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The Main Sections: General Buying
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These help pages were compiled for the use of customers of Best Price Computers Ltd. We will be delighted if they are of use to anyone else. However please read the disclaimer carefully. Preparing the Hard Disk: You cannot install Windows 95 on a Hard Disk that has not been formatted, has a lot of damaged sectors and/or has insufficient free space. Partitioning: A new hard disk has to be first partitioned. Whether you intend to split the hard disk in two or more virtual hard disks...... or just use it as one hard disk, you need to have a boot up floppy with the fdisk command on it. Note: Fdisk-ing a hard disk will completely erase all existing data; data which will then become unrecoverable. 1. Ensure that your machine's BIOS has recognised the hard disk and that it is set to boot from the Floppy Disk Drive. Insert your boot disk and power up your computer. 2. You should arrive at the A:/ called the A Prompt. Type in fdisk at the A:/ Prompt. (Depending on what version of fdisk you've got you may or may not get a text screen asking you if you want to enable Fat32/Large Disk Support. Should you choose "No" at this stage you will not be able to create any partitions over the 2 GB limit).The main Fdisk screen should give you 4 to 5 choices which are self explanatory. 3. Following the menu system you will need to create the partition/partitions of your choice. Note: You will need to ensure that partition 1 is set active if you wish to be able to boot up from that hard disk in future. Once done press Esc and re-boot the computer 4. You can verify that you have the partitions right by re-booting the computer, going back to the fdisk command, and using option 4 on the main fdisk screen. Note: Fdisk-ing a hard disk will completely erase all existing data; data which will then become unrecoverable You will need to re-boot the computer using your boot disk before you can format your newly partitioned hard disk. You will need a computer with at least one hard disk, and a bootable floppy disk with the "format" command on it. Note: Formatting a hard disk will erase all data on it including your operating system. 1. First ensure that your hard disk is registered in the BIOS and properly partitioned. 2. Set your BIOS to boot from the floppy first. 3. Insert your bootable floppy disk and power the computer up. 4. When you arrive at the A:/ prompt you will need to type in the following exactly: format c: This will format the hard disk. There are several options you can use with the format command including the /s command. The /s , used as in format c: /s , will format the disk and also copy the system files onto the hard disk so that it can boot on its own without any further help from the boot floppy. Start the computer up again, but this time without the floppy disk. You should arrive at a C:/ prompt. Any messages saying "ROM not found" or "please insert boot disk" may mean that the "system" files haven't been copied from your floppy to the hard disk. You will need to re-insert the floppy, boot up again from floppy, and at the A:/ prompt type: sys c: Making a boot up floppy disk is relatively easy if you have a working computer. Unfortunately, the time you need it most is when your computer is not working. Such is life. Do not despair. You can create the disk on a friend's computer. Boot up into the operating system. If it is a Windows 95 or Windows 98 based computer, you can go into the Control Panel and Add/Remove Programs and then Start Up disk. You will need to have 1 blank floppy disk. Just follow instructions on screen. To make a boot up disk from a DOS prompt, start up the DOS based machine, place your blank floppy disk in the A: drive and then type in, at the C:/ prompt: format A: /s Once you have created a boot up floppy disk it may be an idea to find and copy important utility files like format.com, scandisk.exe, mscdex.exe and edit.com onto the boot floppy disk. For more help on boot disks try troubleshooters.com at: Troubleshooters Note: The improper use of the CMOS/BIOS settings can cause your machine to stop working. It is advisable to get professional help before making any changes to the BIOS. The BIOS/CMOS on your motherboard stores information about your hardware. It stores, among other things, the size of your hard disk, the setting for your COM ports, and several user preferences. The BIOS also needs to be told where to look for the boot up files. If you want the computer to start from a boot up floppy you will need to verify that the BIOS is set to look first in the floppy drive for a bootable floppy disk before attempting to boot from the hard disk. Fortunately, one does not need to access the motherboard to make changes to the BIOS. Many computers give a message on screen a second or two on turning the power on saying "Press Del to enter Setup". To get into the BIOS of other computers you may need to try different keys like "esc" or the space bar. Contact your computer supplier if you are unsure about how to make changes to the BIOS. Once in, take care to navigate the BIOS menu screens carefully and change only the settings you need. If you have already changed several of the settings in the BIOS and are now stuck, (which is something you wouldn't do, of course) then your only option may be to reset the BIOS to the 'default' or factory settings. You may have an option to reset it to 'optimal' or 'best performance'. However, if you do reset the bios to any of the above then there are some key changes that you will need to make before you save it and exit. The main ones are to run an IDE autodetect to detect the hard disks, CD drives and Internal Zip drives. You may need to enable the USB, set the machine to boot from the floppy disk before looking for a hard disk, and/or enable/disable/reset Com and Parallel ports. That's where this help ends. The specific changes you need to make will vary depending on what hardware is in your machine (and several other factors). Advice: Talk to a trained technician. Note: The BIOS on some computers may be protected with a password and may not allow you access. This is a user defined password and if you have lost it then resetting the BIOS to circumvent the security password is a hardware job that requires opening the case, and is out of the scope of this software help section. You need a computer capable of running Windows 95, sufficient free space on your hard disk C, a copy of the Windows 95 program on CD on Floppy disks, a Windows 95 User License number, drivers for your CD ROM drive, and ideally a blank formatted hard disk with just the system files on it (and the CD ROM driver should you wish to install from CD). Windows 95 is best installed on a machine that doesn't already have it. Should you try re-installing over an already faulty installation then the chances are that you will only compound your problems. 