How to install Windows 95/98 on a laptop?

Try popping that disc into a decent computer first—if the drive still struggles to read it, then honestly, just chuck that laptop out a window.

Thomas Hernandez21 said:I've actually got my Windows 95 installation on floppies 😁 Specifically, thirteen of them...

Legend, that belongs in a museum...🙏 🙏

Look, some of those older CD-ROM drives just don't support booting. I’ve got one myself—a Dell 4x from back in '95—and it won't load the system on its own. That's why I told you to stick with the floppy... seriously, try booting from the floppy first, then run sys c:, and then just restart without the diskette in there. If everything is set up right, the system should kick in. Of course, we're talking basic setup here... if that doesn't work, you'll have to do it through a window. 🙂

Check this out, he’s actually running Windows 95 off floppies... meanwhile, I’ve got my Windows 3.11 for Workgroups spread across ten different disks.🙂Honestly, I keep everything. I even have my old Amiga disks stashed away. I probably won't ever touch them again, but whatever, they're basically just nostalgia at this point.

Just try picturing what it was like trying to get online using Windows 3.11. No custom scripts, nothing... just messing around with Trumpet Winsock. This was maybe fifteen years ago, back when I’d be trying to snag an open port at a university lab... and honestly, getting a connection felt like winning the lottery! Back then, I had this little script running in MS-DOS that I’d set up to keep hunting for a signal until something actually clicked. Once I finally hit a connection, I’d jump straight back into Windows.

Can't boot from a floppy? That’s weird. And honestly, a massive pain in the ass.

Your last real shot is booting via floppy to get onto the C: drive, then enabling the CD-ROM from there, but it could be a headache. Here is what you need to do, but first, grab this stuff:

1) A Windows 95 installation CD. Duh.

2) Two floppies: a) A Windows 95 boot disk b) One floppy with custom config.sys and autoexec.bat files.

3) A formatted C: drive.

Get those floppies ready on a different computer first. If you don't have a Windows 95 boot disk, just download one from a link and make a Windows 95 boot disk. That disk MUST have CD-ROM support built in for when you boot.

Once that disk is ready, find these specific files and copy them onto your hard drive:

AUTOEXEC.BAT
CD1.SYS
CD2.SYS
CD3.SYS
CD4.SYS {Not sure why there are four when you only need one, but whatever, just take them.}
CONFIG.SYS
Microsoft
MSCDEX.EXE

Copy all those files onto that second floppy—let's call it "BAT & SYS"—and set it aside.

Now, head over to the PC where you actually want to install Windows 95.

1) Boot using the Windows 95 diskette.

It should load the system and leave you sitting at the A: drive, or maybe some virtual drive it created. Most likely, it's just A:.

2) Switch over to the C: drive and type DIR.

Just to check if the drive is empty and ready for the OS.

3) Go back to the A: drive and type "sys a: c:".

That should move the system files from the floppy to the hard drive. If it says "system transferred," you're golden. If not, don't even bother reading the rest of this because I have no clue what went wrong. 😬

Assuming it worked, pull the floppy out and reboot the machine to see if it can boot straight from the hard drive. (If everything above went fine, it should.)

Once it boots up, pop in that other "B&S" floppy and type COPY A: C:.

That moves everything you need to get the CD-ROM running during boot.

Shut down, plug in the CD-ROM, and power up. When it starts from the C: drive, it should read those lines in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT and kick off the system with the CD-ROM active.

I can't guarantee this works in practice—I dealt with similar crap recently on an old junker PC—but theoretically, this is the way.

I finally upgraded my setup, so now I just keep MS-DOS 6.22 on a CD. Call me a high roller if you want. 😬

Besides, modern floppies are absolute garbage! 😠 I picked up a pack of 20 about two years ago and half of them are already dead. Meanwhile, I’ve still got some old ones from back in my 386 days that actually work. 🙏

urbanotter4 said:I’ve gone modern—I just keep MS-DOS 6.22 on a CD now. Call me a high roller if you want! 😬

Plus, today's floppies are absolute garbage! 😠 I bought a pack of 20 about two years ago and half of them are dead on arrival. Meanwhile, I've still got some old ones from back in my 386 days that actually work. 🙏

Hey, thanks for that explanation...

I'm actually running Scandisk on my laptop drive right now, just checking to see if everything's alright...

I'll give it a shot tomorrow since the floppy drive on this PC is busted...

Thanks again,🙏

Just wanted to share a quick win—I finally pulled it off! I followed the exact method urbanotter4 laid out... thanks so much!!

Everything is working perfectly 5

so I've got a bit of a question here...

my laptop is running Windows 5, but when it boots up, the display isn't filling out the whole screen...it's a 12" screen, but the image just sits right there in the middle, leaving at least an inch of dead space on every single side...I know on my desktop monitor I can just jump into the settings and stretch it out myself, but this laptop doesn't seem to give me that option at all...plus, I keep getting these constant errors saying there's a problem with the display driver, like it's just not the right one...is that actually what's causing this? if I manage to get the correct driver installed, will the image just automatically snap to fill the entire screen, or am I totally off base here?

and wouldn't it be expected that the system would already have the drivers stored in its memory anyway?

The image is going to look stretched out, but honestly—where are you even going to find a driver for this? I’m assuming you don't have the original software that came with the laptop anymore 😬
And just so we're clear—RAM has absolutely nothing to do with drivers.

Regarding drivers, try this approach. First, figure out the exact manufacturer and model of your laptop. Then, just google it to dig up some specs. It doesn't matter how old the machine is; if I managed to track down info for a Digital HiNote from a century ago, you can definitely find yours.

Once you find the details, you'll likely see which graphics chip is inside, which makes hunting down drivers a lot easier. I'd bet anything you'll find everything you need on the same page.

Thomas Hernandez21 said:A split personality? 😁

If you count one...

First off, you’ve gotta get MS-DOS 6.22 installed on the machine. Once you've got DOS up and running, along with all your CD drivers and whatever else you need to make things work, you can finally ditch the floppy disks entirely. You only really need them for that initial installation phase.

Joseph Gomez24 said:get this, he’s actually running Win 95 off floppies... meanwhile, I’ve got Win 3.11 for Workgroups spread across ten different disks🙂 honestly, I tend to hang onto everything, I even have some old floppy disks for my Amiga lying around, though I probably won't ever get a chance to use them again, but I don't know, they just feel like little pieces of nostalgia to me!

🤣 On top of all that, I've still got these old audio cassettes with software for Commodore and Spectrum, and I even have a Microdrive plus some disks for the Spectrum 128 somewhere🙏

@Ranma 1/2 nice one, it really warms my heart to see there are still folks out there who actually know how to install this vintage stuff... otherwise, I might have just insisted he get DOS up and running first before moving on to anything else🤣

The thing is, you can't just boot up those older machines from a CD or something... you pretty much have to teach them how to recognize a CD drive while you're still inside DOS 👍 ...it's mostly a problem with the BIOS, since back then, the hardware didn't even realize that kind of option existed.