I re-formatted my computer and wanted now to re-install
Win 95. Unfortunately, I do have all Win CD's but lost my
book disk. So, I have got one from a friend. I tried to
re-boot but I always get the message that the file
command.com is missing or corrupt. there is an advice how
this can be solved, but I can not switch to c:, can
someone help?
Bill Starbuck - 08 Jul 2004 22:55 GMT
I'm unsure what you did and what might be wrong, so I'll tell you what
you SHOULD have done, and you can compare what I say with what you
did.
The basic scheme is --
Run FDisk
Run Format with the /s option
Set up drive C: so that DOS can access a CD-ROM
Install Windows
To run FDisk and Format, you need a bootable floppy disk in the right
version of DOS and that contains the programs FDisk and
Format.
Download a "Windows Startup Disk" for Win95. You can obtain a Windows
Startup Disk at:
http://www.bootdisk.com/
Put the floppy in drive A: and turn on the computer. You should get a
DOS prompt. Run the FDisk program.
Restart the system with the floppy still in drive A: and run Format,
using the command:
format c: /s
This will format drive C: and put the Windows system files on it.
Restart the system, this time with no floppy disk in drive A:. The
system should boot from drive C:.
You will not be able to access the CD-ROM at this point because Win95
does not allow for that. Thus, you will have to add CD-ROM
capability. Here is how to add your CD-ROM driver to the boot disk.
The boot disk might be drive C: or it might be a Windows Startup Disk
that you can insert into drive A:.
The CD-ROM driver will normally have a name with the letters CD in it
and it will have the extension .SYS. One way to get a CD-ROM driver is
to run the installation program that came with the CD-ROM. Also, you
can usually get a driver from the web site of the company that made
the CD-ROM. Or you can search your C: drive for *CD*.SYS.
Using Notepad or any word processor, make a text file, name it
CONFIG.SYS and add it to the boot disk. This file should look like
this, but with the name of your CD-ROM driver in place of
CDDRIVER.SYS:
DEVICE=CDDRIVER.SYS /D:MSCD000
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
Add a copy of MSCDEX.EXE to the boot disk. You can get MSCDEX from the
folder C:\Windows/Command.
Using Notepad or any word processor, make a text file, name it
AUTOEXEC.BAT and add it to the bootdisk. It should look like this:
MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000
Now you should be able to access the Windows CD-ROM. Execute the
program setup.exe that is on the CD-ROM.
Bill Starbuck (MVP)
Bill Starbuck (MVP)