Try a boot disk with CD Rom support from Bootdisk.com. Boot from that, then change to the cd rom in Dos, then run the win95 set routine. The one you got from that Aptiva site(which you have deleted the link to) is for use with the original Recovery CD.

Yeah I deleted the link because I just realized that all the download links were broken. 🙁

Looks like the bootdisk.com wants money for the DOScdrom boot disk file. Could I just use the other boot disk files for windows 95 that has "IDE CD-rom Drivers Included"?

zimzolla wrote:

Yeah I deleted the link because I just realized that all the download links were broken. 🙁

Looks like the bootdisk.com wants money for the DOScdrom boot disk file. Could I just use the other boot disk files for windows 95 that has "IDE CD-rom Drivers Included"?

Yes. Usually the floppys that came with the generic OEM bundles had stuff all on them so the builders could modify them for use on their builds. Later on the floppys weren't even included. I had a win95 OSR 2.0 bundle that was all floppys but really had no use for it so on sold to a guy with a Toshiba laptop with out cd reader.

Ok thanks! I've got my supplies on order and I'll check back with the results.

Best thing to do is copy all the contents of the win95 install CD to a directory in a partition on the hard drive and run the install routine from there. It's quicker. Also see if you can find all the drivers needed for your Aptivas hardware. Should be a forum or listing some were on the interweb that can assist.

Just remebered. I actually have an IBM Aptiva recovery cd dated 1996 P/N 75H9476 MS# 000-2288. if you want an ISO of it sing out.

You will need to make the recovery boot floppy from the CD for the recovery to work if you chose to use it.

wait i want that ISO... pls archive.org it

Well my external floppy drive and disks came, I couldn't get the boot disk to copy to the floppy without errors. Ignoring the errors created a disk that wouldn't load, though I could view the directory. I tried a couple alternative files, an imaging program, but I think this is a little over my head. I'm used to using an OS, I'm lost without it. I'm just going to return the defective disks and drive, I don't want to sink too much more money into this.

Unless I can figure out why my PC isn't being recognized as an IBM, I'm just going to go back to using the original HD.

It's hard to help because I can't seem to understand what youre trying to do and why. I tried to read what was being said here. I've probably installed windows on every thing 1000s of times. 🤣 😘

I think you are trying to use ibm recovery media, which is fine, but my experience is often times is that those kind of methods are buggy. I have had IBM recovery media before on a 770x thinkpad and had all kinds of trouble getting it to work, becasue the way they did it was just dumb, and when i did get it installed with that media windows was installed in a cockamamie way as a end result and it was buggy and messed up.

Nornally I just use microsoft OEM bootdisks and install media and then if I have specific drivers or apps I need off a recovery disk I extract those and just transplant them on to my clean install.

Probably not what you want to hear but from a lot of experience its smarter and better. 🤣

Not saying you are one of these people, but I have a strong opnion when I have seen LGR and other people that seem to think bastardizing computers with OEM recovery media is "restoring them" when most of the times it is just f*cking them up in some way. by either adding bloatware, incompatibilities or bad drivers , and introducing bugs.

I'm in! I was able to use the instructions on this site http://www.oocities.org/~budallen/setup.html to setup my own config.sys and autoexec.bat files with an oakcdrom driver, after formatting my floppy as a boot disk with my old hard drive. I'm in Windows setup now. Thanks for the help, the advice to get the cd drivers and go from there was key. I guess the floppies were only failing when trying to use the bootdisk.com files for a full boot disk from windows 10.

Warlord wrote:

It's hard to help because I can't seem to understand what youre trying to do and why. I tried to read what was being said here. […]
Show full quote

It's hard to help because I can't seem to understand what youre trying to do and why. I tried to read what was being said here. I've probably installed windows on every thing 1000s of times. 🤣 😘

I think you are trying to use ibm recovery media, which is fine, but my experience is often times is that those kind of methods are buggy. I have had IBM recovery media before on a 770x thinkpad and had all kinds of trouble getting it to work, becasue the way they did it was just dumb, and when i did get it installed with that media windows was installed in a cockamamie way as a end result and it was buggy and messed up.

