Not able to install Windows 95...[Solved]

[Solskogen]

anymore. It keeps getting stuck at "Getting read to run Windows 95 for the first time...". That is with ao486_20200917.rbf.
With ao486_20200907.rbf it works.

[Chris23235]

With the latest core my old Windows 95 installation doesn't boot anymore either. The only way to make it work it starting in Safe mode. I guess I have to add mscdex.exe and oakcdrom.sys to autoexec.bat and config.sys but I haven't tried it yet.

[charmless]

Same here.

[bakayoyo]

I've had some better luck assigning the Win95.vhd to IDE1-0

[YLFAndy]

It looks to be stalling on ESDI_506.PDR. What worked for me:
Do a safemode boot (F8 while starting) and choose 'Step by step confirmation.' Choose to NOT process the system registry. This will get you through the remainder of setup and you can remove the device.

Note: you MAY have to rename C:\Windows\System\IOSubSys\ESDI_506.pdr to .bak before doing the above steps, then rename it back after removing the devices. I had to do that on my previously installed Windows, but not on the new install. YMMV.

[Chris23235]

I've had some better luck assigning the Win95.vhd to IDE1-0

I can confirm, this also worked for me.

[Meringues]

Has anyone had any luck getting CD-ROM support in windows 95 with the latest update?

EDIT: I know this was posted in the wrong place but for anyone else in the same boat I got the CD-ROM to work by adding the following to the config.sys

DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
DOS=HIGH, UMB
FILES=30
LASTDRIVE=Z

I don’t think all of the above is required but I’ve now got the CD-ROM showing up in windows 95

[Solskogen]

I've had some better luck assigning the Win95.vhd to IDE1-0

I can confirm, this also worked for me.

Same here. Thanks, bakayoyo!

[tontonkaloun]

Hello,

with the latest core version, windows 95 doesn't like empty ide ports.
You just have to put a small virgin vhd to the empty ide port, and you can start win95
then you can delete them

[Chris23235]

Problem is, as far as I see it, this leaves us with only one HDD. Mounting a second HDD in 1-1 doesn't work for me.

[tontonkaloun]

I was able to resolve it this way, otherwise Windows 95 would only start in Safe Mode

[YLFAndy]

Problem is, as far as I see it, this leaves us with only one HDD. Mounting a second HDD in 1-1 doesn't work for me.

The method I used gives me 3 HDDs and one CD ROM, with the primary HDDs on IDE0. Which is really handy, since I like to keep a small vhd on the system full of updates and now I can have that perma-mounted.

EDIT: Attached steps and final screenshot. I think the steps are complete, but I wrote them in a hurry. This is all based on doing a logged startup and finding the hang I mentioned above. I've done it on two MiSTers now and it worked on both without issue. Let me know if I need to do an update or if anything isn't clear.

[Chris23235]

Many thanks with your help I got it working too.

[xtcrefugee]

Thank you for the instructions YLFAndy, much appreciated.

I found that if you don't eject the floppy when prompted during setup and just allow it to boot to a command prompt, you can make the autoexec.bat and config.sys changes then at the same time as renaming ESDI_506.PDR. Then eject the floppy and reboot, and Windows setup will continue successfully. That saves having to change any of the hardware boot options in the MiSTer menu (it can be left as Floppy/Hard Disk throughout) and also means you won't have to use safe mode or step-by-step confirmation at all.

[YLFAndy]

I found that if you don't eject the floppy when prompted during setup and just allow it to boot to a command prompt, you can make the autoexec.bat and config.sys changes then at the same time as renaming ESDI_506.PDR.

Ah, good point! I wrote the instructions in a rush, so thanks for streamlining them!

[yaoese]

I had only changed the VHD to 1-0 ,it worked .please check.

[MiSTer_Kirk]

Sorry to bump this, didn't want to start another Win95 topic, but is there any kind of video acceleration supported ?
Either 2D or 3D acceleration. Would love 3DFX support, but I doubt there is room left in this core.

[pbsk8]

i got the win95.vhd from smokemonster pack and I am stuck on the screen showing "getting ready to run windows 95 for the first time".

It has been 30min on this screen, what is wrong? Should i do something else?

[FoxbatStargazer]

i got the win95.vhd from smokemonster pack and I am stuck on the screen showing "getting ready to run windows 95 for the first time".

It has been 30min on this screen, what is wrong? Should i do something else?

Empty your hard drive slots and put the win95.vhd in IDE 1-0. Then it should be able to proceed with installation with a little patience.

Far as I can tell this image has an empty config.sys and autoexec.bat ? So my guess is the only way to run it is like its an autobooting CD-ROM. This is obviously going to cause issues if you ever want to use CDs but I haven't figured out that part. It might be that this is supposed to be run with an empty vhd in 0-0 that gets installed to. It doesn't ask any questions during setup so I can't tell.

[chanunnaki]

I figured it out recently based on posts on this forum. I don't know where the guide is though. You'll just have to do some digging/reading.

I got my Windows 95 installation booting with the hd mounted on 0-0.
I never did get the cd-rom or file sharing to work properly though so I took a step back from it. I'll try again in a few months when there has been more updates to the core. I might have caught a bad revision.

[-N2]

Hello,

with the latest core version, windows 95 doesn't like empty ide ports.
You just have to put a small virgin vhd to the empty ide port, and you can start win95
then you can delete them

how can you configure that without using the Windows key + F12? I can't bring that menu up after starting the AO486 core.

[the_muteKi]

It looks to be stalling on ESDI_506.PDR. What worked for me:
Do a safemode boot (F8 while starting) and choose 'Step by step confirmation.' Choose to NOT process the system registry. This will get you through the remainder of setup and you can remove the device.

Note: you MAY have to rename C:\Windows\System\IOSubSys\ESDI_506.pdr to .bak before doing the above steps, then rename it back after removing the devices. I had to do that on my previously installed Windows, but not on the new install. YMMV.

I was able to fix this by renaming ESDI_506.PDR and then doing the step-by-step confirmation, but I don't seem to be able to get the system to boot if I rename it back. As long as the OS can't find the file it seems to be okay. Am I misunderstanding the order of operations? Do I need the file if the system seems to run fine without it?

[the_muteKi]

Having had more time to go over this I missed that the previous post's archive file was the fu instructions. The step I missed was to set up cd-rom drivers in c:\config.sys and c:\autoexec.bat. Having done that and then doing the pdr file rename, registry rebuild, removal of bad drivers and restoration of the pdr file seems to have fixed it.