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Win 9x Installation... What Am I Doing Wrong?!

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First post, by MotoPete

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I'm attempting to install Windows to what was a DOS 6.0 machine. Everything goes swimmingly until the system reboots, where upon much hand wringing takes place by Windows because of there being content in the autoexec.bat and config.sys files in the root directory. It gives an error that command.com is missing or corrupted or some such nonsense and asks for me to enter its location. Regardless of what I input I do not pass go and do not collect $200.

If I rename these both to autoexec.xxx and config.xxx and reboot (effectively leaving me without a .bat and .sys), again everything is fine and dandy and Windows will complete its installation and operate accordingly.

I'm tempted to leave things as they are, but the problem is I need to place commands in these files for my CDROM (at a minimum). Is there another file I should be placing these commands into for Windows to recognise the drive? What about himem.sys, emm386.exe and the rest of it?

To backtrack, I initially installed Windows 95, but upon reaching this error thought it may have been a disk error and so grabbed my copy of Windows 98 SE, which was to no avail as it throws the same error.

Should I attempt a clean install (i.e no DOS 6.0) to see if that resolves the error? I'll need to copy the CDROM drivers over to the boot disk to do so, but suppose that's no issue.

Last edited by MotoPete on 2021-07-03, 11:22. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 1 of 23, by Caluser2000

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What version of Win9.x? Win95rtm, Win95a, Win95b, Win95c, Win98 or Win98SE?

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 2 of 23, by MotoPete

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Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-02, 07:19:

What version of Win9.x? Win95rtm, Win95a, Win95b, Win95c, Win98 or Win98SE?

The 95 disk states "0196 Part No. 000-27722" and the 98 SE disk states "0499 Part No. X05-29232". Both throw the same error.

Reply 3 of 23, by Caluser2000

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MotoPete wrote on 2021-07-02, 07:28:
Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-02, 07:19:

What version of Win9.x? Win95rtm, Win95a, Win95b, Win95c, Win98 or Win98SE?

The 95 disk states "0196 Part No. 000-27722" and the 98 SE disk states "0499 Part No. X05-29232". Both throw the same error.

Either use an upgrade Win9.x cd or do a clean format of the hdd and start afresh.

Deleting any files in th c:\ directory, including hidden ones, could be done for installing Win9.x as well.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 4 of 23, by chinny22

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Yeh I'd just keep thing simple and format c:
You would want to create/download a Win95 Bootdisk with CD rom support
Boot off the bootdisk
format c: /s (I don't think the /s is needed but that'll copy across command.com just to be safe)
Install Win95

Reply 5 of 23, by MotoPete

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Thanks! I'll give it a shot in the morning and report back with how I go, together if pictures if there's problems...

Some time later...

Well the fresh install did the trick, along with swapping out the CDROM for another unit. It seems Pioneer's DR-UA124x doesn't play well with Windows 9x (by the company's own admission)...

Reply 6 of 23, by zapbuzz

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MotoPete wrote on 2021-07-02, 07:04:
I'm attempting to install Windows to what was a DOS 6.0 machine. Everything goes swimmingly until the system reboots, where upon […]
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I'm attempting to install Windows to what was a DOS 6.0 machine. Everything goes swimmingly until the system reboots, where upon much hand wringing takes place by Windows because of there being content in the autoexec.bat and config.sys files in the root directory. It gives an error that command.com is missing or corrupted or some such nonsense and asks for me to enter its location. Regardless of what I input I do not pass go and do not collect $200.

If I rename these both to autoexec.xxx and config.xxx and reboot (effectively leaving me without a .bat and .sys), again everything is fine and dandy and Windows will complete its installation and operate accordingly.

I'm tempted to leave things as they are, but the problem is I need to place commands in these files for my CDROM (at a minimum). Is there another file I should be placing these commands into for Windows to recognise the drive? What about himem.sys, emm386.exe and the rest of it?

To backtrack, I initially installed Windows 95, but upon reaching this error thought it may have been a disk error and so grabbed my copy of Windows 98 SE, which was to no avail as it throws the same error.

Should I attempt a clean install (i.e no DOS 6.0) to see if that resolves the error? I'll need to copy the CDROM drivers over to the boot disk to do so, but suppose that's no issue.

When installing windows 95, 98 ,98se , me if one leaves a dos diskette in the prescense when already notified to remove it (created by windows or not) causes the first install reboot to have no command.com installed for boot

Reply 7 of 23, by MotoPete

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Well I'm back to being stumped...

If I put ANYTHING in autoexec.bat (which I now need to) it wets itself on startup claiming to be unable to find command.com

No such issues with config.sys however...

Last edited by MotoPete on 2021-07-11, 01:53. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 8 of 23, by MotoPete

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Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-02, 07:47:
MotoPete wrote on 2021-07-02, 07:28:
Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-02, 07:19:

What version of Win9.x? Win95rtm, Win95a, Win95b, Win95c, Win98 or Win98SE?

The 95 disk states "0196 Part No. 000-27722" and the 98 SE disk states "0499 Part No. X05-29232". Both throw the same error.

Either use an upgrade Win9.x cd or do a clean format of the hdd and start afresh.

Deleting any files in th c:\ directory, including hidden ones, could be done for installing Win9.x as well.

I went as far as to FDISK and removed the partition and fresh installed (directly from Win98SE boot disk) to no avail...

Reply 9 of 23, by MotoPete

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Well this is interesting...

The attachment 20210711_114703.jpg is no longer available

Reply 10 of 23, by Caluser2000

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MotoPete wrote on 2021-07-11, 01:47:

Well this is interesting...

