Computer Hope

IBM Aptiva 2168/Win95/48MB

I am attempting to erase or reformat my HD using Win95 as I sell my PC. I searched for and tried a few methods, including:

1. Using my Win 95 Disk which says go to add/remove programs and uninstall. I accidentally uninstalled Win95 update1 instead.
2. I rebooted to the Windows recovery disk. At the prompt I entered 'format c: /s' and receive the reply "invalid drive"
3. I rebooted to the Windows recovery disk. At the prompt I entered 'Uninstall.exe' and received:
   "file C:\MSDOS.SYS is missing or invalid
   "C:\ is not accessible"
   "C:\SUHDLOG.--- cannot be opened
then the program continues for a few seconds and ends with: Unable to restore the location of your MS-DOS system file
Error Code 1

The bad news is that this PC is not connected to the internet. The good news is that my 'G' drive (I think) is a copy of my C drive in case I can use that somehow. By the way, from the RUN command. "format (drive letter) still works (I was able to reformat my 'H' drive).

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Scott

If you have the system recovery media set for this computer, boot off of the CD and at the menu where it asks you what type of recovery you want to perform, there should be an option to tell it to wipe all data and set it back to factory. This will format the hard drive and install Windows 95 fresh to the system, so that you can sell it with Windows 95 running on it.

If you dont have the recovery media then you will need a bootable floppy or CD and then booted off of this media perform the Format C: where the Format command is located on the Floppy or CD and from the A: prompt if a Floppy or from the D: or E: prompt ( whatever your CD ROM is mapped as ) run the format instruction from there to format the C: drive.

QuoteAt the prompt I entered 'format c: /s' and receive the reply "invalid drive"

This is by design. You can't FORMAT C: if Windows itself resides on or is using C:. The only way to format a drive in use by the system is to reboot, usually from floppy, as Dave says.

It's C:\...not /...hence the drive error.

"Ouch!' as I smack myself fro not mentioning that I have both the Win95 companion CD and a bootable Recovery Disk.

I tried to boot off the Win95 CD and received:
Invalid setting in the MSDOS.SYS file

Starting Windows 95...
Warning: the system configuration manager failed to run.
some of your real-mode device drivers may not initialize properly.
Type the name of the Command Interpreter
C>

What is on the bootable recovery disk >? ?...wasn't available in Win 95.

Start over and re-state what you are wanting to accomplish...