i think i got a virus or something that screwed with my computer... my pc suddenly froze, then turned off. When i turned it back on, it fails to boot up windows. I dont hav the original startup disk handy at the mo, but i need the pc urgently. I downloaded a win 95 boot disk, but i dont hav a floppy disk and i cant get one now, so can i burn the start-up files onto cd and bootup from a cd if i change the settings?? also how can i enter DOS before windows 95 starts up? which key do i hav to keep pressed? please answer quickly, im desperate

Man oh man, you like living dangerously. You've got more questions than Carter's got pills. If you can't start Windows, how will you burn a CD? If you can get to a machine with a burner, then you should be able to make a boot diskette there. If you don't tell us what brand MoBo or BIOS or MFG, how can we guess what the F-Key to get to the BIOS might be. You can usually disable the BIOS password by removing the CMOS battery for 5 min's or so. That will reset the BIOS to defaults. But unless you know how to get into it (sometimes during the POST screen) Don

To get to a DOS prompt, just keep hitting the F8 key, until you see a menu. Choose command prompt only. I see that you still have access to the internet on another PC since you posted this, so go to www.bootdisk.com and download the program that creates a Win95 boot disk with CDROM support. As far as not having a floppy handy, c'mon, if it's that urgent go get one. Keep in mind what you download from bootdisk.com is a program that creates a boot disk, don't just try to copy the files to a floppy - run the program with a floppy disk at the ready. raincheck

thanks guys for your help, but i seriously cant get a disk now, its almost 8pm. i downloaded the thing from bootdisk.com but its a prog that makes a bootdisk.... so is there any way i can get the extracted data that would be written onto the floppy, and then burn it onto CD??? i realise these are very gay questions.... but i repeat: i am desperate

The file you downloaded from bootdisk.com will insist that you put a disk in the floppy drive before it will run. So you're pretty much out of luck if you don't have a disk. You don't have even one disk laying around that you can reformat and use for the bootdisk?

My boot disk page has many win95 bootdisks. My own boot disk is in a zip file and can be unzipped and burned onto a cd if that is what you need to do. Here is the link: http://terrikaduck.netfirms.com/bootdisks.htm