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I messed up my Thinkpad 355Cs by accident and I need to clear the hard drive completely and reinstall windows. How is that done? I know i dont have the Windows 95 discs anymore (except for the video driver disc and utilities disc). I DO have the DOS 6.3 discs and Windows 3.1 discs and all the information included with them. Can anyone tell me what to do? (Also if anyone could tell me how to change the RAM on the laptop from 4 mb to the 20 mb that would be nice.
To 'clear the hard drive' you would normally boot up with a bootdisk and at the a:\> prompt type format c: and enter.
To reinstall 95 you're going to need 95 either on cd or floppy disks. (I assume your laptop has both drives.) With the dos and 3.1 disks you can always install that.
I'm not sure how the memory is configured on that laptop. You could go to someplace like www.crucial.com to get an idea of the memory it will take.
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Do not clear the hard drive!!! You might have the files to reinstall win95 on the drive. Check for a c:\windows\options\cabs folder. If it's there and has a 'setup.exe' file, you might be able do do an install 'on top', which could very possibly restore your system.
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Well i have a boot disc now, but my laptop doesn't have a CD-ROM, and i don't have any Windows 95 discs. So to Reinstall it do I NEED windows 95 discs?
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Maybe you can install the OS from thin air??
Without an installation CD, hope and pray that the install files are backed up on your HDD as suggested by ham - otherwise it's DOS/Win31
Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid. -John Wayne
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Please bear in mind that Windows is a massive program. This is why it takes either a multitude of floppies or a CD. It is also why MS want loads of money for it. A boot disk is just one floppy that can be useful in the preliminary process before restoring Windows.
I suppose there is a possibility that someone in eBay might be touting a bunch of W95 floppies (you can be sure someone has copied them all). You need them unless the Windows floppies content has already been put on the HD by someone (see #2). Another place to look on your HD is c:\win95
Even then you can only "overlay" Windows because if you format your HD to clear it there will be nothing on it afterwards.
DerekW
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I suppose there is just a chance that we can help fix up your machine if you can remember any details about your accident, or tell us exactly what it does/does not do right now. Individual files can be emailed and put back via DOS.
Golden rule is NEVER take chances when you have no copy of Windows to hand.
DerekW
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hiho
Interesting links but can you explain how these will help if you have no Windows floppies?
DerekW
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He said he had DOS6.3 (PC-DOS?) and W3.x, well he can install that can he not ??? This Laptop is so old it is virtually worthless and at least w3.x would make it useful, would it not.
Yes W95 Retail is quite often on ebay for $30 in floppy format.
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