Found new way to instal '95 - W/O a CD drive!

[Ed_S]

Got a laptop recently that has no CD, so I've been looking for an external, or some way to get '95 installed (can't stand 3.1 anymore!)

Anyway, something clicked today. I usually copy the Win95 directory from the CD to the HD when installing & this works well. So why not install from zip disk?

Copied the install files from CD to a disk using my desktop, then connected the zip drive to my laptop, ran Iomega Guest software, then installed '95.

Worked great!!!


Have never seen this suggested, anybody else ever tried? Would work on any machine with parallel port.

[commodsquad]

Well I never tried it but your info is a good alternative to know about, ... Bet Windows took a heckuva long time to install though LOL.. /forum/smile.gif

[welsh wizard]

prob a D$$ Site faster than using the 3.5 version to instal.
good way round it if you have a par port zip,
mine are either internal or SCSI /forum/frown.gif darn.
WW

[OuTpaTienT]

You should've carried the thought one step further. Instead of installing from the Zip drive, you should've copied the Win directory onto the laptops HD. Then installed from there. Two benifits to this:

1.) Much faster to install!

2.) In the future when Windoze need to reference the install disk, it will have it availible on the HD. Whereas in your case, it will try to access the phantom Zip drive.

[dexmax]

OuTpaTienT is correct. It would be faster if you copied it to your HDD. But this is only practical if you have enough space. There are a lot of ways installing an O/S w/o using the CD-Rom Drive or your Floppy. Besides Parallel and SCSI interface devices such as zip, jazz, sparQ, etc. -- you can always transfer files through the network, or install from it, etc.

[Gene C.]

Gene C.
Member posted 11-27-1999 09:06 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I put 95 on laptop's all the time. even mine and it has no cd-rom on one of them. get youself a external zip drive. copy the win 95 dir. off a cd. and than just make a dir. on the laptop and copy the 95 dir to it. go into the dir. on the laptop and typr setup. and you now got youself 95 on a laptop. make sure the setup file is in the dir. of course you must own the cd-rom disk. """"if you know what I mean!!!

Update: if you have a 250 mb zip you can do the samething with 98. and as I stated before you must own the cd's. I have been doing this in my shop since the first zip was
up and running.

[KillerBug]

How about this:

Set up a null modem between your laptop and computer. Then make a directory with windows in it and share it. Then install it on the laptop

[emcron]

As long as we are talking about zip drives, does anyone know what happened to he zip plus drives, its like they disappeared of the market. I can't find them anywhere.

[Ed_S]

OuTpaTienT - You're right, that would have been quicker, but space is limited on this thing, plus I'm not too concerned about future references in this case. Whole thing is an experiment, mainly.
Yeah, it was slow in comparison to normal install on modern machine. But this IS a 486DX40, after all

Gene - where was that posted? Swear I never saw it!

Edit - Just found the thread Gene mentioned. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/Forum9/HTML/000306.html
At that time I was doing the install on this thing & was offline, but regardless, he did beat me to it!

Kinda weird, really but this is same type machine CoCoPops has in that thread, a Compaq Elite LTE 4/40CX

[This message has been edited by Ed_S (edited 11-28-1999).]

[Gene C.]

that has nothing to do with it. I was just showing that our systems that you and I have work. sometimes newbie's are afarid to try new things. I myself would like as much feed back as possiable. if I was going to maybe buy a certain drive to do a job with. I only bought a zip for that purpose. and that was after a friend of mine charged me 50.00 to put some software on a system for me. I think the more feed back the better. that way we can decide which method we want to use.

[Ed_S]

I can relate to newbie's pretty good right now, since this is my first laptop. After all this time I'm having new experiences again, trying to get the @#$% thing running right! But that's what I wanted it for, the learning experience.

Like you said, I like feedback too. The more techniques the better. Bought parallel zip just for it's portability, but had never had occasion to try this before.

Actually thought I had new idea, should have known better. Had to give credit where it's due, though.

BTW, Gene, somebody charged you $50 to do an install & you still call him friend?
Probably best way to keep bus. & friendship seperate, though.

[mcalmon]

Copy to a directory in your HD!
It's the better option.
Ok,
TonyC