20210711_114703.jpg

Can't say I've had that one ever!...😉

You may have to do a zero fill of he hdd then start from scratch if fdisk /mbr doesn't clear it out.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 11 of 23, by rmay635703

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It may not be a virus but it’s always possible

Zero the disk with the manufacturers utility, you may find the MBR has bad sectors

Also have had strange side effects when a drive overlay is in place and I’ve tried to fdisk in a different system.

There is also a msdos virus utility you can download to check the drive.

If this isn’t the issue

1. Bad Ide cable or port
2. Bad PSU
3. Instability
4. Controller incompatible
A) in the past I have encountered drive/controller combinations that would not fdisk with Windows 98 dos properly but would work perfectly fine under Dos 6.2 or lower

Good Luck, always possible the drive is a little flakey or you have bad ram, worth testing the memory also doing a full burn in

Reply 12 of 23, by Jo22

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rmay635703 wrote on 2021-07-11, 02:23:

It may not be a virus but it’s always possible

Zero the disk with the manufacturers utility, you may find the MBR has bad sectors

S0Kill can do that, too. It will overwrite the usually hidden "track 0" on any BIOS supported storage device.

Re: IDE to Compact Flash as MS-DOS boot drive.

After that, the device looks like new from factory to Windows setup.

Edit : The default setting erases track 0 only, but by entering the HDDs maximum values it can also used to wipe it completely.
Also, the reference to "LiLo" was a joke only. That thing is no virus, of course. But it's as nasty as a virus to remove. FDISK along doesn't get rid of it.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 13 of 23, by Caluser2000

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Jo22 wrote on 2021-07-11, 05:58:
S0Kill can do that, too. It will overwrite the usually hidden "track 0" on any BIOS supported storage device. […]
Show full quote
rmay635703 wrote on 2021-07-11, 02:23:

It may not be a virus but it’s always possible

Zero the disk with the manufacturers utility, you may find the MBR has bad sectors

S0Kill can do that, too. It will overwrite the usually hidden "track 0" on any BIOS supported storage device.

Re: IDE to Compact Flash as MS-DOS boot drive.

After that, the device looks like new from factory to Windows setup.

Edit : The default setting erases track 0 only, but by entering the HDDs maximum values it can also used to wipe it completely.
Also, the reference to "LiLo" was a joke only. That thing is no virus, of course. But it's as nasty as a virus to remove. FDISK along doesn't get rid of it.

Keh? https://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/monkey.shtml

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 14 of 23, by MotoPete

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I've no explanation for it, other than to say that on the umpteenth dozen reinstall it decided to work!

I downloaded a new boot disk ISO as my disk was producing a "general failure" error message by this stage, and that seemed to do the trick.

What would you recommend as a downloadable (i.e. not cloud based) Win 98 SE anti-virus?

Reply 15 of 23, by Caluser2000

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MotoPete wrote on 2021-07-12, 06:58:

I've no explanation for it, other than to say that on the umpteenth dozen reinstall it decided to work!

I downloaded a new boot disk ISO as my disk was producing a "general failure" error message by this stage, and that seemed to do the trick.

What would you recommend as a downloadable (i.e. not cloud based) Win 98 SE anti-virus?

A linux live distro with anti virus software on it 😀

Have a gander at these -https://www.lifewire.com/free-bootable-antivi … s-tools-2625785

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 16 of 23, by RichB93

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These weird problems could be failing hardware (bad caps) that are causing intermittent issues.

Reply 17 of 23, by zapbuzz

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time to explore the disk surface with scandisk for bad sectors/clusters 😀
if there is, theres hard disk regeneration stuff around.
But if there isn't there should be a google indexed dos based virus scanner to find boot sector virus if any.
In pc bios i turn off virus protection as they are false during setup (and cause weird setup issues too)

Last edited by zapbuzz on 2021-07-20, 18:07. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 18 of 23, by xcomcmdr

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Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-11, 01:55:
MotoPete wrote on 2021-07-11, 01:47:

Well this is interesting...

20210711_114703.jpg

Can't say I've had that one ever!...😉

You may have to do a zero fill of he hdd then start from scratch if fdisk /mbr doesn't clear it out.

fdisk for DOS won't recognize /mbr. That's for the NT variant.

MotoPete wrote on 2021-07-11, 01:47:

Well this is interesting...

20210711_114703.jpg

I got that the last time I tried a Linux / Windows 9X multiboot where Linux was installed first.
Windows 9X doesn't recognize GRUB's MBR and thinks there may be a boot virus.

Reply 19 of 23, by Bige4u

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Whenever i do a fresh install of any OS, first thing i do is a MBR delete from a used HDD, if there was anything on that drive before, its gone.

I use a bootable CD utility that goes by the name of "Super F-DISK".

YT - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5ivV5tyfRs

I did that DOS6.22 thing first, then installed WIN95c(full/not upgrade CD) on top of that, no errors, but windows overrides the DOS6.22 and uses its own(MSDOS 7), but i hear hitting F8 on bootup should give access to a menu so you can choose DOS6.22 before windows takes over, but i never tried it to see if that actually worked. I just used the bootable SUPER F-DISK to access the HDD, erase the MBR, then created the entire partition for FAT32(1.7gb hdd), used a win95 boot floppy with cdrom drivers to access the WIN95c disk in the cdrom drive, then installed the OS from there.

Pentium3 1400s/ Asus Tusl2-c / Kingston 512mb pc133 cl2 / WD 20gb 7200rpm / GeForce3 Ti-500 64mb / Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 SB0100 / 16x dvdrom / 3.5 Floppy / Enermax 420w / Win98se