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Does anyone know where to find the .cab files on a Win95 CD? I'm trying to create a floppy installation from the CD, but I'm having trouble locating the .cabs. In the Win95 folder, all of the files are zipped and are about 2MB per file, 13 or so zip files in all.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.Also, I know this is "illegal" (despite the fact that MS no longer supports 95, and it is considered abandoned ware), but is there anywhere to DL 95 so that it can be put onto floppies?
Thanks.
Hello,
Since this message has two parts I'll leave it up. Maybe someone will tell you how to put your windows 95 CD onto a floppy. However, posts concerning where to download the operating system are not allowed on this site. The concept of "abandonware" is falacious. Copyrights last something like 100 years.
Justin
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There are ways to do this but sometimes it's the long way around. You could always go buy a "floppy copy" on ebay.
Better, tell us what the situation is with the computer you're trying to install it on.
For instance, I have an old thinkpad with no cd. I've installed 95 and later 98 on it without doing what you are trying.
Several ways.
Assuming the hard drive of the target machine is large enough, you can copy the setup files to the hd by
slaving the hd to another computer
using a "laplink" style otherwise known as a "null modem" cable.
temporarily rigging a CDROM drive to the target machine, depending of course on the hardware.
As far as your question:
"where to find the .cab files on a Win95 CD?"
If you have a "real" windows 95 cd, they should be right there in the \Win95 folder.
"In the Win95 folder, all of the files are zipped"
Aren't there a bunch of files in that folder labeled this or that.cab?
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Thanks for all your suggestions.
This is an old Compaq laptop with a damaged CD-Rom unit that I'm trying to set up for a friend just to be able to use MS Word, etc. It currently has 98 installed, but I keep getting "Invalid Page Fault" errors when I try open Explorer or My Computer.
I tried doing a system restore, which worked temporarily, but now I'm back to getting the same message. Therefore, it's not really letting me do anything.
I'm trying to avoid spending any money on this machine by buying a set of 95 floppies or an extra CD unit, etc. And I don't know that I'm savvy enough to remove the HD and slave it to my own PC without very detailed step-by-step instructions.
I have PC Linq on my home computer, but the laptop has no USB port.
I'm not sure how large the HDD is (the machine's not in front of me right now) but I know it has at 500MB free.
How can a CD-rom be temporarily rigged to this laptop? This might sound stupid, but I have an old CD-rom pulled from a ThinkPad--would that work?
Does any of this help at all?
Thank you again.
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Name,
Sorry about the two threads--I'm new to this.
Yes, you were right: they are cab files (02 to 13), and each one is 2MB. How can I get this onto floppies? I know I can format the floppies to 1.77MB, but...
Thanks again.
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I wouldn't bother with Win95...you're gonna spend a lot of time going thru a lot of crap trying to do what you wanna do. I'd either get a new CD drive (he's probably gonna want/need one anyway), or I'd spend more time trying to repair the current Win98 installation.
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Ok, maybe we're headed somewhere. I still don't know how to do the "floppy thing," I'll leave that to others. I'm told you need a LOT of floppies. I agree with others, if the machine will run 98 well, stay with that. You might do a search, the 98 cabfiles MIGHT just be on there, and if so, you can probably do a "reinstall" of 98 right over the top of what's there.
So if windows "find" will work, do a search for *.cab
I'd look first where you'd expect them to be---c:\Windows\Obtions\Cabs
You'll also need the "cd key" that 98 was installed under. To do that, hit Start\Run, type in "regedit" and look to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version--look in this last folder, and you should find "ProductKey"
Slaveing a laptop hd is pretty easy--some older laptops may need to have the hd removed from the "caddy"--some not. You can buy and adaptor/connector that will let you plug the laptop hd right onto a desktop hd cable--they are of course "master" so I usually just pull loose my secondary "master" cdrom drive and hook it there. Below is an exampl, I don't endorce this particular product or the seller, just for info. You of course don't really need the bay mounting adaptors, just the connector.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33870&item=4130466949&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
"""I have PC Linq on my home computer, but the laptop has no USB port."""
That probably doesn't matter. As far as hd space, you need less than 200mb (I've forgotten) to copy the setup files for 98.
