Upgrading ME to 95

[geni]

I've reformated the hard drive and installed 95 but I get an error message that says:
"while initializing device IOS windows protection error. You need to restart your computer". I think this is becase something is trying to start up as ME at some stage. Is there a way round this or do I need to do an even more complete reformat (and if I do how do I do that?)?

[scribble]

Try rewriting your master boot record. If you have access to the windows or dos fdisk.exe utility, you can do this by running fdisk /mbr

Hopefully that'll do the last part of your hard drive that the format didn't catch. In practice, I've ocassionally had to go to a more powerful utility for the same effect.

Also, did you merely format the existing partitions, or did you repartition as well?

[DangerousBeliefs]

That's an upgrade?

I call that replacing garbage with older garbage.

[Benguin]

ME is timeless garbage.

Regardless of that a re-format should have killed it enough to not be the cause of a windows protection error. Although scribble is right to recommend that repartitioning should be carried out in an exercise like this.

I suggest you have a look at this (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;263466&Product=w95)

I would recommend 2k Pro, XP Pro, or 98 in that order over 95. But I'm sure you've thought it through and have your reasons.

[Uh_Clem]

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263466

Try scribbles suggestion first.

edit: oops, 'bout 20 seconds too late on the article

[BPSCG]

Originally posted by geni
I've reformated the hard drive and installed 95 but I get an error message that says:
"while initializing device IOS windows protection error. You need to restart your computer". Funny, I had that issue the other night. Did some research and my friend who was working on the computer decided to uninstall 95 and install 98 (this is a second, removeable drive on my wife's PC that she's going to use to log in to her work server from home). Don't know if it's going to work yet (he had to take the drive home to mirror it). You might want to try a couple of forums for answers:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000359.htm
http://aumha.org/win4/kbefe.php

Or just Google "IOS error"

On my wife's machine, we tracked the issue down to a .VXD file, but I don't know if it ALWAYS means a bad VXD file.

[a_unique_person]

Windows 95 is just too old. ME is just a disaster. 98 or 2000 if you just want to play it safe. If your machine is too new, 95 may not even work on it.

[Zep]

I'd suggest ditching Win95/98/ME and going straight to an NT-based version. Personally I prefer at least Win2K, because it has adequate modern device support (USB especially) and performs better on the same platform. Even if you need only very basic Windows and networking operation, dear old NT4 will see you through.

For my money, the DOS-based Windows variants are nothing but bad news incarnate. I've had to fix/salvage/resurrect more PCs that have suffered from these OS's than from just about anything else. So I recommend against them in the main. Unless all you want to do is play gaming software; but even W2K successfully runs most well-made gaming software anyway.

[Uh_Clem]

What Zep said.

I did desktop support at a telecom where Win95 was the corporate standard (I still cringe when I think about it). One day I loaded NT on my desktop to see what all the buzz was about and I've never looked back.

If your hardware will support it load XP or 2000.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/professional/evaluation/sysreqs/default.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/upgrading/sysreqs.mspx

Or, if you're really fed up with troubleshooting your computer,

http://www.knoppix.com/ -cheap way to go
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore/ -not so cheap

[Soapy Sam]

Geni- Dumping ME I fully understand.
Why the choice of Win 95 though? (98SE I could understand more easily.)

Is there some hardware dependent reason?

I have a DOS 5.0 install disk at home....

[geni]

Originally posted by Soapy Sam
[B]Geni- Dumping ME I fully understand.
Why the choice of Win 95 though? (98SE I could understand more easily.)

Is there some hardware dependent reason?

I don't own a copy of 98. The computer specs are not up to coping with XP so it Me or 95 (or a least it would be If I could find a way of gettin it to install. I've had to give up or now and gone back to ME thanks for the advice though everyone. I'm not sure what the probllem is any more so I'll leave it for a while).

Again thanks everyone.

[Zep]

If your machine is "OK" for 98SE or ME, it is OK for 2K instead - you WILL be happier all round.

[a_unique_person]

Originally posted by geni


I don't own a copy of 98. The computer specs are not up to coping with XP so it Me or 95 (or a least it would be If I could find a way of gettin it to install. I've had to give up or now and gone back to ME thanks for the advice though everyone. I'm not sure what the probllem is any more so I'll leave it for a while).

Again thanks everyone.

95 really is past it. I wouldn't waste the time to try to install it. If something doesn't work, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. 2000 is stable, and works with a relatively low spec computer quite easily. I would give it at least 128MB ram, though.

What are the actual specs? XP will run on a relatively low spec PC, just as long as you give it enough ram, and don't plan on running any high end software.

[Doc Dish]

Does your PC have an AMD processor? (K6-2 or Athlon)

Windows 95 has a problem with these processors (see KB article (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;192841&Product=w95) for details)

There is a patch, but applying it requires booting into the OS first (!) When I built my first PC, I ran across this problem. If you keep rebooting, eventually you'll get into Windows and can apply the patch. The frequency of a successful boot is inversly proportional to the speed of the processor. IIRC my K6-2 400MHz would boot-up about 1 time in 10.

Edited to add the last sentence and punctuation.

[Riddick]

w95 works fine on a 1995 and prior era computer.

[corplinx]

Originally posted by Riddick
w95 works fine on a 1995 and prior era computer.

sorta, w95 tcpip was a total garbage

the solution to many weird "can't get on the internet anymore" errors was to reinstall tcpip

95 just wasn't cut out for tcpip networking