Win 3.1 gone, can't install Win 95,98

[anandfan]

Help! I'm up the proverbial creek. Quite a while ago, all my home systems were upgraded to Win XP. Yesterday, my daughter wanted to run an older game ('King's Quest') that ran OK on Win 95, but won't run on Win XP. I said 'No problem', I'll make your system dual-boot 95 and XP. Big Problem! First, that is not the preferred order of install but I found some directions to do it. Used PowerQuest PM 7 to create a FAT partition from the existing NTFS partition, etc. Came time to install Win95 on the new partition, but my Win95 is upgrade version so it asked for my 3.1 floppies. Guess what? Can't read them anymore! Also, my old install of WinXP won't run anymore. Now I have a computer which is thoroughly FUBAR. I'm resigned to reformatting,etc.

Any way to get Win95 upgrade to install if my 3.1 floppies are dead? I thought I heard that Win 3.1 was made available for download from MS, but can't find it anywhere.

Thanks

 

[Schadenfroh]

Text

 

[OffTopic1]

Download DOS 6.22 boot disk and extract it to a floppy, then try to upgrade to Win95.

 

[anandfan]

Thanks for the DOSbox pointer. That should take care of KQ problems after I reinstall WinXP.

I need more than a DOS-boot disk to install my Win95 disk. Win 95 is an upgrade to Win 3.1, not DOS, so the Win95 install asks to see the Win 3.1 disks --- which it can't read!!! Floppies don't last forever and MS should cut users some slack here, instead of just cutting them off.

 

[OffTopic1]

Originally posted by: anandfan
Thanks for the DOSbox pointer. That should take care of KQ problems after I reinstall WinXP.

I need more than a DOS-boot disk to install my Win95 disk. Win 95 is an upgrade to Win 3.1, not DOS, so the Win95 install asks to see the Win 3.1 disks --- which it can't read!!! Floppies don't last forever and MS should cut users some slack here, instead of just cutting them off.

Windows 16 or 1.0~3.11 require DOS 1.0~6.22

Windows 32 or Win9.x/Me require DOS 7.

PS. It doesn't hurt to give it a try.

 

[1sikbITCH]

Curious, why can't you install the game in XP, then run the Compatability Wizard on it?

 

[anandfan]

Curious, why can't you install the game in XP, then run the Compatability Wizard on it?

FWIW, my daughter tried that and it didn't work. Maybe I should repeat that. I've been hitting Google all afternoon and have found some tricks that may help with HER *&!$ game. If I'd known what a pain this was, I would never have started! Some games are better off dead. But I did find a link to Win3.1 images which I should be able to use to satisfy Win95 upgrade requirements. Heck, I can even burn the images to the official MS 3.1 disks, but then I don't trust the disks since they have already failed once.

Edit: Finally have Win XP reinstalled. I've tried compatibility mode every which way with no success. The game was really written for Win 3.1 but probably has a lot of DOS code in it. I'll try to set up a DOS/Win 3.1 box on an older machine. Too bad I threw out my 486 box a few months ago!

 

[uncleX]

>Also, my old install of WinXP won't run anymore. Now I have a computer which is thoroughly FUBAR.
> I'm resigned to reformatting,etc.

That's what happens if you change the number of the partition XP/NT is on by inserting a partition before it. I have done it many times. :frown: What works for me, and keeps the settings, is to install XP over itself. It fixes XPs own internal drive letter references, which makes it work again. Unfortunately, all the program links are still off one drive letter. Sometimes that is not a huge problem, since you can change them.

Now if XP were on a FAT32 partition, so that the first partition is FAT32, you could create another FAT32 partition after the XP partition for W9x, instead of before it, and XP would be OK. You can install Win9x on another partition than the first, but the first partition still gets a couple of W9x files needed to boot it from, so it can't be NTFS. I've done it a few times that way too. I'm not sure if PM can convert NTFS to FAT32.

 

[SunnyD]

Your Win95 is an Upgrade edition eh?

Try this.

Format a floppy disk or do this to your "Win95" DOS Bootdisk...

Open up notepad or whatever... create a blank file, nothing in it. Save it with the name of WIN.INI

Start your Windows Upgrade setup, make sure that disk with WIN.INI is in the drive when it asks for the proof of ownership. You should be good to go.

 

[mgycqd]

Do not post that link again.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[Need4Speed]

Originally posted by: mgycqd
Hi,

Just in case you need a complete Win 3.1 disk one, you can download one <link removed> in zip format for the next 24 hours or so.

Hope this helps!

just because no one uses win3.1 anymore doesnt mean you can post links to copyrighted material. I recommend you edit that out before the mods come marching through.

 

[mgycqd]

Apologies.

 

[anandfan]

Thanks all for the help. I've got enough now to get everything going.