You, for example, can go to Micks powerload pages and download laplink3 (ll3.exe) and run this on both machines off a bootable floppy. You'll need a serial or parallel port laplink cable."""How can a CD-rom be temporarily rigged to this laptop? This might sound stupid, but I have an old CD-rom pulled from a ThinkPad--would that work?"""
Maybe. You cannot just plug the cdrom in its Thinkpad "bay" adaptor right into the Compaq. However, assuming the Thinkpad CDROM is still inside the original "bay adaptor", you should be able to remove the cdrom PROPER from the adaptor, and it MIGHT install in the Compaq adaptor.. You might do some research, and ebay is great for this. type the model no. of the thinkpad into ebay search, IE for mine, "600x thinkpad" or "Thinkpad 600x" and you'll get all kinds of hits on parts, complete units, pictures, etc. I know that there are constantly people selling "bare" DVD's that would fit my 600X if I was to install same in my original bay adaptor.
THIS IS A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY for you to learn a little here.
And here is some links to the "floppy procedure"--something I've never done.
http://www.btinternet.com/~robert.bale1/bkup/win95backup.htm
and I don't know about you, but this looks like a HECK of a lot of work to me.
Hang in there.
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Yes, interestingly, there are cabinet files for Win95 already on there. How should I proceed?
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If you would of read the last post in your OTHER thread about this you would of had your answers you needed. Your files are on the windows 95 cd you own, and if you'd of read the last post and went to the site I directed you to all the directions were there as to how to get them off the cd and onto a floppy disk. So I will post this one more time. I don't know why no one else has directed you to this site. If you start another post, you're on your own.
Here is my post from your LAST thread:If you want to put windows 95 on floppys here is where you can get directions to do it:
http://www.btinternet.com/~robert.bale1/bkup/win95backup.htm
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Thanks for the reprimand, Terri, but I did go to your site, and I couldn't get it to work. All my .cab files are 2MB, and, as far as I know, I can only format up to 1.77MB. Right?
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Then my appologies. But if your cab files are 2mb then exactly what operating system are you trying to transfer to floppies?
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Check your cab files again. They should be about 1.7 meg and can fit on a DMF formatted floppy disk. I've never seen 2 meg cab files for win9x.
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DAVEINCAPS, I have heard of these disks, but can't for the life of me remember what version they go to. Where is jboy when you need him? He always knows all those versions and things.
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I looked through a 95 first version upgrade cd (1.2 meg cab files), first version upgrade floppies (1.7 meg cab files), second version OEM full (1.7) and third version OEM full (1.7). I'd think any 2 meg files must be from a manufacturer's customized version. I was suprised my upgrade cd had 1.2 meg files. It's just a copy and I'm not sure where it came from.
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Heh - yeah, I was a bit puzzled over the apparent size of the CABs. All I've got are DMF sized CABs (1.6Mb) on floppies & CDs
I have some vague memory of seeing larger CAB files once, but I think they were some version of 98 - might be mistaken.
Bleat at me no longer.
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Thanks, everyone, for your help. I don't remember where this CD came from--it's been a long time, so perhaps it's some strange manufacturer's version or something. But I did double-check and they are in fact 2MB each.
In an earlier thread, someone mentioned that I could possibly reinstall from the .cab files still on the machine. I did a find (one of the few functions the machine will let me perform) and found Win95 cabs in windows\options\cabs. Can I do a reinstall from this? And, if so, how?
Thanks again.
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Should be able to run setup and reinstall from that folder - you may or may not be prompted for a product key.
Not sure how well this will work with a pre-existing 98 installation.
Bleat at me no longer.
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I'm not sure if this is helpful in any way, but I think I might have figured out a way to at least get the data onto the machine. I installed a network card and I am able to connect to my work computer.
However, as I can't open explorer or any folders without an error message, it seems impossible to retrieve any of the transferred data through windows. And I'm not even sure I can get the data onto this machine.
The message I keep getting is that Explorer has caused an invalid page fault in kernel32.dll at 0167:bff9db61. Then, following that message, I get a message with a Microsoft Internet Explorer header, saying that there was an internal error and one of the windows I was using will be closed.
