This problem is killing me...

[ddeder]

I have an old Compaq Presario 4860 333 PII machine with an 8GB harddrive. This machine shipped with Windows 95 but most recently was running Windows 98 without a problem. This computer came with a Restore CD that is supposed to be able to put the computer back to it's original condition. I wanted to do this... So I put the Restore CD in the CD-ROM drive and press the button for a full system restore. The computer automatically starts to reboot and as it trys to boot, the screen goes blank except for a cursor in the upper left corner of the screen. The computer remains in this condition until I power it off. If I try to reboot with the Restore CD in the CD-ROM drive, the same thing happens. If I remove the CD from the drive and then reboot, it reboots fine.

I have an old Windows 95 Cd here so I thought I would just clean install from that. I formatted the harddrive tried to install from the Windows 95 CD. I immediately get a message that a compressed drive was found or a disk cache utility and it needs to be removed before Windows 95 can be installed. I just formatted the darn harddrive, there is no compressed volume or disk cache utility. Why do I keep getting this message? I formatted the harddrive as FAT16. Same thing.

Can someone please help me out here?

 

[RaidMan]

Those SOB's.. I know perfectly wht you are going through... I suggest a low level format. I used a program called cleansweep that COMPLETELY wipes your drive. You can then instal WHATEVER operating system you desire... Be careful though.. my experience with an HP in the same shape required a driver for the sound/modem card that was difficult to find.

 

[Slikkster]

Sounds like the problem is that you're trying to install Win95 on a Fat32 drive (Win98)...and that's a no-go, unless it's Win95 "C" or "OSR-2". Sounds like it's one of the earlier versions.

You'll have to use a boot disk, fdisk the drive, remove the partitions, then fdisk it to fat16 (answer "N" or "No" for Large Disk Support, which is Fat32). Then, you'll have a Fat16 drive, and Win95 should install fine.

Curious to know why you'd downgrade something that was working, unless you just wanted the original apps and want to then upgrade to Win98 and Fat32.

 

[XeonTux]

You might also want to browse Compaq's user forums, or customer communities or whatever they call em.. I ran into a Presario that did something similar when selecting a full restore...IIRC there was some key combination to give it a kick in the ass. Hmmm, I think numlock/capslock had to be in a certain state while it booted and then you had to toggle one of them it when it paused. Really obscure, and something I would have never guessed.

As far as partiftioning and formatting, I think you should be ok if you just remove all the partitions before running a restore. Compaq always creates a 2 partitions, the D: partitions is for holding backups I believe. Not sure, but maybe this is confusing it if you already have one large partition.

Good luck. And why not stick with win98?

 

[ddeder]

I'm selling this machine and keeping my retail version of Windows 98. Just want everything to be nice and legal...

 

[ddeder]

I hate to say it but as it turns out, I think the problem was my fault. I contacted Compaq via e-mail and explained the situation and after one weak attempt at solving my problem they directed me to an authorized service center. Today, I e-mailed them again with more details of my problem and the tech support guy that answered this e-mail asked me to check if my IDE cables were plugged into the proper slots. Sure enough, when I put a CD-RW into this system over a year ago, I must have switched the hard drive to the secondary controller and the DVD and CD-RW to the primary controller. Either that, or they were plugged in incorrectly when I bought it. Anyway, I have gone all this time never experiencing a problem due to this. When I switched the hard drive to the primary and the CD drives to the secondary, the computer was able to boot from the CD-ROM. Guess I learn something new every day. Must of gotten lucky and gotten the one tech support guy at Compaq who knows something about computers. Running the QuickRestore now hoping it works.

By the way, I am a little disappointed that someone here at Anandtech didn't come up with this first... Thanks to those who did try and help me though. It is appreciated.

 

[Slikkster]

I can't speak for anyone else, but to say you're "disappointed" in Anandtechers because of this doesn't strike me as being fair. When someone lists a problem here and I have some time to check into it, I try my best given the information they've provided.

Why didn't anyone come up with this as a solution? First, you only posted this yesterday! Second, all the info on your error message from the Win95 disk doesn't point to mismatched IDE cables. Let me give you just one example. Look at this webpage that deals with troubleshooting this issue. Then, tell me where one would get the impression that it's an IDE problem?

Compressed Drive/Disk Cache Utility Error on installation

Third, you dealt with Compaq direct. Doesn't it stand to reason that these people would have more experience with their own machines and databases (non-public, no doubt) about troubleshooting particular issues their customers have had?

I hope you were just kidding, man. If you were, it sure didn't come across that way. Your Compaq person gets paid for his/her trouble. No one here does.

 

[ddeder]

I was half kidding Slikkster. I always hope that someone at Anandtech can help me because I rarely get helped by the manufacturers tech support. In fact you were correct in your original reply saying that I could not install Windows 95 to a FAT 32 partition. Even though I did not specifically ask why it was happening, I thought someone might address why I could not boot from my Restore CD. It was such a simple thing, switching the cables. If someone posts a problem here in the future about not being able to boot from the CD-ROM, I now know what I will suggest they look at. I have seen the effort that you have put into solving some of the other problems here at Anandtech. I have no doubt had you concentrated on the reboot issue you would have solved my problem as well. Frankly, I'm amazed that I received such a straight answer from Compaq and their suggestion actually worked...

 

[Slikkster]

No problem...I understand the tech support deal. Sometimes they do surprise you, and it would seem to me that you weren't the first Compaq customer who had this problem. Probably drove the first tech crazy, though, trying to figure it out!

 

[XeonTux]

HP doesn't even want to talk to you unless you have your EXACT original hardware configuration when trying to do a restore. And there restore is really picky like that too at times...just changing a CD-ROM drive sometimes can cause it to fail.