Hi all!

I've been looking around on this forum without been able to solve my problem. I recently dowloaded windows 3.11, WFW i belive, in order to install it on an older laptop. I copied the files to 8 disc in order to be able install windows, since the computer doesn't have a CD-rom. When I start the setup everything works perfectly untill the setup screen prompts: "insert disk 2". When I do so, and press enter, nothing happens, it's prompting the same thing again, "insert disk 2". At this stage the installation has completed about 40%. Why doesn't it continue? The content on the discs are alright. Is there a disc labeling problem?

Thankful for anser.
Best regards, Andreas from Sweden

Maybe you have a corrupt diskette.

Also, are you sure you have all the necessary files. Look here for a list of all the files on the diskettes. Make sure you have the file "disk2" on the 2nd diskette.

Good luck.

Did you label the disks? I found that when I installed DOS the disks needed to be named something particular in order for the system to recognize that they were the second and third disks.... this might also be true in your case.

Hello again!

I've checked the files and the disk, they are ok. The problem remains, after disk 1 has finished, 43% of the installation is performed. When I insert disk 2 and press enter, another 3% gets installed, resulting in 46% installed. It is now Windows setup demands "microsoft Windows 3.1 Disk #2", though it is already inserted.

surely you mean you downloaded it from another computer you own ;) not possibly the internet

MadClikr, Win3x disks do not need the same labels as MS-DOS 6x does, only a simple file called 'disk2' with the text disk2 inside it. (Disk 3 onwards need similar files by the way) as C_Legend suggests! Have you indeed checked for them Andreas ?

does your laptop have an extra 12 megs of space over and above the windows install?
If so, al you have to do is copy all the files into a folder called anything you want, and install it from there...should install perfectly..no need then for the text files 'disk1' 'disk2' etc.....

Dominicus and all,

I tried to copy the files to a folder, just as an expreiment. Something is wrong, the copy process ends with (translated from swedish):
"datafailure, cannot read from A:
Ignore, suspend, new try etc..."

When I copied disk one to the folder, everything worked just fine. I then tried to copy disk 2, 3 and 4, it was then a got the above message. Hmm, when I copied the files to the disks from my computer with XP nothing went wrong...

What's wrong?

dominicus, I think you will find that even if you copy all the files from diskettes to a harddrive directory, you MAY still need the 'disk1' 'disk2' etc files to be located within the directory! since setup uses them to verify that the correct diskette is inserted, (Its written in SETUP.INI) so even if you copy all the files into one location, setup still thinks its on individual diskettes!! I had a Microsoft CD-ROM with Windows 3.1 on it, and these files were still there.

However it now sounds as if Disk 2 may well be corrupt, and since it is a Swedish version hard to replace!!

Since you didn't have any problems copying the files from XP to the diskettes, but had problems henceforth, maybe you just have bad diskettes. Have you tried with different diskettes?

Who knows, maybe since you're using XP to copy these files to and fro, the difference in filesystems is screwing things up (NTFS or FAT32?).

Good luck.

Hi Andreas,

Dominicus is right if when you made the disks you used xcopy by putting them all into one directory you can do the complete install from that directory. Also you do not need to use FAT16 you can use FAT32 for the install as long as you are running MS-DOS 7.10. It is free and can be downloaded from the internet. As for the NTFS thing that C_LEGEND mentions it is not revlevent. All floppys are written in FAT16 regardless of what FAT or NTFS system you are using. And since you can run WFW311 on FAT32 and you are using FAT32 on your XP you can even make your XP a Dual boot.

Good Luck.

Hi all!

Have tried your what you've suggested. Tried win 98 startdisk, win 95 start disk, casue I didn't find Dos 7.1. I've checked my installationdisks with scandisk, no problem there. I've tried fresh disks also. I've tried to copy the files to the computer, get stuck with bad bootsector failure. Have tried installing from discs, get error messages, not the same each time. Can the floppy be corrupt?