# Windows 95 will not boot



## ken321 (Apr 1, 2009)

My HP7410P will not boot to windows. I've tried F8, going to safe mode, and that also hasn't worked. I've tried with the original "first aid recovery kit " in the CD drive but it doesn't seem to pay any attention to the cd drive. I continually get the following 3 problems;
The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM\.SYS
The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS\DBLBUFF.SYS
The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
Thank, Ken


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## Im IT (Jan 22, 2009)

Do you have a Windows 95 boot disk? If so, then insert it and try to boot from disk. If you are able to successfully boot from a bootable disk, it is likely the copy of the himem.sys on the hard disk drive is corrupt or missing or not setup properly in the config.sys.

Access your command prompt and type in:

*copy himem.sys c:\windows*

Reboot the computer; if the issue continues to occur, verify that the config.sys is properly setup. The line himem.sys should read:

*DEVICE=C:\Windows\HIMEM.SYS*
or​*DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS*

Next, access your command prompt and type in the following:

*copy dblbuff.sys c:\wimdows *then press enter.

Then type in:

*copy ifshlp.sys *and press enter.

This will copy your missing files to Windows, or overwrite the corrupt ones.

Remove the boot disk and try to reboot to Windows.

If you do not have a Windows 95 boot disk, then you'll have to reinstall Windows 95 from the CD if you have one.

Good luck!


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## Jack1000 (Feb 4, 2001)

Hi Ken,

Considering that your Operating System (Windows 95) on the computer in question is now 14 years old, it really may be unrecoverable. Your best bet at this point is going to be a new machine. Even in theory if you could recover this machine, it would not be worth the time, effort, or expense. Maybe the board can help you get a nice computer. (Recommendations for even a quality second-hand computer with Windows XP would still be light-years ahead of what you have now.) And Windows XP will be supported until April 2014, so if money is tight that could be a good option for you. Browse around sites like E-bay and Craig's List. 

For what tasks do you use your computer? You'll be shocked with what you can do with even an XP machine compared to Windows 95! (In a good way!) A new computer will come with Windows Vista. Early releases of Vista had some problems, but those issues seem to be OK now. At any rate, whatever you get will be 1000's better than Windows 95. For security, Windows 95 and Windows 98 are death traps. Look around for a new computer. You need it. The board members will be glad to help!

Jack


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## daniel_b2380 (Jan 31, 2003)

ken, 
welcome to tech support guy,
.
rather than me posting a long thread,
try this:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/1083610276


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## daniel_b2380 (Jan 31, 2003)

jack,


Jack1000 said:


> Hi Ken,
> ...For security, Windows 95 and Windows 98 are death traps....
> Jack


death traps??? 
all of us run different operating systems for different reasons,
some have software that would be very expensive to replace,
then again it may not even be be replacable at all,
.
figures from the net, you can check them,
but OVER 50% of pc users only use them for simple docs, emailing and sufin'
so if your pc is doing everything you need it to do, then it doesn't need replaced,
NOTE: 
the average human brain can't even process information as fast as an old pentium 66 
.
ken may not even be using it as a pc for the above reasons,
it could be used as a digital processor for controlling whatever machinery,
many 'old' dos machines are very alive and healthy just being busy,


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## Jack1000 (Feb 4, 2001)

daniel_b2380 said:


> jack,
> 
> death traps???
> all of us run different operating systems for different reasons,
> ...


I hear what you're saying. I guess I should have had a clearer picture of what Ken was using his PC for. I agree with you to an extent that if a PC is doing what you need it to do, it doesn't need to be replaced.

However, having said that, even though I once read a report that there are over 30 million Windows 95/98 machines out there, users should be aware that these OS' were not built for security. I would not use these machines without updated AV software and a Firewall. To the best of my knowledge, only Avast AV still supports Windows 95.

I also think that it is important in decision making that the older these PC's get, the harder they are to replace. If Ken is able to restore his system, GREAT! But I wanted to also point out the issues of the age of his system and that there are security vulnerabilities with a system that old.

Jack


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## ken321 (Apr 1, 2009)

Still trying. If system booted normally it tells system diagnostics error, then when I click OK, it goes to a C:\prompt . If I boot with recovery CD in it, it ends with a A:\prompt . I tried these steps, the first step said 1 file copied. Then I re-booted and still had exactly the same problem. I did try it with either prompt. I do not have a windows boot disc. My recovery CD should have all software on it my computer came with, I just don't know how to get it to the computer from the dos prompts, and which prompt to use. I am not sure if it makes any sense, but I think the CD may be G drive. I thought Iit went on when I tried G. Thanks


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## daniel_b2380 (Jan 31, 2003)

ken,
i would upload you one, but it's over the size limit for our uploads to the forum here,
there are numerous sites to download a boot floppy, so no problem,
you can use a w98se disc, it will work just fine for w95, in fact, better actually, your choice though,
here are a couple:
.
http://www.bootdisk.com/
.
http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml
.
READ the instructions for downloading, pay particular attention to the instructions for the extracting and putting it on the floppy part,


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## ken321 (Apr 1, 2009)

I tried using the boot disc I created on the freetechpc website. I tried with the windows 95, windows 95b, and the windows 98 downloads. I downloaded them all seperately on separate floppies. When I try booting up with them it says non-system disc or disc error. Thanks


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## Im IT (Jan 22, 2009)

ken321 said:


> Still trying. If system booted normally it tells system diagnostics error, then when I click OK, it goes to a C:\prompt . If I boot with recovery CD in it, it ends with a A:\prompt . I tried these steps, the first step said 1 file copied. Then I re-booted and still had exactly the same problem. I did try it with either prompt. I do not have a windows boot disc. My recovery CD should have all software on it my computer came with, I just don't know how to get it to the computer from the dos prompts, and which prompt to use. I am not sure if it makes any sense, but I think the CD may be G drive. I thought Iit went on when I tried G. Thanks


Judging from your first post, it seems that you said that your CD-ROM Drive is not reading your disk.

