Windows 95 Original Installation - Error
Hello All,
WinWorld is the greatest.... I needed something for my old 486 lappy and u guys have 95 this is great.... one problem is that when I do the install of 95 from my zipdisk.... It gets up to the part where u select the TYPE of installation (Typical/Custom etc) and when I choose Custom it asks me for the setup disk.... but the setup disk files are on the ZipDisk with the rest of the installation files.... so I press enter and it just asks me for the disk again
any ideas of how I can fix this ?
Just as a test I tried making the setup disk on a floppy and inserting it when windows asked for it... but that doesn't work wither.... the exact error displayed is:
"Windows Cannot Read Setup Disk"
Thanks again for the downloads.... you hav eno idea how hard it is to find a copy of 95 on the net... or in stores for that matter.
-Timbobsteve
timbobsteve@hotmail.com
WinWorld is the greatest.... I needed something for my old 486 lappy and u guys have 95 this is great.... one problem is that when I do the install of 95 from my zipdisk.... It gets up to the part where u select the TYPE of installation (Typical/Custom etc) and when I choose Custom it asks me for the setup disk.... but the setup disk files are on the ZipDisk with the rest of the installation files.... so I press enter and it just asks me for the disk again
any ideas of how I can fix this ?Just as a test I tried making the setup disk on a floppy and inserting it when windows asked for it... but that doesn't work wither.... the exact error displayed is:
"Windows Cannot Read Setup Disk"
Thanks again for the downloads.... you hav eno idea how hard it is to find a copy of 95 on the net... or in stores for that matter.
-Timbobsteve
timbobsteve@hotmail.com
Comments
-Timbobsteve
-Timbob
-Timbobsteve
bob.
-Timbobsteve
Can I trick my PC into thinking it is coming from a disk drive even though the files are on the HardDrive/ZipDisk ?
-Timbobsteve
-Timbobsteve
Or if you have some dough and can check ebay, they have parallel CD drives, so you can install from a CD that you can find somewhere...
bob
The main problem I have had so far is the out of date bios.... I have the upgrade files... but they require DD Floppies... and I only have HD floppies... but so far anythin MS has loaded fine without hassle....
What I do have access to is a ZipDrive.... and I have the DOS 7.1 drivers to load it... I did place all the 95A install disks onto the zipdrive and then run setup from that.... and it worked... up until the dreaded "Choose Install Type" where it errors and repeatedly asks me for the Setup Disk....
So I from what I can tell 95A requires DMF formated floppies (1.68Mb format)... this is fine cause I have WinImage... except the onyl floppies I own are reather dated and don't like being formated to DMF 1.68Mb.... the installer runs from 1.44Mb formated floppies.... but it errors at the same place.....
I have tried installing from these mediums so far with no success:
1.44Mb floppy - Errors on "Select Installation Type"
100MB PPA ZipDrive - Errors on "Select Installation Type"
HDD - Errors on "Select Installation Type"
1.68 DMF Floppy - Cannot get my Floppies to format to this....
The only thing I haven't tried yet is a CD ISO... but that is no good to me as my Lappy has no CD-ROM....
Is this whole DMF thing a copy protection strategy ? If so is there any way to trick the installer to get past it?
Again, thankyou all for your comments... best help forums ever !!!!
-Timbobsteve
Not possible unless you extracted the 2 layout.inf files from
the precopy2.cab edited them & ensured they remained the
same size in bytes them repacked the cab file & restored
the checksum of the cab.
The layout inf files tell the setup routine where to find the
files & on what disk the cabs reside..
EG: this is part of the layout.inf from a floppy install
This is part of the Layout.inf from a CD installation.
Regarding the original posters request , I found that winimage
formats the floppies as either 1.66 or 1.62mb not 1.63
as required by the setup..
What I did to fix the problem was use winimage to
write one of the 1.63mb images to the floppy then I used
eraser to erase the files from the floppy so it was a clean empty
1.63mb floppy then image the empty floppy with winimage &
saved it as a self extracting image that formats a floppy when
clicked on, then copy the cabs back to the floppy.
If you want to install it from another location you will
have to start setup from the original 2 floppy images,
after that you can direct setup to wherever the other files are
if you don't want to install them all from a floppy..
I originally had to do this when some of my original floppies
were becoming corrupt, I'd save the files to a folder ,remove
the original label & stuck it on a new floppy then format it
with this 1.63mb format program made & copy the files back
to the floppy.
There are programs around that will format your floppy as
1.63mb or I could upload the one I made to format it for you.
I got it from warpy so ask him if he made any changes but i've doen tons of successful installs of 95 with my little cd
I have tried on many occasions to do such & have found that if the
setup cannot find disk 2 in the A: drive it will not continue.
The only way to make it install is to edit the layout inf in the precopy2.cab
& repack it.
I have my own modified precopy2.cab file that would only install
when the layout inf file was edited.
I'm not here to prove a point , been there ,done that , already know
the outcome.
However if the CD was made bootable using the 1st floppy from the
set of installation floppies of Windows 95 then yes you can install the
floppy set from CD, which is obviously what your referring to as YOUR
CD installation of win95 of floppy cabs
When the CD has been made bootable using the 1st floppy then setup
thinks the CD is the A: drive & that your real floppy drive is B: drive.
and how can you still say it isn't possible when it works?
and those are now burned on to my little 95 CD, the first floppy and all the CAB's in the root directory of the CD
extracted from a floppy set , I wondered how it
installed too so I extracted the layout inf files &
found they had been edited to install from a cd.
Maybe MS used those same cabs on some floppy
install sets released as retail.
@Bluesun , maybe you should check the layut inf
as kenoath said ,you may find they have been
mpdified to install from cd rom..
I do know that a cd rom install will also install from
a floppy but usually not the other way around as
the layout inf tell setup where to find the installation
cabs.
This isnt helping timbobsteve work his problem out
though..
I just checked a copy of windows95 I have on one of about 2 dozen msdn
disks I have & found how a floppy install could be done from a cd.
It seems that what MS have done to make a floppy istallation work from
a CD was to copy the 2 Layout.inf files to the Win95 installation folder on
the CD from a genuine CD installation version
I just checked the folder & found the CD install versions of Layout.inf yet
found the floppy install version of Layout.inf still within the Precopy2.cab.
Thats handy to know.. I'm going to try that now with this 62mb floppy
install I have of Windows98..
I just checked the Windows95a version & found it to also have both
versions of Layout.inf files.. The setup must be choosing the extracted
files over the cab-packed versions.
It's a system I use for hacking & cracking software with not an
everyday general use system, if making the theme uglier meant
the system would run faster ,I'd make it uglier..