formatting my laptop - help needed please

[gem-stone24]

Hi

I have a toshiba spa40 which has windows xp installed on it. I'm trying to format the hard drive so i can put windows 95 on. The laptop isnt booting the disc at start up and and i cant enter the setup mode as i dont know which key to press.

Any help appreciated...

 

gem-stone24

[Armageddon]

Hi gemstone , just one question for now, why are you downgrading to windows 95 ?

[gem-stone24]

Hi

I'm downgrading to windows 95 to play the old games that i played when i used to have it, as they do not work on windws xp.

[KenB]

The laptop isnt booting the disc at start up

Win95 uses a start-up floppy ( from what I remember )

I may be confusing this with 98

Are you running this first?

[Bluesplayer.]

In addition to KenB's post

Assuming that Windows 95 will install - you will have the pre-installed Win 95 Video drivers etc.

The screen resolution will be minimal and there will be little chance of updating the drivers.

 

To access the Bios - to set it to boot from a floppy disk [Cd], hold down the Escape key as the Pc is starting up.

 

Win 95 will of course completely remove Win Xp.

[gem-stone24]

Hi

Thank you for all your replies.

So far I've brought the windows 95 cd (as i don't have a floppy drive on the laptop) and the drivers for the toshiba, i've found out how to get into the system setup and had a go at changing the boot priority to cd rom - lan - hdd - fdd but this did nothing. Is there something else I need to get or do in order for windows 95 to work as I'm really at a loss at what to do next and I'm not that technical minded.

Edited January 10, 2012 by gem-stone24

[Bluesplayer.]

In the Bios - use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the Cd rom to the top of the list.

Then Save all changes and Exit the Bios - in some Bios settings it is F10 on the keyboard.

Restart the Pc.

 

Make no other changes while in the Bios or the Pc may be unable to restart.

[gem-stone24]

hi

have tried putting cd rom first but still nothing but i've noticed that when the cd rom is first during the system startup the intel boot agent runs a check and comes up saying media test fail, check cable then it exits boot agent and starts up as normal on xp.

[Bluesplayer.]

The Win 95 Cd is not bootable - just re-read my old 95-98 notepads!

You will need a boot disk [floppy] to delete all partitions and then to FDISK the hard drive.

You then create a new primary partition and then reboot with the disk still in the drive and at the prompt type..

FORMAT C:

This will format the hard drive.

You then use the Win 95 Cd - to install Windows.

 

You will need to buy a USB floppy disk drive.

Bootdisk.Com

http://www.bootdisk.com/

Check suggestions here.

Installing Windows9x

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/win9x_install.htm

[gem-stone24]

Hi

Thanks so much for getting back to me regarding this, I have just purchased the items you said i needed, once I've recieved them and had a go with them I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks very much again.

Rebecca

[Bluesplayer.]

Hi Rebecca - I hope that all goes well.

I have never used Win 95 - I have used Win 98se and others here may need to jump in if they are have any Win 95 experience.

Keep us updated.

[RandyL]

95 and 98 are very similar. Finding the right drivers may prove impossible so expect a bad display.

 

There is no chance of getting Windows updates so don't ever go on the internet with it.

[gem-stone24]

Hi

Just about to have a look at the laptop but i'm not sure wether the 95 cd has to be in the same time as the floppy boot disc or if they need to be done seperately, does anyone know?

[RandyL]

Best to put the CD in. When the floppy disk prompts select "start computer with CD-ROM support"

 

When you get to the part where you type setup you need to remember that the CD disk will be one letter back from the actual letter. So if the CD drive is D you need to point to E to copy the setup files from the CD.

[gem-stone24]

Hi RandyL

Done what you said and put the cd-rom in along with the floppy disc. I also went into the BIOS and changed the boot priority to boot from the floppy, This was the only time I've actually got a response from the floppy disc but it said "I/0 error re-insert disc then press any key" I did this but the same message came up underneath so I did what it said again but the laptop just started up normally on xp. Is there something I'm not doing or could there a problem with the floppy disc?

[RandyL]

I/0 error re-insert disc

This I/O error suggests the drive can't read the disk

 

If the floppy disk is a bootable disk and instead it goes to the next bootable drive which would be the hard drive then either the disk is bad or the floppy drive is bad.

 

Try a regular floppy with data on it like a text file for instance. If it can't read that then the floppy drive is probably bad. You'll need a new one.

[gem-stone24]

Hi RandyL

 

I think it must be the floppy disk that is bad as I have used the floppy drive prior to this and it works well, thanks for getting back in touch and I will look out for a new floppy disc to replace the old one.

[gem-stone24]

Hi

Got a new floppy disc for the laptop and all was going well untill I got to the Windows 95 setup screen. I started the setup and when i got to the part where it says the next three steps i pressed next and then a error message came up saying "ERROR SU991009" i'm not sure what this means, what to do about it and whether i can still get windows 95 to work.

[RandyL]

I have no idea what that error means.

 

Did you FDISK and Format C: first? Are there any devices connected to the computer other then the mouse and keyboard?

[gem-stone24]

Hi RandyL

I think i formatted c: but i don't think i did the fdisk though, is there a certain order to this or could i fdisk it if it has already been formatted?

[Bluesplayer.]

You say you have a new floppy disk - does it contain the needed files to boot from?

You will need the floppy disk to contain the Cd-Rom drivers.

Download the boot disk files from here - if still available! and install them on the floppy disk.

Then follow the install suggestions.

 

http://cdromsupport.windowsreinstall.com/cdromwin95.htm

[Bluesplayer.]

This link has just been passed on to me.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;255867

 

The Fdisk is used to delete all partitions - you then create a new partition taking up all of the hard drive space.

Once that is done - remove the floppy disk - then use the Win 95 Cd to install Windows 95.

Let us know if all goes a Ok.

[gem-stone24]

Hi

 

I went into the Fdisk but accidently deleted the primary partition which messed the computer up so I could not boot the cd. We found some old MS-DOS floppy disks, so I re-loaded the Dos which thankfully put things back to normal. I booted the windows 95 cd and amazingly got windows 95 installed with no problem but when it goes to reboot in order to continue the setup it gets to the "starting windows for the first time" screen then it suddenly goes black with a meassage saying: "While Initializing Device IOS: Windows Protection Error. You need to restart your computer." I restart the computer and it goes into the setup menu with choices, I tried booting in safe mode and normal steup it gets to the classic windows 95 load screen but the error message appears again and i'm not sure what's wrong and how to fix it. This is the furthest i've got and i really don't want to give up.

[Bluesplayer.]

This used to apply to Win 98 - may work on Win 95.

Renaming the autoexec.bat and config.sys files.

Check here.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000359.htm

[gem-stone24]

Hi everyone

Sorry it's been a while to get back but I need some more help. Trying to install windows 95 ended up with window giving a windows protection error so I got a copy of windows 98 instead. That installed really well untill I found out that windows is missing a few things: Universal Serial Bus, PCI Card, PCI Multimedia Audio Device, PCI Ethernet Controller, PCI System Peripheral and PCI System Peripheral (not sure why that appears twice) When I go into the device manager they come up and yellow question mark. So far I have bought 2 disks with drivers on but the laptop says that no device drivers where found.

Any help appreciated.

gem-stone24