I am re-formatting an old PC of mine. So far I have wiped the C drive and started up with the boot disk. An error message says 'IDE interface can't communicate with drive correctly', meaning the D CD drive. I have tried a good IDE cable and a good CD machine to no avail.

As my Windows 95 is on a CD, has anyone got a set of '95 floppies I can borrow, please? Once I have Windows back I can investigate the CD fault.

Silly question I know... but why are you still on Windows 95?

Also, you should be able to create a book disk that loads your CD drivers? Or have you tried that already?

geoffbowen, I'm on XP, the old machine is on '95.

Yes, tried that.

nowt wrong with windows 95 not like i use it anymore:mrgreen: BTW what does MR green do?

Thanks for the insightful comments Jon :o

Back on topic... Graham what is the exact error message you are getting and at what stage?

The system check, memory etc., passes OK, then 'Starting Windows 95...' . Then the CD driver that was loaded on the startup disc, then error message as above.

yep sounds like you need to up a drive type in E drive it will pick it up instead of your D drive TRY it works .but for ref ok a boot floppy created under windows 98 or win ME will boot up a win 95 machine with out any probs or conflicts at all but if you want a boot disc for 95 go to http://bootdisk.com

[Corrected link - Tony Ruscoe]

or poss a dead hard drive or loose hard drive connection, for win 95 you dont need a big drive a cheapo drive from a place say nu-tec at handsworth cheap second user stuff will do

George, thanks for advice, you clearly are au fait with such things. Have tried those avenues and downloads, makes me think only loading '95 via floppy is the only option left.

got a old pirate win 98 if you want it no use to me bought it with a load of software,if it helps you out Graham.

Success! The problem proved to be that the IDE 2 connecting the CD was disabled in the bios. '95 now loaded from CD! Thanks for all the advice.

out of interest did you read this post posted 4 hours earlier to give you an idea of what might have been the problem?

Help required concerning computers! (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?threadid=1790)

I need windows 95 on floppies to upgrade an ancient but worthy Toshiba colour laptop. I have it on CD, but no means of getting onto laptop. Is there a way of doing this, ie copy cd to floppies? I can`t use windows 3.1, due to lack of experience, and 95 is almost foolproof!

I know someone that simply went to Staples, purchased an external CDROM drive, connected it to the laptop, installed Windows 95 from the CD then took advantage of the "14 days money back guarantee" (no questions asked)!

Of course, it's advisable to copy the setup folder to the hard drive and install from there in case there's any problems after you've taken the CD drive back ... ;)

Yes, good idea. I need to build up a bit of nerve first though.8)

Copying the CD to floppies is not possible for the layman, I already checked!