) and additional help making a disk to boot and get your cd-rom working at:

http://www.netpathway.com/~kramer/reinstall.html

If you need to save data and wipe all traces of Me, we can do that too.

Skip

Skip

http://home.comcast.net/~scox9/index.html

 

[Hombner]

when i try to go to reformat the c drive i get the message

"cannot recover allocation unit"


not ready

format terminated

 

[SkipCox]

Try an unconditional format:

format c: /u





Skip

http://home.comcast.net/~scox9/index.html

 

[Hombner]

i did and i got the same message after it terminates

"not ready"
"format terminated"

,but before it says so it tells me "trying to recover allocation unit 255,233

 

[TekTippy4U]

Run Fdisk and delete the partitions and create new......
delete partitions in this order;
1.Non Dos (if you have one Stop, and don't delete, Post back)
2.Logical Dos Drives
3.Extended Dos
4.Primary

Create Primary, set it active, reboot....Format
(Hopefully Scandisk will have run before format..post back)

TT4U

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs..All involved shall be spared the grief.

 

[Hombner]

still doesnt format

 

[TekTippy4U]

Did you run Scandisk and choose YES to do a surface scanso it'll do a surface scan and hopefully mark the bad sectors as bad?
boot from floppy startup disc and run it

Did "verifying drive integrity" follow thru with fdisk?

last resort;
Use a boot floppy to get to A: then switch to C: and type Fdisk /mbr

or
Only one thing left to do...Open it up and find the drive manu. and model#, and Go to the HDD manu. site and d/l the drive checking utility(LLF)
here's gateway's vendor links,

http://support.gateway.com/support/vendor/index.shtml

Is that solo thing a laptop?


TT4U

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs..All involved shall be spared the grief.

 

[Hombner]

yea its a laptop. now when i go to run scandisk it says that c drive cannot be found and that my cd drivers cant be found either. how can can i just get rid of everything and ten start from scratch

 

[TekTippy4U]

Do u have a Startup floppy? and/or OEM 95 CD?

TT4U

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs..All involved shall be spared the grief.

 

[Hombner]

i only have the 95 oem cd but i cant install that because the comp cant identify the c drive

 

[SkipCox]

You gotta follow techtippy's lead here. He ask you earlier to identify all partitions and stop any fdisk activity if you found a non dos partition. He wants the info that is still likely on your c drive to remain there until we rosolve this problem. I lost a bios chip last night on my machine and will be changing a motherboard until I can either get a basic reflashed or borrow another to start from and do a hotswap to flash my original. I will be up and running again without loss of data because of forums like this. Ya gotta listen and try good advice especially, when you are cautioned not to go too far.

Take a deep breath, ask more ?'s and do more research. If you do anything rash, you may make the repair beyond the scope or this, or any other forum.

End of rant...

Regards,



Skip

http://home.comcast.net/~scox9/index.html

 

[TekTippy4U]

Alrighty then;

Try to change the Boot order in BIOS to "CD ROM" as first boot device...Put in the OEM CD and reboot...hopefully you'll end up at an A:\ prompt (My 98 OEM does this)or even C:\ or D:\....if so, type
Fdisk /status
If it boots, try also to switch drive letters, (from A:\ to C:\.....from C:\ to D:\, etc)
post back with info

You'll need to boot from CD --or-- floppy to run Scandisk...
with a startup floppy definitely, and possibly with 95 OEM CD, you should be able to utilize the tools

If no go
Go to another PC and create Startup floppy in Control Panel>Add\Remove Programs>Startup Disc Tab...

or download one from here

http://www.bootdisk.com

read the READ1st file (print if possible)
Use a Brand New floppy to copy the contents of the D/loaded file to, after you've d/l to anywhere convenient on other PC
and opened it.

About how old is laptop????? (important to boot from CD)
Is the OEM CD 95A, 95B(OSR2), 95C..?????

I understand how frustrating this can be,...the more details in answers to quest's the better

TT4U

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs..All involved shall be spared the grief.

 

[Stealer]

when i try to go to reformat the c drive i get the message

"cannot recover allocation unit"

This almost always means that the hard drive has bad sectors and should not be used.

 

[TekTippy4U]

Not for one cluster...the manu. LLF utility will mark the bad sectors appropriately and won't use them (is that you hombner, under new name?)

TT4U

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs..All involved shall be spared the grief.

 

[TekTippy4U]

Correction to myself;
The manu. LLF will mark the areas on disk that were bad at the time of manu. (every new HDD has some bad sectors), and when it's LLF-ed, these sectors are marked unreadable and the (High-level) Format command avoids allocating these areas as usable.....

It is very possible for the HDD to become completely unusable and should be tossed, or used as a door stop...

(the Format command determines too many bad sectors) and
the LLF utility should help determine this also, along with other drive checking utilities, either from manu. of HDD or third-party,.......however the LLF "must" be done with free manu. utility (unless ofcourse you've got big bucks to spend on a Universal Third party LLF program, which contains most major manu. codes)

Another consideration is if the disc is to be used for critical data apps

TT4U

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs..All involved shall be spared the grief.