Windows 95 Bootup Problem

Hello,

I am currently working on a family members system that is failing to boot Win 95. The error message I am recieving is " System Error - Can not boot Drive A: ". It is important because there are accounts located on the system (at least I hope they are still there) that an accountant is screaming for. Any help would be appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Jonathan McCoy

 

Is this the exact error message? " System Error - Can not boot Drive A: ".

I couldn't find anything on that.

Can you boot the computer with a Startup Floppy disk in the A-drive?

From the A:\> prompt, you could try typing SYS C:
This will copy the system files needed to boot the computer from the floppy to the hard drive.

To see if the files you need are still on the hard drive, at the A:\> prompt, Type C:

If you can get to the C prompt, type DIR /p
(the /p pauses after each screen until you hit any key to continue) - see if your important files and folders appear to be on the drive.

Then you could try a Ctrl/ALt/Delete and see if you can boot into Windows.

I don't know enough about boot problems to advise you any further.

If you need a Win95 boot floppy, go to http://www.bootdisk.com/

 

Do you see this message after seeing 'Starting Windows 95'? If before or do not see it all, use the startup floppy and try this command at the prompt;
fdisk /mbr

 

Just a thought... is the BIOS set to boot from any drive other than the A:\?

If I remember correctly, if the C:\ were defective or corrupted, you would get an "invalid system disk" or a similar message.

HTH,

Jim Dishaw

 

All of the DOS commands that have been suggested take Win98 or greater Startup Disk.

Win95 Startup ( as it makes it ) does NOTHING other than boot the machine.

There is no DIR, Fdisk, SYS on the 95 Startup disk. ( as 95 makes it )

Jonathan McCoy

If you do go online to get a Startup disk, get one for Win98 or 98SE.

Also the 98 SUD should have the CDROM drivers on it.

Unless someone can say of there is a 95 boot disk comparable to 98.

Or maybe ( Iam not sure as I never made one ) 95b ( OSR2 ) may make a better SUD.

BillyBob

 

Maybe you're thinking of a bootable floppy you create using the ms-dos prompt .....
sys a: or FORMAT A: /S ...... or, possibly when you right-click the My Computer A-drive use the FORMAT command to add system files to a floppy disk to make it bootable? That just adds basic boot files. The Add/Remove Windows Startup tab adds many more files including fdisk.exe and sys.com (Dir is a dos command, not a file)

EDIT
BB, Here are the files included on my Win95B startup disk, made from the Add/Remove Programs Startup Disk tab (total:18 files):

Attrib.exe
Chkdsk.exe
Config.sys (containing ONLY the line, Device=Himem.sys)
Command.com
Debug.exe
Drvspace.bin
Ebd.sys
Edit.com
Fdisk.exe
Format.com
Himem.sys
Io.sys
Msdos.sys
Regedit.exe
Scandisk.exe
Scandisk.ini
Sys.com
Uninstal.exe

Note:
I replaced the config.sys already on the startup disk with one I made up myself, to include
[COMMON]
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=A:\IBMIDECD.SYS /D:IBMCD001

PLUS, here are additional files I have on my Startup disk, which I added myself:
Autoexec.bat (specialized for boot disk, NOT the one on C-drive)***
Ibmidecd.sys ***
Mouse.exe ***
Mousedrv.ini ***
Mscdex.exe ***
Edit.hlp
Pkunzip.exe
Recover.bat (for ERU)
xcopy.exe
deltree.exe

*** Check my notes here for details: http://home.att.net/~wymette/bootdisk.txt

Also, here is some additional information I found with a groups.google search:

===========copyu/paste===========

From: Ron Martell (ron@onlinehelp.bc.ca)
Subject: Re: Invalid system disk error
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion
Date: 2001-04-25 20:58:02 PST

"Eva L Casale" <elcasale@case-web.com> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>We have a machine that someone said they uninstalled compuserve and now when
>you turn the machine on you receive the following error:
>
>Loading Boot Record from IDE-0...OK
>
>Invalid system disk
>Replace the disk, and then press any key
>
>Also, the light for the floppy drive remains on. When you try to boot from a
>system disk, nothing happens. You get the above error too. The OS in Windows 95.
>
>Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>

Go into the BIOS setup and look through the various categories for an entry showing the bootup disk drive sequence. It sounds as though your computer is set to boot from C: first and then A: if there is no C:

Change the boot sequence to A: first and C: second and you should then be able to boot with a startup disk.

If you boot with a Windows 95 startup disk from that computer (or another one running the exact same version of Windows) then you can possibly fix the problem quite simply.

At the A:\> prompt first enter this command:
DIR C:\

That should produce a listing of a number of files and directories, including windows and progra~1 (program files). If that in fact happens then try this command:

SYS C:

That will transfer the system boot files to drive C: which should now allow you to remove the boot disk and reboot the computer. It should start up normally.

If the events do not go exactly as I have described, please stop at that point and post a response back here describing exactly what happened and what appeared on the screen.

WARNING: If you use the SYS C: command from a startup disk from a different version of Windows you will only make the problem worse.

 

You mean add more information under "READ THIS FIRST: POSTING RULES" specific to each forum? It's a good idea...assuming people will read the posting rules and follow the guidelines.

You could give instructions to right-click on My Computer, choose Properties, copy down the information, then post it exactly if they don't know their secific Windows/IE version for example, I show:

Microsoft Windows 95
4.00 950 B
IE 5.50.4807.2300

Which is Win95B with IE5.5sp2

 

Or in my case

System

Microsoft Windows XP
Professional
Version 2002
Service Pack 1

Computer

AMD Duron(tm) Processor
1.20 GHz
256 meg Ram

Would be a Tremendous help when trying to come up with ideas and/or suggestions. And should help to keep down the confusion and mis-understanding.

Every version has its differences. Every one has different versions of and/or capabilities of DOS. And getting versions of DOS crossed up can lead to as much trouble as Windows.

Oh My !. Why am I speaking ablout DOS ? It is supposed to be dead. HAHAHAHA !!. To us users of older OS it ain't.

BillyBob