I have recently decided to revive an old pc of mine to run using windows 95 (First 
Version). The windows 95 setup cd (Genuine) didn't install a version of msdos that 
i could reboot to, so i re-installed the pc with MSDos 6.22 and then installed Windows 
95. Windows works fine, but i can't reboot to MSDos, Windows just shuts down. Do 
i need to install an earlier version of MSDos to get it to work? (I have all versions 
of MSDos V1.0 - V6.22) Or, is it because my pc is too fast? 

PC Specs:

ECS Mainboard, 1Ghz AMD Duron processor, 512mb RAM, 10GB HDD 7200rpm (Formatted in 
FAT16 (2GB recognised)), Creative Labs 5.1 Digital Soundcard (95 - XP Compatible) 
and nVidia Geforce 4 MX 400 video card with 64 mb of RAM.

Any ideas?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi Graham:

You shouldn't NEED to install ANY version of DOS
before you install your Win95-A (although I
usually do, even when I'm installing Win2K).

When you say you "can't reboot to DOS", do you
mean using the Windows shut-down option of
"Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode"?

Or, are you trying to start-up from "power on"
directly into DOS (without going to Windows at
all)?

Jerry

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi Jerry,

Hope this makes sense :o)

Thanks for replying. I agree that i shouldn't need to install DOS at all when installing 
Windows 95a, but for some reason there is no DOS operating system outside of of Windows 
once it is installed. After re-formatting the HDD, i installed MSDOS 6.22 and then 
installed Windows 95a again, in the hope that i'd be able to access DOS when i restarted 
the computer in MSDOS mode (From the shut down menu in Windows). Unfortunately, all 
Windows does now is shut down completely, obviously as normal when i ask it to shut 
down, but also shuts down in restart in MSDOS mode.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi Graham:

Try this.  After turning the power on, start
tapping the F8 key about once every second until a
white-on-black menu appears.

One of the options will be "Command Prompt Only."

Select it with the number that appears in front of
it and press ENTER.

What happens?

Another question comes to mind.  This Win95-A
install disk CD -- is it an "upgrade" disk or a
"full install" disk?

Jerry

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi Jerry,

Tried F8 and it does bring up a C:\ prompt after displaying:

MODE prepare code page function completed

MODE select code page function completed.

The cd is a OEM full installation disc (EX business). It had sprang to mind that 
it maybe a "Doctored" version for use with business systems only. Could that be a 
reason for it to install differently?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi Graham:

Let's snoop around a little.

Boot up to DOS using the F8 key again.

Put a blank floppy disk in the floppy drive,
then from the
C:\>
prompt, type
COPY autoexec.bat A:\
and press ENTER.

Then
COPY config.sys A:\
and press ENTER.

Then type
ATTRIB -r -a -s -h msdos.sys
and press ENTER.

Then
COPY msdos.sys A:\
and press ENTER.

Then, paste the contents of each file here.
They're all text files, and can be opened with
NOTEPAD, or your favorite text editor.

Note:  MSDOS.SYS may have a big section of "Xs" --
we don't need that part -- just the stuff at the
top of the file.

Jerry

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

It might, if it is set-up for a "push install". Try re-formatting and installing 
DOS. Copy the 95 setup files (in DOS) from CD to a temp folder on C. Delete MSBATCH.INF 
from that folder and run setup from there.

NOTE: If you did not enter your product key during the last install, look through 
the MSBATCH.INF file for it before re-formatting.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I was going thru start-up from the system. When it asked me to turn off computer & bring up again the display said "no operating system". I can not get a prompt to "start-up! I do not have a start-up floppy. How to I get to a prompt to start over? I have windows 95 cd & the update to it.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

"I was going thru start-up from the system,"

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but if you're
trying to re-install your Windows 95 to a blank
hard drive, you're going to need a Win95 floppy
bootdisk, because the Win95 CDs weren't bootable,
even if your BIOS allows your computer to use the
CDROM drive as a boot drive.

Instructions for making a floppy bootdisk are
here:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win95/r1065769891

For step-by-step directions for re-installing
Windows, check out these sites:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win95/1081485181

Jerry

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