This will prevent your Recovery CD from working in wither Windows, or DOS. Your best hope is to copy all missing files from a boot disk.

Go into your BIOS and verify that your CD-ROM is recognized, and is first in the Boot Order if you wish to attempt to boot from that Drive. Be sure to press F10 to save your BIOS settings before you exit.

If you don't see your CD-ROM Drive in your BIOS, open your computer and make sure your molex connector and power supply is connected to the CD-ROM Drive.


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## Im IT (Jan 22, 2009)

ken321 said:


> I tried using the boot disc I created on the freetechpc website. I tried with the windows 95, windows 95b, and the windows 98 downloads. I downloaded them all seperately on separate floppies. When I try booting up with them it says non-system disc or disc error. Thanks


This Error Message indicates that your Boot Disk may not contain all the files needed to start Windows.

Try rebooting your system with the disk still in it. If this doesn't work, then you'll need to make a new boot disk.

Be sure to save the file transfer for your boot disk from the internet straight to your hard drive, (on a working computer, of course), and THEN save that to your floppy. Always do this when downloading files from the internet, as sometimes files are lost in transfer, and may be the problem in this case.


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## daniel_b2380 (Jan 31, 2003)

ken,


> I downloaded them all seperately on separate floppies. When I try booting up with them it says non-system disc or disc error.


so no, they WON'T work doing it that way

you can't just download them to a floppy, you have to download them to the pc somewhere then follow the directions to CREATE the floppy, that's why i said:



> READ the instructions for downloading, pay particular attention to the instructions for the extracting and putting it on the floppy part,


FROM:
http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml


> Please Read
> All boot disks are provided "as is" for emergency purposes.
> Each Boot disk is a self extracting Image file. Just place a floppy disk in your 'A' drive and execute the file. It will format the floppy disk(s) and then create your boot disk(s).
> 
> All disks include either built in CD Rom drivers or added generic CD Rom drivers.


the file you downloded, insert a floppy, double-left click the WIN98SE.exe, it tells you to insert the floppy, click 'ok', if you get an error, click 'retry' and let it extract and write to the floppy, it goes through the process 'til it reaches 100%, it's done and ready to use....

before you remove the floppy from the drive, READ the file: README.TXT


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## ken321 (Apr 1, 2009)

I tried creating this disk by downloading onto another harddrive and then to a new formatted disk, but still I get non-system diskette or disk error, however, it does read from a rescue disk I created years ago, only problem there is, that disk won't boot up windows.


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## daniel_b2380 (Jan 31, 2003)

ken,
did you do the extraction part? as the directions said?

the floppy disk, technically, ISN'T going to 'boot windows' - it 'allows' you have 'access' to dos, and a 'ram drive' for you to be able to 'work' on the drive, [f-disk, etc], and have cd-rom support, for being able to boot the win cd, 
another 'glitch' is the fact the 'early cds' were NOT bootable 'per se' - some 98fe discs were, but not until w98se came along was this just about totally common,


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## ken321 (Apr 1, 2009)

I do seem to have access to DOS, but I do not know what to type in to tell it to do. Thanks.


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## Im IT (Jan 22, 2009)

ken321 said:


> I do seem to have access to DOS, but I do not know what to type in to tell it to do. Thanks.


Access your command prompt and type in:

*copy himem.sys c:\windows *then press enter.

Then type *copy dblbuff.sys c:\windows *then press enter.

Then type *copy ifshlp.sys c:\windows *and press enter.

This will copy your missing files to Windows, or overwrite the corrupt ones.

Remove the boot disk and try to reboot to Windows.


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## ryanhe (Jun 6, 2007)

Hi Ken,
Nice to see someone besides me still uses Windows 95. Search DOS commands in Wikipedia, it will give you a complete list. Another thing you could try is to just reinstall the complete OS, I have done this many times with my Windows 98SE laptop. Reinstalling the OS will just replace the system files, it won't make any changes to drivers or anything like that. What version of 95 is it (just for curiosity)?


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## SDFOX 7 (Apr 29, 2007)

If you specifically need a Windows 95 Boot disk with CD-ROM support, you can download it from my archive here:

http://sdfox7.com/95a/boot95cd.exe

*This is from 1996 and is NOT the same as a Windows 98SE CD-ROM boot disk! This disk will only format using the FAT16 file system, which means maximum 2GB for each partition.*

This program will create a bootable floppy. Stick an empty floppy into the floppy drive and double-click the file to execute. Any existing files on this floppy will be erased by the program! Use empty disk only!

Note: Your CD drive will be drive *R:/*

Also check out my page for old 95 software from the 1994-1995 era. And Lightspeed's Windows 95 Page is an excellent place to start for the most recent programs available for Win95.


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