Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Compaq Laptop

by eajba Nov 28, 2004 12:02PM PST

I have a compaq armada laptop, running Windows 95. I thought I would try running Knoppix on it, but it would not boot from the cd. I went into system and set the cd drive to be A drive, and put the A (floppy) to Z.
Since, I cannot boot past the windows splash screen. I go to safe mode, none of the options takes me to anything that works, and when it cycles me back through the splash screen, even the safe mode locks.
I can get to DOS, and from there found the A drive no longer existed. I put that put back via the Compaq utility, and now I can see it in DOS. I still can't get into Windows though. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Discussion is locked

2 Posts

- Collapse + Expand Details

- Collapse -

Re: Compaq Laptop

by Kees Bakker Nov 28, 2004 6:56PM PST

"I went into the system"
"I put it back via the Compaq utility"

That's the same, or something different? The best, if not only, way to correct mistakes is undoing them with the original tool. The A: is hardwired in to the system, so to say; the drive-letter for a cd can be influenced, in later versions anyway (don't know about Windows 95).

I wouldn't be surprised if you had to solve this by going back to Compaqs restore CD.

Kees

- Collapse -

Re: Compaq Laptop

by eajba Nov 28, 2004 10:06PM PST

Thank you, Kees. The "system" was via the hardware profile in Windows; the Compaq utility is where the machine sends me when I hit F8 during bootup.
I used a boot disk on the A: drive to confirm it was functioning, and booted to DOS but could not start Windows. I restarted, but Windows continued not to see the A: drive, and hung on boot. I disconnected the A: drive physically and reconnected it; prayed, rebooted, and Windows loaded normally. Trying to boot from the CD in Windows 95 will not be tried again!

Back to Windows Legacy OS forum