1. Start up your computer and allow it to boot up from C. Install MSDOS if you have it. If you don't you will need to have a copy of the mscdex.exe file on a floppy. 2. If you wish to install from a CD-ROM you will need to have the CD ROM drive program files or drivers loaded into the computer. See installing CD ROM drivers. 3. Type in A: or X: (where X is the drive letter of your CD drive - usually drive D or E or F) depending on whether your copy of Windows is on Floppy Disks or a CD 4. Type setup 5. Then follow instructions on screen. 6. On completion of the installation of Windows 95, you will need to set up/install drivers for various devices the computer uses including soundcard, videocard, modem, printer, scanner. These can sometimes be a little tricky even if they are Plug n Play devices. If you bought your computer from us at Best Price Computers Ltd further help is at hand - just click here to go to our hardware help section. Error Messages: The installation of Windows should go smoothly but there are occasions when you are faced with an error message. While we can't cover all the error messages and explain their meanings, the main one is a message on 'compressed disks'. Windows may halt loading because it thinks there is a compression package on your hard disk (disk doubling). This could be because the system files (boot up files) on your hard disk are from a version of Windows 95 different to the one you are installing from.You can still go ahead and install Windows 95. Devices in your computer like the video, sound and modem will not work correctly till you have installed the drivers for them. Click here for driver installation information. Installing drivers for a CD ROM Drive is easy in that many drivers will work on drives from other manufacturers. You may find that a Samsung CD driver will work on a Hitachi CD drive, which is something that cannot be said of soundcards, videocards or modems. However, you do need to have a certain few files on your hard disk before the installed CD driver will work to give you a fully functional CD ROM drive. The most important of these files is one called mscdex.exe. It will automatically be on your hard disk if you have MSDOS or Windows 95 already installed in the machine. You could also copy it from another computer onto a Floppy disk. The tricky part is that some CD Drivers may require that file be not just on the root directory of C but in a sub directory called DOS, or Windows. It wouldn't hurt to create a directory called DOS and one called Windows, and copy the mscdex.exe file into both of them. Since we are doing this in a DOS environment i.e. from a C:/ prompt it will require the knowledge of some of the basic DOS commands. You will need to type md DOS and md windows (where the md stands for Make Directory). Provided you have the mscdex.exe file on your floppy on the root directory C you can type in, either at the A:/ or C:/ prompt - the two commands: copy mscdex.exe c:\dos and copy mscdex.exe c:\windows. If copying from a floppy disk you can also copy it to your root directory C using copy mscdex.exe c:\ The next step is to actually install the drivers. You will need to use the floppy disk with the CD driver. Go to the A:/ prompt by typing A: and then use a dir/w command to get a listing of files on the floppy. The installation file will probably be called install or setup or setupd or cdinstall or cdsetup depending on the make of your CD Drive. It could also have another name but it will probably be an exe file i.e. a file with exe as the last part of it's name. Once you have identified the name of the file that launches the CD setup program, typing that name in at the A:/ prompt will start the CD Drive driver installation. Following the instructions on screen it shouldn't take more than a minute or two to be completely installed. On re-booting the computer from the hard disk C, you should now have a fully working CD drive. Place a non-music CD into the drive and you should be able to go the DOS prompt for the CD Drive (D, or E or F, usually) by typing D: (or E or F, as the case may be). You can use the dir command again to see what is on the CD ROM. General Troubleshooting: For general troubleshooting with software problems try: Troubleshooters.com We, Best Price Computers Ltd have provided substantial help information in our on-line help section. Please note that advice here relates only to computer hardware bought from us and may be inappropriate and damaging to equipment purchased elsewhere. We, along with our service providers, hosts, telephone providers and associated companies take no responsibility for any damage, loss, or malfunction caused directly or indirectly by use or misuse of any information contained in the help pages and the pages/sites that they are linked to.Users of this help section do so entirely at their own risk. We regret that we cannot accept telephone enquiries for hardware/software support on equipment not bought from us. Before calling us for support please have your purchase receipt number from Best Price Computers Ltd,all your drivers,and your item serial code ready.
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