i have an old computer running win95. i attached a second hd to it to recover lost files from it but it runs on fat 32. i wanted to use ndd.exe to repaire the table and rescue the files but it warns me that i need to upgrade to dos ver 7.10 to be able to read the second hd. how can i upgrade to ver 7.10?
thank you

Windows 95 did not support Fat32 untill the Windows 95B or OEM version. You could try making boot diskette on a Windows 98/ME system which is WinDOS 7.10 and supports Fat32. Or download one from Bootdisk.com.

"WinDOS 7.10"(called by JackG) is a special and non-standard version of MS-DOS 7.10 included in some versions of Win9x. But here you can get and upgrade to the standalone and full version of MS-DOS 7.10:

http://newdos.yginfo.net/msdos71.htm

thank you.
i was actually trying to find a way to install the ugrade version of dos 7.10 to the machine with windows 95 on it. will it work? i don't need a dos 7.10 boot diskette. i have one and i am unable to boot with it. do i need to convert to fat 32 first to install dos 7.10?

MS-DOS 7.10 standard and standalone version supports FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32 drives, and supports almost all DOS-based versions of Windows, such as Windows 3.x GUI and Windows 9x GUI.

Wengier, correct me if I am wrong? But Windows 95 & 95A came with MS-DOS 7.0 (FAT16) and cannot be upgraded to MS-DOS 7.10 (Windows 95B (OEM2) onwards) since it will report incorrect DOS Version?? I would be interested to know if anyone has in fact got Windows 95/95A working in combination with MS-DOS 7.10 & FAT32? It should be possible since 3.1 will!

Of course Win95/95A is working fine on top of MS-DOS 7.10 as well as Win3.x and Win95OSR2/98/98SE. It won't report "incorrect DOS Version" at all, because the DOS version that Win95 GUI will run is MS-DOS 7.0 OR LATER, like 7.0, 7.10 and 8.0. However, Win95OSR2/98/98SE won't work on top of MS-DOS 7.0 because it requires MS-DOS 7.10 OR LATER(otherwise the error message "This version of Windows does not run on MS-DOS 7.00 or earlier." will appear). That's to say, MS-DOS 7.10 is compatible with all versions of Windows GUI, including Win2.x/3.x/95/98 but except WinME. Here is a sample CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT I created on my computer:

CONFIG.SYS:

[MENU]
MENUITEM=DOS71, MS-DOS prompt
MENUITEM=WIN31, Start Windows 3.1 GUI
MENUITEM=WIN95A, Start Windows 95A GUI
MENUITEM=WIN95OSR2, Start Windows 95OSR2 GUI
MENUITEM=WIN98, Start Windows 98 GUI
MENUITEM=WIN98SE, Start Windows 98SE GUI

[DOS71]

[WIN31]

[WIN95A]

[WIN95OSR2]

[WIN98]

[WIN98SE]

[COMMON]
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=IFSHLP.SYS
...

AUTOEXEC.BAT:

@ECHO OFF
GOTO %CONFIG%

:DOS71
GOTO END

:WIN31
C:\WIN31\WIN
GOTO END

:WIN95A
C:
CD \WIN95
WIN
GOTO END

:WIN95OSR2
D:
CD \WIN95OSR
WIN
GOTO END

:WIN98
E:
CD \WIN98
WIN
GOTO END

:WIN98SE
F:
CD \WIN98SE
WIN
GOTO END

:END
ECHO Now you are in MS-DOS mode.
ECHO ON

MSDOS.SYS:

[windir]
windir=.
winbootdir=.

[options]
BootGUI=0
Logo=0
...

Note: But don't try to start Windows ME WIN.COM on top of MS-DOS 7.x, otherwise the following error message will be shown:

"This version of Windows runs only on MS-DOS 8.00."

ok so if i get it right,
i have two optins to try:
1- i boot the windows 95 machine from a windows 98 BOOT DISKETTE and it will load into dos version 7.10 and then i switch to the ndd.exe diskette and select to repair the second 32bit hd

- OR -

i boot to f8 and select command prompt only,
then i put the two DOS 7.10 INSTALLATION DISKETTES, install dos 7.10 and when its done - insert the ndd.exe diskette to repair the second hard disk.

right?
wish me luck!
and thank you for the advice

To load or install MS-DOS 7.10, you can just boot your machine from MS-DOS 7.10 Installation Disk 1, because it's bootable by itself, and then when you get the MS-DOS 7.10 prompt, the DOS installer will be launched automatically(but the install process can be cancelled by the user at any time and then you will get the MS-DOS 7.10 prompt again).

Thanks for that.

Mick C

WOW!!!
it realy worked!
thank you so much!
details:
booting the win95 machine from the dos 7.1 installation diskette did not work, but when i started to f8 and selected command prompt only i was able to insert installation diskette 1 and setup worked well. i did not manage to install the add-ons from the second diskette and it did not axcept the unpacked files as a path to read from from the c:\dos71\ folder so i re-booted and went back to the dos prompt and typed setup once again to install from the first diskette only and chose this time NOT to install the add-ons. the installation of dos 7.10 was SUCCESSFULL!!
then i rebooted and it stays in dos mode and i inserted the ndd.exe diskette and it is now repairing my second 32bit hard disk!
thank you again for all you input.
it was great fun to learn yet another computer thing with you!
Eli

on the other hand...
ndd.exe destroyed all the files on the second hard drive...

eli_yardena,

Yes, NDD is sort of buggy sometimes..

Mick C,

Here is a screenshot of Windows 95(4.00.950) running on top of MS-DOS 7.10:

http://newdos.yginfo.net/pic/dosw95.jpg

yes the installation worked well, thank you.
i am using a program called
"PC Inspector file recovery"
and it is (fortunately) still able to see and recover the lost files by saving them to another location (hd 1) which is ok...
its a great program that can read sector after sector and display all the exisitng files to save at another location and it works.
i only need a third empty hard disk to poor all the data into but thats only a "small thecnical problem ...
Eli

when i connected the damaged 32bit hard disk into a computer running Wondows XP i was able to see ALL the drives, folders and files on it and there was no problem copying all the 4.43 Gigs to the local hard disk to save them. now i can burn the folders/files to cd's.
(why didn't i think of that in the first place.....)
Eli