[PLUG] Installing Windows 95 on a slave drive

[Michael Robinson]

On Monday 28 April 2003 01:29 pm, you wrote:
>

I'm guessing that your Windows registry has links to software and/or DLL's
that aren't linking or aren't installed.  Did you reinstall 95 from scratch?
Is 95 on an extended partition or a primary?  Each primary partition changes
your drive lettering but extended partitions don't.  The other tool that might
be needed is xosl, see www.xosl.org.  This tool is important because it can
hide partitions for you and allow booting off an extended partition also.

95 has the unfortunate shortcoming of thinking it needs to be the first 
system on the first partition of the first hard drive.  I believe xosl can
fix this issue though ;-)

If your data is only on your hard disk then your probably toast.  Hint though,
fdisk doesn't destroy the data when it erases the partition table.  If you 
haven't put a different partition on the drive and proceeded to install
to it or even format, you can recreate the deleted partition and all
your data will be there.  It would not be unlikely that you would need a
boot disk to install dos back to your MBR with though.  

The confusing hard drive lettering is one of the reasons
why it's a good idea to use DVD-R, CD-R(w), or tapes for backup.  The other
option to play with is creating a server that is filled with raided together 
hard disks for the sole purpose of storing backups.  The latter generally has
a short shelf life and probably costs a lot, however, there's no media 
swapping and backups are fast.  The advantage of a server here is avoiding
weirdness on your desktop box.

My brother who was a 95 tech recommends service pack 3 or higher.
Whether your running Linux or Windows it's a good idea to get a true
ATAPI cdrom.  Hopefully, hardware manufacturers and OEM's will
realize the need for quality standards compliant equipment soon.
I've noticed that some of the newer cdroms have stronger lasers
or something.  I guess it's important not to scratch the printed side
although the non printed side has a plastic layer over the media and
can be polished if a cd won't read.  In old cdroms the lasers wear
out.

Hope this helps some.

A lot of people have said something about Windows dropping DLL's
too, don't know what this is about but it may be connected to the I
need to be the on the first drive... problem.

   --  Michael