Win95, 40 Gig drive. Can I boot from floppy and read HD?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

Hi,
I'm not sure of the details, but I installed a new WD 40 Gig HD on
this Win95b system and used a utility that came with the HD that
enables the full use of the HD. It seems that in order to read the HD I
must boot from the HD. Is there a way around this?

Also, I'd guess that that workaround setup would make the HD a lot
slower. True? Any ideas on how much slower?

Thanks for any input,
Steve Baker

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

You most likely used a "disk manager" program to be able to use the entire
harddrive.
When you want to boot from the floppy, and see the hard drive, you have to
press a special key combination during the boot sequence.
The start-up screen should tell you what that key combination is. Most of
the time you have to press the "Ctrl key" during a very short period when
the warning comes up. Then after that key is pressed you will get a
message telling you how to boot from the floppy or go to the hard drive.
What is happening is that the software for full access to the hard drive has
to load before you start the floppy boot disk.

"Steve Baker" <bakesph@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:8kifo0l42f1o1gb5kegvnrku64n153qmog@4ax.com...
> Hi,
> I'm not sure of the details, but I installed a new WD 40 Gig HD on
> this Win95b system and used a utility that came with the HD that
> enables the full use of the HD. It seems that in order to read the HD I
> must boot from the HD. Is there a way around this?
>
> Also, I'd guess that that workaround setup would make the HD a lot
> slower. True? Any ideas on how much slower?
>
> Thanks for any input,
> Steve Baker

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

Steve Baker <bakesph@comcast.net> wrote:

>Hi,
> I'm not sure of the details, but I installed a new WD 40 Gig HD on
>this Win95b system and used a utility that came with the HD that
>enables the full use of the HD. It seems that in order to read the HD I
>must boot from the HD. Is there a way around this?
>
> Also, I'd guess that that workaround setup would make the HD a lot
>slower. True? Any ideas on how much slower?
>
>Thanks for any input,
>Steve Baker


Windows 95 Does Not Support Hard Disks Larger Than 32 GB
Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 246818
http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=246818


Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

You are probably referring to something like EZ-BIOS or DiskManager. These
products have a mechanism for booting from floppy. In some cases you start
the boot from hard disk and then interrupt it, and continue the boot from
floppy. In other cases you need to create a special boot floppy. You need
to identify the exact product you are using and look up the documentation.
Is there a message on-screen as you boot?

These products are required if the machine BIOS cannot handle large hard
disk drives properly. They do not slow the machine significantly, but they
do complicate some processes, such as using the drive in a different
machine.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Steve Baker" <bakesph@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:8kifo0l42f1o1gb5kegvnrku64n153qmog@4ax.com...
> Hi,
> I'm not sure of the details, but I installed a new WD 40 Gig HD on
> this Win95b system and used a utility that came with the HD that
> enables the full use of the HD. It seems that in order to read the HD I
> must boot from the HD. Is there a way around this?
>
> Also, I'd guess that that workaround setup would make the HD a lot
> slower. True? Any ideas on how much slower?
>
> Thanks for any input,
> Steve Baker

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

On Wed, 3 Nov 2004 07:47:58 +1100, "Jeff Richards"
<JRichards@msn.com.au> wrote:

>You are probably referring to something like EZ-BIOS or DiskManager. These
>products have a mechanism for booting from floppy. In some cases you start
>the boot from hard disk and then interrupt it, and continue the boot from
>floppy. In other cases you need to create a special boot floppy. You need
>to identify the exact product you are using and look up the documentation.
>Is there a message on-screen as you boot?

Yes, the screen says EZ-BIOS 13.64 W, press Ctrl to boot from floppy,
which I do. But, I was using a DOS 6.22 boot disk which I _thought_ was
the Win95 version, but I see now I was wrong about that. My version of
Win95 uses FAT32, and 6.22 doesn't understand FAT32, right? So that
could explain my problem. ;-)
When I use a Win95 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com it seems to boot
into full blown Win95, meaning that it must be reading stuff from the
HD, right? When I do SYS A: from the Win95 DOS prompt and then boot
from that floppy (without going through the EZ-BIOS stuff) I get the A:
prompt, but C: results in "invalid drive", or somesuch. Maybe then I'm
up against the BIOS/Win95 EZ-BIOS workaround?
What got me going on this was wanting to boot purely from a floppy
and then run DOS AV software from the CD, and finding that I couldn't
scan the HD because the HD wasn't recognized.
It must be possible to do that; I was able to restore a backup from
CDs (using HP Disaster Recovery that came with the CD writer) to this
one partition drive when my old drive totally died. That was a long
time ago, but I seem to recall that it was a little bit tricky; like
maybe I had to start booting from the HD, or something, before booting
from the floppy created by the Disaster Recovery program would work.
I'd try booting from that floppy in a pinch, but where everything is OK
now, I don't really know what I'm doing, and I'm chickenshit, I guess I
won't try that unless something actually breaks.

Thanks to all who replied,
Steve Baker

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

If you create a boot floppy by formatting it from within W95 and copying
system files, then boot to it using the Ctrl trick, that should give you DOS
with access to the C drive. You will not have long filename support,
however. But I don't remember EZ-BIOS using Ctrl to interrupt the boot
process - I would have thought it was Ctrl-something, like Ctrl-Space or
Ctrl-A or some other letter.

The bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com will boot to DOS, not Windows, so there
is something odd happening if you are getting into Windows using that
floppy.

You will need to get the boot floppy from www.bootdisk.com working if you
want access to the CD.

