Boot from Win95 CD?

[Guest]

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

Replaced battery on motherboard, updated CMOS and tried to reboot. PC comes
back w/ 'Invalid System Disk' message. Tried booting from Win95 CD, but get
CD drive failure message.

From reading other posts is it true that Win95 CD has no CD drivers? If so,
is only option getting bootable 3.5 floppy?

Related question, any ideas on why PC lost track of hard drive?

Thanks from a relative novice.

 

[Guest]

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

GoalieWizard <GoalieWizard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Replaced battery on motherboard, updated CMOS and tried to reboot. PC comes
>back w/ 'Invalid System Disk' message. Tried booting from Win95 CD, but get
>CD drive failure message.

The Win95 CD is not bootable.

"Invalid System disk" means that the BIOS is unable to find an OS on
the disk that it's trying to boot from. Just replacing your battery
should not have caused this to happen. You say that you "updated
CMOS", in doing that could you have told it to try to boot from
someplace other than where the system resides?

To get access to your CD, go to www.bootdisk.com and get a bootable
floppy with CD support. Once you boot from that you will be able to
read your CD.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)
Slattery_T@bls.gov

 

[Guest]

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

Access BIOS setup and identify the hard disk drive. Make sure the system
identifies it as the same configuration and uses the same mode (eg, LBA) as
before the BIOS upgrade.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"GoalieWizard" <GoalieWizard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F3836112-D0DF-4FFE-B993-5E39240A5750@microsoft.com...
> Replaced battery on motherboard, updated CMOS and tried to reboot. PC
> comes
> back w/ 'Invalid System Disk' message. Tried booting from Win95 CD, but
> get
> CD drive failure message.
>
> From reading other posts is it true that Win95 CD has no CD drivers? If
> so,
> is only option getting bootable 3.5 floppy?
>
> Related question, any ideas on why PC lost track of hard drive?
>
> Thanks from a relative novice.

 

[Guest]

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

Thanks to both of you. Once I replaced the battery I reset date and time,
rebooted and that's when I got the Invalid System Disk error. I checked the
CMOS and the drives were set to Auto Detect. As I watch the screen during
initial startup, the messages I see indicate that the proper hard drive and
CD ROM are being identified, but when the computer goes to start Win95 I get
the Invalid System Disk error.

I have booted with a bootable disk that loads CD drivers, and I can access
the Win95 cd, but from the A: prompt I can only get to the CD and back ... no
C: drive. Running Setup fails since the system can't find a place to creat
temporary files.

It sounds like a hardware problem...if I run fdisk and select option 4 to
display current partition info, it shows as a non-DOS partition of correct
size.

Problem - I'd like to recover data on hard drive before I fdisk, reformat
and reinstall Win95. Backups are not recent enough (sufficiently
self-flagellated over that one). Is there an option or am I SOL?

Thanks

"Jeff Richards" wrote:

> Access BIOS setup and identify the hard disk drive. Make sure the system
> identifies it as the same configuration and uses the same mode (eg, LBA) as
> before the BIOS upgrade.
> --
> Jeff Richards
> MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
> "GoalieWizard" <GoalieWizard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:F3836112-D0DF-4FFE-B993-5E39240A5750@microsoft.com...
> > Replaced battery on motherboard, updated CMOS and tried to reboot. PC
> > comes
> > back w/ 'Invalid System Disk' message. Tried booting from Win95 CD, but
> > get
> > CD drive failure message.
> >
> > From reading other posts is it true that Win95 CD has no CD drivers? If
> > so,
> > is only option getting bootable 3.5 floppy?
> >
> > Related question, any ideas on why PC lost track of hard drive?
> >
> > Thanks from a relative novice.
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

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

It could be a hardware failure, possibly caused by dislodging a drive cable,
or replacing it incorrectly, when you replaced the battery. Double-check
the connections to the drive.

But if the system sees the drive but DOS can't, then it looks a lot like the
system has recognised the hard drive with the wrong configuration. When the
BIOS auto-detects, can you confirm that the configuration it detects
(cylinders, tracks, sectors) is the same as it was detecting before you made
the change? Does it agree with the label on the disk?

You can change the configuration between large and LBA and see if ether of
these settings allows the system to recognise the partitioning.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Goaliewizard" <Goaliewizard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1EA0F4E6-5E0F-4050-997A-7F8F98F0E06F@microsoft.com...
> Thanks to both of you. Once I replaced the battery I reset date and time,
> rebooted and that's when I got the Invalid System Disk error. I checked
> the
> CMOS and the drives were set to Auto Detect. As I watch the screen during
> initial startup, the messages I see indicate that the proper hard drive
> and
> CD ROM are being identified, but when the computer goes to start Win95 I
> get
> the Invalid System Disk error.
>
> I have booted with a bootable disk that loads CD drivers, and I can access
> the Win95 cd, but from the A: prompt I can only get to the CD and back ...
> no
> C: drive. Running Setup fails since the system can't find a place to creat
> temporary files.
>
> It sounds like a hardware problem...if I run fdisk and select option 4 to
> display current partition info, it shows as a non-DOS partition of correct
> size.
>
> Problem - I'd like to recover data on hard drive before I fdisk, reformat
> and reinstall Win95. Backups are not recent enough (sufficiently
> self-flagellated over that one). Is there an option or am I SOL?
>
> Thanks
>
> "Jeff Richards" wrote:
>
>> Access BIOS setup and identify the hard disk drive. Make sure the system
>> identifies it as the same configuration and uses the same mode (eg, LBA)
>> as
>> before the BIOS upgrade.
>> --
>> Jeff Richards
>> MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
>> "GoalieWizard" <GoalieWizard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:F3836112-D0DF-4FFE-B993-5E39240A5750@microsoft.com...
>> > Replaced battery on motherboard, updated CMOS and tried to reboot. PC
>> > comes
>> > back w/ 'Invalid System Disk' message. Tried booting from Win95 CD, but
>> > get
>> > CD drive failure message.
>> >
>> > From reading other posts is it true that Win95 CD has no CD drivers? If
>> > so,
>> > is only option getting bootable 3.5 floppy?
>> >
>> > Related question, any ideas on why PC lost track of hard drive?
>> >
>> > Thanks from a relative novice.
>>
>>
>>

 

[Guest]

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

Thanks. I have checked what's reported with the info on the hard drive re
size, tracks, cyl's and they match. I have tried autodetect and user-set and
still unrecognized. Will try Large and LBA next. The settings I'm seeing seem
to match what the BIOS reported prior to change of battery.

I have tried, and will retry, reconnecting what I can, even tho replacement
of battery didn't require moving/unplugging cables (did require removal of
video and ethernet cards, but they're back ok...well, at least video is).

 

[Guest]

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

Problem solved. Thank you very much. That last suggestion about large and LBA
did the trick. My blood pressure is rocketing back down. I'fn I could find
you I'd send a bunch of beverage your way.

 

[Guest]

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

Glad to hear that you got it sorted out!
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Goaliewizard" <Goaliewizard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
newsDF14C32-0CE6-4334-A45F-7FA0413813A6@microsoft.com...
> Problem solved. Thank you very much. That last suggestion about large and
> LBA
> did the trick. My blood pressure is rocketing back down. I'fn I could find
> you I'd send a bunch of beverage your way.
>