MiSTer FPGA Forum

A friend on Facebook posted this:

I think the latest official AO486 Core has a bug which prevents installation of Windows 95, and somehow corrupts HDD contents while applying 98lite

I mean, Windows 95's installation proceeds ok until the 1st reboot. During the first reboot and showing "Starting Windows 95 for the first time..." both the core and MiSTer ARM sides lock up completely

Windows 98 installs ok and operates fine until you mess around with 98lite; it takes ages and never ends, and somehow corrupts FAT partition by producing many unreadable files/folders (scan disk can detect such corruption). In my case, win.com is gone



Can anyone test and confirm whether this is a general problem? I am busy testing some other stuff myself. Maybe someone already tried installing Windows 95 or 98 with the newest release of this core?

Update: It might not freeze completely but just that AO486 keeps the ARM very busy with IDE operations somehow. The disk activity LED is just constantly ON when this happens.

You need some hacks in order to install Windows 95. The easiest IMHO is to put the hard drive in IDE 1-0, and CD-rom in IDE 1-1. Either that you use this guide: https://www.jamesfmackenzie.com/2021/03 ... 5-install/

Thank you. I am the "friend" who asked this question originally.
So is this behaviour related to how the IDE interfaces are implemented on AO486?
The last time I tried installation of Windows 95, was long before IDE 1-0, 1-1 (CD-ROM) were implemented... (I copied all setup files to VHD then installed from there at that time)

I will try again