The other option is to boot to DOS from the hard drive. Press and hold Ctrl
before Windows boots, and you will get the Windows startup menu. Select
Command prompt only.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Steve Baker" <bakes-nanae@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:igfgo05t6t7hmhar3pqcqip66tqqjttfkr@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 3 Nov 2004 07:47:58 +1100, "Jeff Richards"
> <JRichards@msn.com.au> wrote:
>
>>You are probably referring to something like EZ-BIOS or DiskManager.
>>These
>>products have a mechanism for booting from floppy. In some cases you
>>start
>>the boot from hard disk and then interrupt it, and continue the boot from
>>floppy. In other cases you need to create a special boot floppy. You
>>need
>>to identify the exact product you are using and look up the documentation.
>>Is there a message on-screen as you boot?
>
> Yes, the screen says EZ-BIOS 13.64 W, press Ctrl to boot from floppy,
> which I do. But, I was using a DOS 6.22 boot disk which I _thought_ was
> the Win95 version, but I see now I was wrong about that. My version of
> Win95 uses FAT32, and 6.22 doesn't understand FAT32, right? So that
> could explain my problem. ;-)
> When I use a Win95 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com it seems to boot
> into full blown Win95, meaning that it must be reading stuff from the
> HD, right? When I do SYS A: from the Win95 DOS prompt and then boot
> from that floppy (without going through the EZ-BIOS stuff) I get the A:
> prompt, but C: results in "invalid drive", or somesuch. Maybe then I'm
> up against the BIOS/Win95 EZ-BIOS workaround?
> What got me going on this was wanting to boot purely from a floppy
> and then run DOS AV software from the CD, and finding that I couldn't
> scan the HD because the HD wasn't recognized.
> It must be possible to do that; I was able to restore a backup from
> CDs (using HP Disaster Recovery that came with the CD writer) to this
> one partition drive when my old drive totally died. That was a long
> time ago, but I seem to recall that it was a little bit tricky; like
> maybe I had to start booting from the HD, or something, before booting
> from the floppy created by the Disaster Recovery program would work.
> I'd try booting from that floppy in a pinch, but where everything is OK
> now, I don't really know what I'm doing, and I'm chickenshit, I guess I
> won't try that unless something actually breaks.
>
> Thanks to all who replied,
> Steve Baker
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

On Wed, 3 Nov 2004 16:21:16 +1100, "Jeff Richards"
<JRichards@msn.com.au> wrote:

>If you create a boot floppy by formatting it from within W95 and copying
>system files, then boot to it using the Ctrl trick, that should give you DOS
>with access to the C drive.

Nope, it boots into the full blown Win95 GUI. If I boot straight from
the floppy I get the DOS prompt, but I can't access the C: drive;
Invalid Drive Specification.
I'm setup to boot from floppy. "Straight from the floppy" means
turning the power on with the boot floppy in the floppy drive. The
other way is to start booting with the floppy drive empty and then
hitting Ctrl, choosing the A: drive, and then putting the floppy into
the drive to continue booting. Could the boot order setup be a factor?

> You will not have long filename support,
>however. But I don't remember EZ-BIOS using Ctrl to interrupt the boot
>process - I would have thought it was Ctrl-something, like Ctrl-Space or
>Ctrl-A or some other letter.

Nope, just Ctrl does it.

>The bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com will boot to DOS, not Windows, so there
>is something odd happening if you are getting into Windows using that
>floppy.

If I boot straight from that disk I get the DOS prompt, from which I
can't access the HD. I'm thinking the EZ-BIOS stuff is what is missing
in that scenario. But if I use the Ctrl trick and say to boot from the
floppy, I boot into the full blown Win95 GUI.

>You will need to get the boot floppy from www.bootdisk.com working if you
>want access to the CD.

Accessing the CD wasn't the problem, accessing the HD was the problem.

>The other option is to boot to DOS from the hard drive. Press and hold Ctrl
>before Windows boots, and you will get the Windows startup menu. Select
>Command prompt only.

Hmm, I don't see that. I see a screen that talks about the 40 Gig HD,
and gives me the option of booting from the A: drive or the C: drive.
Selecting C: boots into the full blown Win95 GUI... as does A: so far.
Umm... I have an OEM version of Win95 here, I think. Maybe I should
have mentioned that earlier? If so, sorry about that. But its not OEM
like from some big outfit, just a small local computer store. Control
Panel|System says: 4.01.0970 B.

Thanks again,
Steve Baker

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

Steve Baker <bakes-nanae@comcast.net> wrote in message news:45ugo0ptte7h2cifkff7csekav6utoe63e@4ax.com...

I'm not sure of the actual procedure that you are using,
so I will just point out a couple of things.

First and foremost, do NOT put the boot floppy into the drive
BEFORE you begin to boot up, as the boot floppy will preempt
the EZ-BIOS manager and leave you unable to access the hard drive.

Press CTRL when you see the message, and follow the instructions
given in order to boot from the floppy. Then, wait until the EZ-BIOS
manager specifically tells you to insert the boot floppy before doing so.

This is the ONLY floppy boot sequence that will work properly
if you use a BIOS manager.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

> Windows 95 Does Not Support Hard Disks Larger Than 32 GB
> Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 246818
> http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=246818


Not true!
I'm using Win95 B and I can access 240 GB (FAT32 partition on RAID 0
array).
MS-DOS 7 (Win95 in MS-DOS mode) can access the first 137 GB from that
partition.