Chosen Solution
Ok, Ive got a old computer running windows 95(yes I know, old and obselete hardware);I got it from a friend, and when I try to boot it up, it will give me a data error reading drive c message. Before any of you here ask “why do you have something that old?” let me say that this is just something to tinker around with, and I am learning computer repair, so I figure what a better way to do it than with this old machine? Any ideas? I don’t think the hard drive is bad, because I can do a scan disk check just fine. Also, I DO have a Gaming desktop that is up to date. Any help would be apprerciated. Please, no wise cracks to this question. Thank you.
Kevin, this may be caused by a defective sector or an incomplete file. On startup, go to DOS and type scandisk. ScanDisk might patch it, but if the hard drive has too many bad sectors or files, it could take very long. Of course you will have to have a DOS startup disk. You could also try to get into safemode. To get into Windows 95 Safe Mode, as the computer is booting, when you either hear a beep or when you see the message “Starting Windows 95”, press your F8 key on the top of your keyboard. If done properly you should get into the Windows 95 Startup menu. From here select the Safe Mode with Command Prompt would also allow you to have access to the command line (MS-DOS prompt).
You probably have a corrupt windows file system. I would do a fresh format and reinstall of the OS and you will be good to go.
Maybe you could download one of the free boot discs such UBCD (that can be found by google searching on your gaming PC, and written to a disc on that if you have a CD writer). I’d use the command CHKDSK /F in DOS if possible, because although scandisk is native to Windows 95, it’s not as good at finding errors as chkdsk is. The /F option tells chkdsk to automatically fix anything bad that it finds, either in boot records, faulty files etc. I usually attach drives like yours onto an external USB hard drive adaptor, and then have a fully working PC do the repair scanning. If you dont have a USB adaptor like that, then the UBCD mentioned above has a variety of things for checking drives. Windows 95 was well known for suddenly getting the odd corrupt file for apparently no reason from what I recall. Serial mice ? lol, i remember them, I still have 4 in my collection of good old stuff (i’m a collector & engineer, that’s my excuse). Hope you do get it running again, good luck with it.
