HI, I've got an old computer that started hanging at the Windows 95 (last version of Win95) splash screen (for no reason I am aware of, was working fine just hours before), won't boot past that. I can boot to a floppy and get an A:\ prompt, but it won't change directories into the C drive (says "invalid drive specification" or something like that. Also, when trying to boot into safe mode, it hangs similar. The drive (Maxtor N256 7 gig)seems to be spinning, how can I tell if the drive itself failed? I tried hooking it as a slave onto another box, but it doesn't recognize it. I've got a lot of stuff on that drive I'd like to get off if I can. Any ideas? Thanks

What OS is on the boot disk you're using? You'd need at least Win95B to access your hard drive from the DOS prompt. If you can get it to boot from a floppy and recognize the C: drive, run scandisk. Doesn't sound like the drive has failed otherwise you would get an error message, not a Windows screen.

The boot disk is Win 95, it confirms that when I boot to it. I know the version of Win95 I have on there was the last and a very stable one (until now?) but I can't remember the version. It has the splash screen that says "Windows 95 Microsoft Internet Explorer" as compared to the previous version I once had that just had the Windows 95 text. I just can't figure out why it hangs up trying to boot into safe mode too.

Ok, well go to CMOS setup and check that your hard drive is setup correctly - you might have to select 'autodetect hard drive', it's not always automatic on older machines. Can you boot from C: to the command line? Do you know if you had to use a drive overlay? In this case, invalid drive spec would likely mean that the drive is not setup correctly, or that it has mechanical problems. If it won't run as a slave on another machine with an equivalent OS, it might be too late for this one - sorry.