Could this all have something to do with IE?
If I could only get this message to stop coming up, and have the machine let me into Explorer, I could copy all the data and do a reinstall from the hard drive.
Right?
Maybe?
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Okay. So I've managed to extract all the 95 .cab files in DOS.
Can anyone tell me what I need to do next to do an installation?
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What do you mean by 'extract'?
Normally you can run setup.exe from a DOS prompt in the CABs directory and install pretty much as would from a CD.
Bleat at me no longer.
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From C:. I did extract windows\options\cabs\win95_**.cab for all of the 28 cab files. I read to do this on another thread.
Now specifically how do I run setup.exe from Dos?
Am I at least on the right track here?
Thanks.
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??
No, it's not necessary to manually extract the bajillion files from their CABs - that's what setup does automatically (but only the files it requires).
I'd think that the setup routine would ignore the extracted files and function as designed by extracting the files itself as part of the installation process.
"how do I run setup.exe from Dos?"From the CABs folder, in DOS, enter
setup
Bleat at me no longer.
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I ran 95 setup (twice) and it seemed to go through all the motions. But then, once the computer restarted I got the following missing file messages:
VMM32\NTKERN.VXD
CCW32.VXD
NSCL.VXD
VMM32\UDF.VXD
Then, once windows starts, I get the following:
Missing powrprof.dll then
error loading Explorer.exe
You must reinstall windows.Please, does anyone have any suggestions at all?
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Forgot--the final message before the thing freezes is:
"The explorer.exe file is linked to missing export SHLWAPI.DLL:SHRegGetUSValueA."
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A lot depends on what you're actually doing.
If I'm following all of this (and really, I'm not so sure that I am), Windows 98 is currently installed on this machine - from the sound of things, you've run Win95 setup and 'reinstalled' in the original Windows directory - is this right?
Bound to cause no end of problems if versions get mixed together.
Bleat at me no longer.
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Yes, that's what I've done. I guess I was under the impression (stupidly) that 95 would overwrite 98 if doing a reinstall.
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Ok - well there are no guarantees, but what you can try is reinstalling in a different directory this time - you should have a choice during the installation process.
That should work, although there's the minor irritation of some batch files expecting a c:\windows folder.
OR you could rename the 'original' folder
move c:\windows c:\oldwin
and then install in c:\windows
Just remember that the installation files are in a subfolder - don't end up deleting it or anything..
Bleat at me no longer.
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Thanks, I moved the folder to Oldwin and then installed to Windows folder. It's now running 95, but in a safe mode-looking way, and I'm getting a message that reads: "Invalid vxd dynamic link call from ESDI_506 (03) + 00001C19 to device "IOS ", service 12."
Any idea what this is or how to fix it?
Thanks much.
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If you can't adjust the display to a higher resolution from display properties, likely only the basic VGA (16 colours) is loaded - you'll need the correct driver for your video card in order to achieve higher resolutions.
Not sure about the VXD error - seems to be a reference to an IDE controller - here's some Google
Bleat at me no longer.
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Thank you all for everything--it seems to have worked. I'm still trying to figure out this ESDI error, but otherwise, the thing's up and running.
Jboy, you said not to delete the OLDWIN folder. Should it always be kept on there?
Thanks again.
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Oh, you can remove it or its contents BUT if your CAB files were in c:\windows\options\cabs - which is now c:\oldwin\options\cabs then deleting the folder will delete all of the subfolders, including those CAB files.
I'm not sure if the last install placed another copy of them on the hard drive - if not, you'd likely want to preserve them.
Bleat at me no longer.
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Hope I don't offend anyone by jumping in so late here, but let me add my 2 cents worth...
Before deleting the C:\oldwin folder, I would first copy (or move) the c:\oldwin\options\cabs folder into C:\Windows\Options. Then delete C:\oldwin.
Next open regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\windows\current version\setup. Edit SourcePath in the right column to read the current location of the.CAB files (C:\Windows\Options\Cabs). This way, when changing configuration, you won't be prompted to insert the Windows CD. Setup will just automatically go to the .CAB files on the HD.
HTH
Dave
Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet soup?
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