Nornally I just use microsoft OEM bootdisks and install media and then if I have specific drivers or apps I need off a recovery disk I extract those and just transplant them on to my clean install.

Probably not what you want to hear but from a lot of experience its smarter and better. 🤣

Not saying you are one of these people, but I have a strong opnion when I have seen LGR and other people that seem to think bastardizing computers with OEM recovery media is "restoring them" when most of the times it is just f*cking them up in some way. by either adding bloatware, incompatibilities or bad drivers , and introducing bugs.

Actually I was not using any IBM recovery media, I bought a sealed windows 95 OEM cd with floppy boot disk but it was giving me the weird errors above.

i guess its too late now but i used the wayback machine to get bootdisk.com images

98se custom no ramdrive CD rom boot disk probably would of saved you a lot of trouble.

https://web.archive.org/web/20111021171633/ht … ia/boot98sc.exe

http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm these should have been fine to to create boot disks to access the OEM and run the setup/install routine. The drivers I was refere were drivers specific to the Aptiva hardware.

Good to see you got things underway. Excellent stuff. Btw Dos is an OS 😀 If you are going to play with older x86 kit you had better get familiar with it.

I agree restore CDs can load a lot of unneeded crap but they also have the drivers for that hardware that may have certain tweeks and customization not available in a generic driver/install. Also back grounds, icons and bitmaps you don't get in a generic install.

Caluser2000 wrote:

http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm these should have been fine to to create boot disks to access the OEM and run the setup/install routine. The drivers I was refere were drivers specific to the Aptiva hardware.

Good to see you got things underway. Excellent stuff. Btw Dos is an OS 😀 If you are going to play with older x86 kit you had better get familiar with it.

I agree restore CDs can load a lot of unneeded crap but they also have the drivers for that hardware that may have certain tweeks and customization not available in a generic driver/install. Also back grounds, icons and bitmaps you don't get in a generic install.

Yeah I don't know if it was the external floppy drive, the disks, or what but those bootdisk files refused to copy without giving an error message.

I grew up with Windows 95 and 98 so I've never had need to use Dos, so all the logic and commands just don't exist in my brain. I need to find a training guide or something and play around with it.

zimzolla wrote:

Caluser2000 wrote:

http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm these should have been fine to to create boot disks to access the OEM and run the setup/install routine. The drivers I was refere were drivers specific to the Aptiva hardware.

Good to see you got things underway. Excellent stuff. Btw Dos is an OS 😀 If you are going to play with older x86 kit you had better get familiar with it.

I agree restore CDs can load a lot of unneeded crap but they also have the drivers for that hardware that may have certain tweeks and customization not available in a generic driver/install. Also back grounds, icons and bitmaps you don't get in a generic install.

Yeah I don't know if it was the external floppy drive, the disks, or what but those bootdisk files refused to copy without giving an error message.

I grew up with Windows 95 and 98 so I've never had need to use Dos, so all the logic and commands just don't exist in my brain. I need to find a training guide or something and play around with it.

Its not that hard really and you can open a command.com window and have a play around or use Dosbox on the later system. It might be even worth just setting up a Dos only box and go complete cold turkey. First set of commands I learned not to use was C:>del *.* OPPS! Plenty of apps to make getting around a dos system easier as well.

oeuvre wrote:

wait i want that ISO... pls archive.org it

This is an Australian edition so the English will be a bit off. A lot of s's instead of z's.

Caluser2000 wrote:

oeuvre wrote:

wait i want that ISO... pls archive.org it

This is an Australian edition so the English will be a bit off. A lot of s's instead of z's.

so, correct 😉

zimzolla wrote:

I grew up with Windows 95 and 98 so I've never had need to use Dos, so all the logic and commands just don't exist in my brain. I need to find a training guide or something and play around with it.

The Good news is Win95 is actually built ontop of MS's final dos, Dos 7 so you already own a dos rig.
As you now know how to create boot disks, make another which'll bypass the Windows GUI and you can start poking around and learning. try installing doom (its very forgiving) and work out how to load it, get sound working and before you know it you'll by typing commands like the best of us!

oeuvre wrote:

wait i want that ISO... pls archive.org it

Done.

Nabbed it but to extract the files on it... requires a password. Hm.

Apparently the password is "magic"