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seven
Senior Member
USA
1037 Posts |
 Posted - 24 October 2002 : 23:25:40
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I got this old PC from a friend for nothing (good reason for that). I want to use it for some minor around the house type things but it needs some help.
It's supposed to have Win95 on it, but it won't boot due to some corrupt files.
I tried using the 3.5 floppy restore disc to restore windows but the floppy is bad.
I made a MSdos boot disk on my other PC running XP and used that to try to get Win95 from the CD, of course it has to run scan disk first and keeps finding errors that it cant fix and won't let setup continue.
What's the best way to recover? It seems like their is a roadblock to everything I try.
I just want to be able to format the harddrive clean and reinstall Windows.
Maybe I should just scrap the whole mess and worry about things that really matter.
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laser
Advanced Member
Australia
3859 Posts |
Posted - 24 October 2002 : 23:30:24
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Can you throw the HDD in your machine & fix/re-format it
-OR-
create a DOS boot disk and fdisk it ib the machine. |
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Gremlin
General Help Moderator
New Zealand
7528 Posts |
Posted - 24 October 2002 : 23:51:04
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| If theres a lot of corruption on the disk you'd be best starting off formating it completely, enable the switch to check for and correct bad blocks also on the format command |
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Doug G
Support Moderator
USA
6493 Posts |
Posted - 25 October 2002 : 02:25:50
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Well, there is a point where free pc's cost way too much, and it sounds like this one is already at that point. Unless it's a P2 or higher system, I would not spend time messing with it, particularly if you're getting disk errors. If the drive is going south, and you reformat it and install windows anyway, you'll probably regret it within a short period of time when the drive messes up again, in the middle of that important file you don't have a backup of :)
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Doug G
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Computer history and help at www.dougscode.com |
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Gremlin
General Help Moderator
New Zealand
7528 Posts |
Posted - 25 October 2002 : 02:39:32
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| Would probably make a great Firewall box or something though, shove Linux on it for a play. |
Kiwihosting.Net - The Forum Hosting Specialists
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 25 October 2002 : 04:50:27
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Have you tried booting from the CD (forget floppies)? You may need to enter the PC's BIOS (probably something like holding F2 just as it's starting up - but differs between manufacturers and models) to set the boot sequence to 'CD then Hard Disk'. This will usually boot into the windows setup program where you'll be able to reformat your disk, then re-install windows.
This way you'll get a nice clean install, and a nice daisy-fresh PC to play with.
If the machine will cope, maybe you'd consider either Win98 2nd Edition (read not-broken edition) or better still windows 2000 Professional - I love win2k, and its not going to hassle you like XP does if you're just trying the software out for a while before you buy a full license (should be available second-hand from someone who's chosen to buy XP instead?)
hth |
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seven
Senior Member
USA
1037 Posts |
Posted - 25 October 2002 : 21:32:29
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It's not even worth the price of Windows to upgrade it, its a P200, 64MB RAM Gateway.
Even booting right to the CD and trying to format doesn't work
I can get into DOS with the floppy now, but the command "format c:" keeps coming up as an unknown command. None of the advanced DOS functions seem to work.
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Doug G
Support Moderator
USA
6493 Posts |
Posted - 25 October 2002 : 22:26:36
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Gremlin probably has the best idea, use it for linux.
You need to copy the DOS programs either on your DOS boot floppy or another floppy. I have a DOS 6.2 boot diskette that includes fdisk, format, chkdsk, msd & other DOS utilities needed to set up a disk. I have some customers who are still systems that live on DOS.
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Doug G
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Computer history and help at www.dougscode.com |
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seven
Senior Member
USA
1037 Posts |
Posted - 26 October 2002 : 16:42:33
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Where do you get the DOS disks from?
quote:
Originally posted by Doug G
Gremlin probably has the best idea, use it for linux.
You need to copy the DOS programs either on your DOS boot floppy or another floppy. I have a DOS 6.2 boot diskette that includes fdisk, format, chkdsk, msd & other DOS utilities needed to set up a disk. I have some customers who are still systems that live on DOS.
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Gremlin
General Help Moderator
New Zealand
7528 Posts |
Posted - 26 October 2002 : 19:23:29
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Normally you'd need to own a copy of DOS to have the diskettes (I still have 6.22 originals here somewhere)
Alternatively use windows 98 to create a startup disk and copy any extra commands you want over on to the disk. In windows the Dos commands can be found in c:\Windows\command |
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Doug G
Support Moderator
USA
6493 Posts |
Posted - 26 October 2002 : 20:34:30
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I still have a computer that boots to DOS6.22, built from the original DOS diskettes, which is what I use to make boot diskettes.
A W98 startup disk may be a better alternative since I think you can access FAT32 from the command line. When you boot a computer from a DOS diskette, and it's disk is FAT32, the disk is not accessible to DOS.
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Doug G
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Computer history and help at www.dougscode.com |
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seven
Senior Member
USA
1037 Posts |
Posted - 27 October 2002 : 14:17:54
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Update: I installed the HDD in another computer and attempted a format, appears the HDD is bad. Wouldn't let me complete the format after several attempts.
I am going to see if I can pick up a cheap replacement to salvage it, otherwise
its going in the trash. |
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sy
Average Member
United Kingdom
638 Posts |
Posted - 27 October 2002 : 16:34:12
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quote:
Originally posted by airilm
Update: I installed the HDD in another computer and attempted a format, appears the HDD is bad. Wouldn't let me complete the format after several attempts.
I am going to see if I can pick up a cheap replacement to salvage it, otherwise
its going in the trash.
It could perhaps still be used as a firewall or web server, booting from the CD?
Maybe you can get a linux distro and some kind of emulator like MAME to work, I remember some guy doing this to make an arcade cabinet and mp3 juke out of similiar kit, YMMV, could be a nice little project.
Sy |
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 28 October 2002 : 06:50:03
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| Or recycle the PC into a nice set of attractive jewelery for your beloved |
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Roland
Advanced Member
Netherlands
9335 Posts |
Posted - 28 October 2002 : 13:51:53
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Take out some vital parts, sell it to someone you don't like who has no idea about computers and then say (s)he broke it but you will fix it if you get paid 
j/k  |
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seven
Senior Member
USA
1037 Posts |
Posted - 28 October 2002 : 14:15:49
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like that kid who sold PC's on Ebay, told people they were 200mhz when they were really 75, he got away with it for awhile.
quote:
Originally posted by FrutZle
Take out some vital parts, sell it to someone you don't like who has no idea about computers and then say (s)he broke it but you will fix it if you get paid
j/k
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