steve_p
asked on
Win-95 problems after HD and RAM upgrade
Hi, can anyone help with this win-95 nightmare problem I've been having:
My computer until recently was a P133, 16MB, 850MB HD. I have now upgraded to 40MB, and bought a new 3.2 GB Quantum Fireball hard disk. My procedure for installing the HD was as follows:
1. Connected the 3.2 GB (recognised as D:) and formatted as a FAT32
2. Disconnected the 850 MB, and reconnected the 3.2 GB (as primary master),
so that it became C:
3. Installed win95(b) on the 3.2 GB (which is now C:)
4. Reconnected the 850MB so that it was recognised as D:
Everything appeared to work expect that my old HD (now D:) was much slower. But since my nice new 3.2GB was fast, and everything seemed to work, I didn't really mind. But then I started to get one or two "data errors" while reading from D:
But yesterday was when my problems REALLY started. Win-95 refused to finish loading, complaining of a corrupt registry, and would attempt to recover it from backup. But upon each restart the same message appeared. So I thought,
"I know, I'll get copies of my registry files from my old windows installation which was still on my D: drive". But as it turned out, the system.dat on D: could not be read due to another "data error" (which were by now becoming increasingly common on "D:").
My next step was to try re-installing windows over the top of my current version. I did this, and sure enough, the registry error message disappeared. But windows is now unusable because of the following:
- Double clicking on "my computer" does nothing.
- Selecting programs from the Start Menu does nothing.
- My shortcuts appear with the ".lnk" extension, but are not recognised as links, and nothing happens when they are clicked on.
- I *can* open the Control Panel window, but if I click on any icon therein, I get "Access to the specified device, path or file denied."
If I select command prompt only, I can still see all my files, and I can still run DOS games. I have now disabled my D: drive from the BIOS as there are now so many errors on it that even a dir command in the root directory
fails. My C: drive appears fine.
Sorry for the rather long question, but I've really been tearing my hair out over this one. I don't want to have to reformat and re-install unless absolutely necessary. Can anyone suggest what the problem(s) may be or how to remedy it?
Steve
My computer until recently was a P133, 16MB, 850MB HD. I have now upgraded to 40MB, and bought a new 3.2 GB Quantum Fireball hard disk. My procedure for installing the HD was as follows:
1. Connected the 3.2 GB (recognised as D:) and formatted as a FAT32
2. Disconnected the 850 MB, and reconnected the 3.2 GB (as primary master),
so that it became C:
3. Installed win95(b) on the 3.2 GB (which is now C:)
4. Reconnected the 850MB so that it was recognised as D:
Everything appeared to work expect that my old HD (now D:) was much slower. But since my nice new 3.2GB was fast, and everything seemed to work, I didn't really mind. But then I started to get one or two "data errors" while reading from D:
But yesterday was when my problems REALLY started. Win-95 refused to finish loading, complaining of a corrupt registry, and would attempt to recover it from backup. But upon each restart the same message appeared. So I thought,
"I know, I'll get copies of my registry files from my old windows installation which was still on my D: drive". But as it turned out, the system.dat on D: could not be read due to another "data error" (which were by now becoming increasingly common on "D:").
My next step was to try re-installing windows over the top of my current version. I did this, and sure enough, the registry error message disappeared. But windows is now unusable because of the following:
- Double clicking on "my computer" does nothing.
- Selecting programs from the Start Menu does nothing.
- My shortcuts appear with the ".lnk" extension, but are not recognised as links, and nothing happens when they are clicked on.
- I *can* open the Control Panel window, but if I click on any icon therein, I get "Access to the specified device, path or file denied."
If I select command prompt only, I can still see all my files, and I can still run DOS games. I have now disabled my D: drive from the BIOS as there are now so many errors on it that even a dir command in the root directory
fails. My C: drive appears fine.
Sorry for the rather long question, but I've really been tearing my hair out over this one. I don't want to have to reformat and re-install unless absolutely necessary. Can anyone suggest what the problem(s) may be or how to remedy it?
Steve
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Steve_p...
Good for you, I was ready for war but your system has responded, beautifully.
Regards
Good for you, I was ready for war but your system has responded, beautifully.
Regards
ASKER
disconnected. I will be able to borrow a tape-backup device from someone, so will to do a complete backup of my now-working C: before attempting to fix D: :-)