Need Help installing windows on a old computer

[shizim]

First of all, hi everyone
Im having some trouble trying to install windows (95, 98, 98se or me) on a old ocmputer we have here at home... its a 486... with a 3.2gig caviar HD.. it was running fine till i had to use the HD, so i formated it and installed xp. When i put it back on the 486 the thing wouldnt run xp.. so i tried to install the other, older windows.. without succes... it kept saying that it wasnt on a FAT/FAT32 format, i did format it again under FAT32, but it doesnt seem to have worked, and to get everything even worse, i reseted the mobo bios back to default and now the computer wont even find the hard drive!

can anyone help me? please?


Thanks!


ps: i have another computer to which i could hook up this HD to try and format it, but the problem is that this other computer has only 1 SATA HD

 

[shizim]

Oh! i forgot to tell you guys this... when i boot up the old computer with the 3.2gb hd it goes trough memory check and then doesnt find the HD it gives some sort of error thats what i mean.. but if i go to the bios and check in the primary master... theres my HD with 20mb ONLY, and if i press pgup/pgdn(used for changing stuff) the size changes slightly... i didnt get this...

 

[mihaisofti]

a 486 is no match for XP. Try forcing the bios to detect the HD; there should be a setting for this. When you get it working, use a floppy and CD to install win98 se. This is a better choice for the machine. However, if you need a firewall, this is a perfect machine for making one using IpCop

 

[huesmann]

Yeah, XP just won't run on a 486. Not if you want to actually do anything with the puter. Try partitioning and formatting the drive on another computer.

 

[nanaki333]

what are you using to format the drive to FAT32? if you're not using fdisk, then use that and then try it.

 

[shizim]

is it possible for me to install two HD (being one a SATA and the other one a ATA) and boot from the SATA one (even though my bios doenst recognize the SATA one) ?

 

[shizim]

yes im using fdisk, i delete all the partitions and then put the DOS one.. is that right ?

 

[nanaki333]

delete all the partitions then set the primary to all of the disk space. then you reboot that janx and do a format c:

do you try to install 98 from booting into dos with cd support and running setup or do you just boot from the disk? oh, and i doubt 98 will run on a 486. it might run, but you'll only be able to open up notepad.

 

[boomerang]

Do a search for delpart. Sounds as if your XP install was done using NTFS.

After running delpart you will be good to go. You can put it right on your 95 or 98 boot floppy. There should be enough room.

Run delpart and then fdisk.

 

[huesmann]

Or you could just get the disk utility from the drive manufacturer and write zeroes to the drive.

 

[Zelmo3]

Originally posted by: huesmann
Or you could just get the disk utility from the drive manufacturer and write zeroes to the drive.

OMG no, that takes forever! Get delpart, copy it onto a Win98 boot floppy, and do as boomerang said.

 

[shizim]

OK i managed to install it.. but something went a bit wrong.. i dunno what... i did a format c: and gota 2.1 gig instead of 3.2 gig and after i installed winme and transfered it to the old mobo (i did all of this in my computer) the mobo doesnt recognize th HD! i get various HDs each one of them of a small size (something between 10 and 100 megs) and a big 2.1gig harddrive, but if a set ti to boot from the 2.1 gig it turns on, does the memory check and gives me a HD fail!

omg.. whats going on ?

 

[shizim]

Oh i did de delpart thing, and when i ranthe program it would only show 1 2000mb partition.... somethings not right....

and i can run the winme hardrive on my newer boar (AN7) i just cant run the hd on the old mobo

 

[dderolph]

You've got a computer that very likely has a BIOS limitation of 2.1 GB for the largest size hard drive it will recognize. Depending on how old your 486 is, it may even have a 528 MB size limit. See Operating System and BIOS limitations. However, there ways to get around that limitation.

I have a Pentium computer that was new in Oct 95. The BIOS has a drive size limit of 2.1GB for a drive formatted under FAT and using Windows 95. However, I installed a 15.3 GB Western Digital drive in it in July 2000 and was able to use the full capacity by installing Western Digital's EZ-BIOS and partitioning the drive into partitions not larger than 2.1GB. But, I later formatted the drive as FAT32 and installed Win 98SE, which recognizes FAT32. Under that configuration, I could have had only one partition and used the entire 15.3GB.

 

[huesmann]

You might have to use the drive setup s/w that's put out by your drive's mfg.

 

[boomerang]

If I read this correctly, you are installing your OS with the HD in one computer and then putting that same HD in another computer.

You are setting yourself up for failure right from the start doing this.

What with older (sorry, but ancient actually) hardware, BIOS and OS limitations in regards to HD size, this may be a project worthy of abandonment.

I like a challenge as much or more than the next person in regards to computer related things. But you have to know when to walk away.

At the very least, you must have that HD in the machine it will run in for the OS install. You have too many factors working against you to do it any other way.

XP is not going to run on a 486. 95 should and 98 probably will. I wouldn't run ME on anything.