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Thread ID: 24335 2002-09-08 19:51:00 Is this legal/possible? sam m (517) Press F1
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77784 2002-09-09 04:43:00 Thanks Graham,

I thought it might have something to do with the BIOS as well. Well I guess since she will still be a student when I do it (I am going out into the big wide world next year!!!), a copy of XP is not such a terrible option. Linux would be my choice if I had to, but she needs a Windows platform for her design course.

Thanks

G P
Graham Petrie (449)
77785 2002-09-09 05:04:00 I have an OEM 95 PC (unused) and note that it will not reinstall the OEM system from CD, its had a few extras including a new HDD. Strange, and I have no explanation for it, it won't even try to boot from it. Perhaps it had a special boot floppy once?

Fortunately I burnt a system disaster recovery CD soon after I got it, and that works fine.

I also note that two similar (but not identical) PCs will not restore from the other's recovery disk, I suspect a mobo signature as a BIOS could be lost in reflashing.

I have upgraded from 98 to ME to XP, I have an ME upgrade CD and showing that to the XP upgrade process also works fine. Actually its very useful, as it saves having to re-load the old OS if doing a clean install after HDD replacement.
godfather (25)
77786 2002-09-09 05:09:00 An OEM Win95 won't "reinstall". MS set it up like that to stop you using an OEM one instead of buying the retail version. If the installer finds a Windows present, it will stop. It's meant to install on an empty disk. (This also happened with some of the DOS 6.2 distribution disks -- you could get around it because the install script was a batch file). Graham L (2)
77787 2002-09-09 05:16:00 And of course, W95 CDs didn't boot. There was always a boot floppy. That's available --- www.bootdisks.something . BTW Graham, you could be right about the BIOS ... try using the Linux strings command on the BIOS file ... see if the maker's name pops up.

Use a "-4" or "-5" or "-6" option ... text strings of one character are fairly common.;-)
Graham L (2)
77788 2002-09-09 05:33:00 Hmmm... Just tried the recovery CD again, and while it never picked it up initially, restarting with it in has caused it to operate! So in a while I will have a factory fresh install of Win 95. Happy Happy Joy Joy?

But, Graham L, its OSR2 so that may be the difference.
godfather (25)
77789 2002-09-09 05:35:00 It will if first - in DOS - rename WIN.COM & WINVER.EXE to WINCOM.OLD & WINVEREXE.OLD. Worked on my beastie.
Bye
Peter H (220)
77790 2002-09-09 05:39:00 Don't forget the y2k (and other) patches ... you can get them from a ChCh shop's server (http://www.62nds.co.nz/) ... the "Software" section has a "Patches" area. Graham L (2)
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