i can't get a dos prompt to install windows. i have a pentium mmx 166mhz,base mem 640k,extended mem 64512k,cache mem 256k. how or what do i use to boot so i can get a prompt all i get is invalid sys disk,replace a press any key.thaks in advance.

Well, you need a boot disk, ideally with CD ROM support (assuming that your Win95 install is the CD version) Also, you need to have 'boot from floppy' enabled in CMOS, and select a: as the first boot device. Bootdisks available here (and lots of other places)

I have a boot disk 3 of the, and the Windows 98 cd but when I try to install it says something is wrong with my hard drive like no dos or somthing so how do I install DOS?

I note you advise your os is w95. Is this what you are hoping to install, or is it already installed. Either way, I feel you would be better with w98. When a pc is powered on, it needs to boot from somewhere, hdd, fdd or cd. Not all allow the cd. The user controls this and the order of such by setup in the bios. I am e-mailing you a disk, that should get you out of trouble (I hope). Good luck - keep us posted. PCs that allow booting from cd, should be setup as such, and then boot from the windows installation cd. The DOS prompt is not involved. For PCs that do not, as advised by jboy above, you need to have a simple DOS boot floppy that enables the pc to support a cd. Then you enter the windows installation.

I'm confused. There's a lot of assumption here. -If you have Windows 95 installed on your computer, then you should already have DOS. -If you didn't follow jboy's advice "boot from floppy enabled" then you are still booting from HD, and yes, you will get the error mesage, if DOS is not really installed. -if you are booting from the bootdisk, then you should be able to access your hard drive. -If you're still getting the error message, I will assume that your HD is not truly partitioned and formatted. You cannot install an OS in an unformatted HD. It will really help if you could tell us what the error message is instead of "it says something is wrong with my hard drive like no dos or somthing", is it unformatted drive?, wrong dos version? total disk failure? drive not present, OS not present, non system disk, what???too many of them to mention.

Booting from the CD is a nice feature, but it's only useful if your installation CD is bootable - I think that you could only use Win98SE (and later) installation CDs to boot up. To install 95 you'd need to boot from a floppy and then proceed with setup from the Windows install. If your CD is the upgrade, it'll require 'proof' of a previous Win version - usually disk1 of Win31 although I've heard that you can fake it ; ) post back with any progress