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Installing Windows95 on a Compaq 486DX 3

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9 replies

by moblack

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I am tring to install Windows 95 on an old Compaq Deskpro XE 450. I got it with Windows 95 installed on a 250MB hard drive with 16megs of memory. I upgraded the memory to 32megs and the hard drive to 2.5 gigs. I also installed a cd-rom drive. My problem is that I installed Windows 95 initially and later was asked to try and put Windows 98 on it. I couldn't get Windows 98 installed and now I can't get Windows 95 install. The systems hangs up on the "copying files for windows setup" line after it does a registry scan. What do I need to do?

9 replies

by dmiles

You may be able to revert if you do a FDISK and wipe the drive clean,one problem you will encounter,using the fat32 file system that is giving you problems now.
Cold boot the system with the WIN95 startup disk and cd in place at the command prompt type in FDISK,delete the primary partition and follow the on screen prompts,leave the disk in and restart
use the format c: /s at command prompt and hopefully this will get you back on track to reinstalling WIN95

by dragonnite

Start from scratch, FDisk the harddrive with a win95/98 boot disk. Format c:\s (to make the C: drive bootable). You may then have to update the computer's BIOS signature:
http://www5.compaq.com/support/files/desktops/us/family/model/91.html
Older computers were not designed to support HD's larger then 850MB. So download an update BIOS and system software patches for the computer before you attempt to configure the system.
Win95 boot disks do not load CD Rom drives. After formatting (format c:\s) use the CD Rom's DOS installation disk to gain access to the CD Rom.

by your mom 2.0

This may have already been satisfactorily (I think that's a word), but I have one recommendation: on a system that old and slow, stay with 95. Win98 only really shines when you have over 64 MB of RAM and at least a Pentium 200. (It'll run with less, but 95 runs better under the circumstances).

Yeah, fdisk & format, and then re-install. Advise whoever asked you to put 98 on it to reconsider due to system limitations...

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