I recently inherited a computer with Windows 95 on it. I have a network card in it now, and the card’s self-tests indicate that it’s working properly, but I don’t have the drivers. Of course, when I try to install them, Windows asks me for the Win95 CD. The problem is that this computer, being a relic from the Stone Ages, doesn’t have a CD-ROM drive-- Its 5.25" bay is actually taken up by, of all things, a floppy drive. I figured that this would not be a problem: I went home and popped my Win95 CD into my home machine to copy the relevant files onto a floppy. However, the \drivers
etwork\ directory on the CD only has drivers for six brands listed, none of which is the brand of my network card. Now, that network card used to reside in my home machine, and Windows was able to find the drivers for it on that same CD, so they must be there somewhere. The question is, where? How can I find the appropriate drivers and get them all onto my office computer?
I don’t have a solution for you, but you might be able to get the information from your old computer’s (that is, the computer that had the correct driver) system registry.
Go to START --> RUN
Then type in regedit.
I don’t think that you can actually find the path names in there, but you do have the option to Export and Import Registry files.
Perhaps you could export the old registry file to the Win95 registry?
I moved several months ago. Upon setting my year and a half old computer, I decided that this was a perfect time to reformat the C: drive and clean up all the old forgotten garbage that collects there.
I had a similiar problem to the one you listed, except with my modem. I knew it was compatible bc I had it in there for the previous year.
After 2 weeks of hell, and several other problems that mysteriously popped up while I was trying to fix it…
I just gave up and bought an e-machine. $430 (no monitor or printer) and my problems were over.
I guess my bottom line is that I have no advice to give, but I do feel your pain:)
Chronos, if you tell us the card brand and model someone may be able to supply the drivers or direct you to where you can find them. Looking for them on the net seems easier than on your WIN95 CDrom
The problem might not be the network card drivers, but the network support files from Windows itself. If Win95 was originally installed without a net card, they were not loaded. Putting one on now is why Windows needs to install those files now.
As for where they are - probably compressed in one of the .CAB files on the CD. Win98 and I think Win95 will tell you which one if you let it fail looking for the CD, then click browse. It should list the file it is looking for, then you can feed it the correct file on floppy.
Its trying to find just the files that it needs, not those specific for the card.
Point it to, not the cd, but the W95 directory on the cd until you see the cab it wants come up in the box.
I’ve had this problem before. Assuming you’ve already tried c:\windows\optioms\cabs try this:
When you go to install the drivers just point it to anywhere and click OK. it will say looking for “xxx” on “win95 cd”. Use the find feature on another computer and copy the file to a floppy. Then put that floppy in the computer you are working on and tell it to look on the floppy. It will copy that file and another dialog box will come up asking for another file. Just do this over and over until it is finished. Might take up to 20 minutes though. For common files like TCP/IP protocol stuff, try pointing to C:\windows\ and C:\windows\system
I hope that made sense.
uhh. small detail, the other computer must have a similar network card installed for this to work.
Windows 95 needs a variety of network related Win 95 system files if you are installing the card drivers. There is no specific “place” or directory that these files are stored. They are extracted from compressed *.cab files off the CD as needed. I’ve done this little dance more times than I can count with doorstops like the one you have.
Although it’s a pain your best bet is to remove your CD drive and temporarily connect it to the old machine (I’ll send you generic CD-ROM drivers if you need them) and let it take whatever files it wants. If there is room for a 100 meg or so directory on the hard drive make a c:\win95 directory and copy all the Win95 *.cab files to this directory so you won’t need the 95 CD again.
Also…if you know someone with a parallel port ZIP drive you can also copy the *.cab files to the ZIP drive without having to do the CD drive swap and either use them off the ZIP drive or copy them to a hard drive directory. This assumes your Win 95 unit can load the ZIP drivers off the ZIP drive floppy and make the unit accessible under DOS or Windows.
Also… if you have a parallel port transfer cable and several hours you can connect the old machine to the newer machine with a CD and copy the *cab files to a directory on the older machine. I have a nice, simple file transfer utility that will do this for you if you wish.
Also…it also might be just as easy (and lots faster) to remove the older hard drive (assuming it’s IDE) from the older unit and hook it up to the newer PC as a primary slave or secondary master and simply copy the *.cab files off the CD directly to the old drive. Replace the drive in the old system and you’re ready to go.
I have this sort of thing happen a lot. I do things similar to Astro. If you have a Windows 98 startup diskette, it should have all the generic CD-ROM drivers on it. Temporarily connect any CD-ROM drive to the system. Boot from the diskette. Make a “win95” directory on the ‘C’ drive. Copy everything from the CD’s “win95” directory to the C:\win95 directory. Anytime it ask for a CD, point it to that directory.
If you are short of disk space, you can remove the whole directory after everything is working. If disk space isn’t a problem, then leave it there. You can change a registry entry and the default will point to that directory and Windows won’t even ask for the CD again.
If you are comfortable changing the registry, the key is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup
and the Value Name is: SourcePath
Change it to “C:\win95”
Jim
Thanks for the advice, all… I’d rather not try to muckl around with opening up my home machine to move around HDs or CD-ROM drives, but it looks like it might come to that. Alternately, I might try to just dig up some DOS drivers and an FTP program: I won’t need the Microsoft OS drivers for long, as I’m soon going to install Linux on it. Wish me luck.