Win 95

[Zeus1445]

hello
i can not start win 95
i have the systm disk & the master cd in
on the screen shows
the bios
memmory
mouse
keyboard
cd drive
(no hard disk)
staring win 95
stays right there
i tried .safe mode.step by step.

goes to A: promt.wont go to C: promt
help help (packard bell wont help smame on them)
thank you

[bassvax]

Have you been in the case lately and maybe bumped the IDE cable to the drive and IDE slot on the mobo? Anyone messed with your cmos settings? Enter the cmos and check the drive(s). I'm not sure of a virus being responsible except maybe a boot sector virus.

------------------
Jerry

[BigBlue66]

Howdy,

Seems to me that if you are booting from a system disk, then naturally the prompt will go to the A:\

So what you're saying is that you can't boot from the harddisk, and that the existence of a harddrive is not acknowledged?

Do as bassvax said about physically checking the cables' connections. Go into your basic cmos setup and see if the harddrive is listed. If not, back out of cmos setup and look for a line on the bios setup screen that says something like, "Auto Detect Harddrive".

Try those things and get back to us. Maybe we can dig a little deeper. If you have had the case open for any reason, or have added a new card or something, let us know that as well. Computers very seldom just stop working correctly all by themselves. It is usually tied to something that somebody has done just prior to it not working.

So what's the scoop? Fill us in on what you did, what somebody else did, or any other strange happenings before it all of a sudden would not boot.

It could be also that the system files on the harddrive are corrupted. Any little kids messing around with your computer? I had to ask because my granddaughters like to play with the buttons. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

If all else fails, try to sys the harddrive. With the bootable floppy in A:, at the A:\ prompt, type sys_c:\ (where the underscore is a space). This will maybe at least allow you to boot to the harddrive. Of course, this is assuming that you have made sure that cmos/bios is recognizing the harddrive. Then, maybe if you can start windows, run scandisk to correct any bad clusters, etc.

Otherwise, maybe you can get ahold of some dos level diagnostic software to check the harddrive for bad boot sectors, lost clusters, etc. You get the idea.

Let us know what happens. Very curious to find out!

Cheers,

Big Blue 66