Urgent Help Needed after Formatting

Hi,

I know the system I am asking about is really, really old, but bear with me. We have an old Toshiba Satellite Laptop given to us. I thought that it would be good enough for my kids to use for typing out their assignments on. It is loaded with Win95 (yes again ancient I know), but it will only run in safe mode.
I have the original disk and certificate with the product number on it. But I cannot access the cd drive when it is in safe mode. So I need to create setup disks to reinstall it. I have another computer which I can create the disks on but am unsure as to which drivers, etc. to copy to the floppy to get it working.
Any suggestions, please remember I know it is old, but the kids think it is great.
Thanks,
K

Okay I am editing this messge, because I am a total screwup. I went through the steps to format the harddrive and do a clean install of WIN95. Now I must of clicked on something without looking closely. Now when I turn on the computer all I get is the following.
"system is now starting up." I click on any key and I get -- "Invalid system disk Replace the disk. and then press any key". Note: doesn't matter what key I press I still get that repeated entry over and over. There is no disk in either the cd drive or floppy drive.
Does anyone know how I can get my self out of this.
I have both the bootable disk as well as the startup disk made by win95 and the actual cd. But since I can't even get to any menu even a command prompt I'm lost.
Thanks for reading. Please post if you have any suggestions.
Thanks.

 

There is probably a Linux distro that will work on your system. Need to download some live cd versions and burn to disk to find oine that will work with your hardware. I prefer PCLinuxOS for its graphic user inteface (KDE) similarities to windows. But I digress...can you get into the BIOS? If you can get into the BIOS check that system is set to boot from cd drive first. I beleive the system needs to have the drivers for the cd drive before it will be able to read the disk. bootdisk.com might have been able to help. I believe there should be a floppy also... to load the drivers for the optical drive, if not they are available online, free of charge$.

 

I cannot get into bios at all. I have many start up disks as well as boot disks both on floppy & cd. I can hear the cd sound like it about to start up, but it stops.
I am really getting a little distressed that all the information, I am given doesn't seem to going anywhere.
If I could just get into the bios then I could get somewhere. If your system is completely down, how do you go about getting it back up and running. There has to be someway of getting to the bios.
Thanks,
K

 

What keys have you tried to get into the BIOS?

F2 or DEL are usual for desktops, but laptops, especially older ones have some weird and wonderful combinations

F1 or ESC (or F1 + ESC) works on a lot of the older Toshibas

ALT - CTRL - DEL works on some too

Try F1 first

F12 should bring up the boot menu

 

Keep trying those keys to get into the BIOS.
If mikkh's suggestions don't work, here are some more ways to get into the BIOS
F10
F11
Ctrl+alt+esc
Ctrl+alt+ins
Ctrl+alt+enter
Ctrl+alt+s
page up
page down

As you can see, there is no standardization when comes to figuring out how to get into the BIOS.

For that computer, you probably got a floppy and a CD from Toshiba with the computer. You set the BIOS to boot from the floppy instead of the hard drive (those early computers could not boot from a CD). The floppy loads what it needs then points to the CD and the CD will install windows and any programs that came originally installed on the notebook.

 

Have You Checked If There Is Anything On The Floppies? If You Have I Would Have To Say That Possibly You Have A Problem With A Floppy Drive. If You Are In A City Area, I'm Sure You Would Have No Problem Finding A Computer Re-cycling Store. If Not,you Might Even Find A Sympathetic "tech" Type Student Or Teacher That Would Help You At A High School Or Local College. I Live In The Seattle Area. If You Do Also, Feel Free To Contact Me. Good Luck, Kristi

 

When you formatted the hard drive, did you use the -s option?
I think that's the command to copy the system files to the hard drive (you can type format /? to find if it's the right command).

Hope this helps.

 

hi ralph, i'm not sure but i think that she was unable to get a comand prompt to appear.

 

When you wrote:
Okay I am editing this messge, because I am a total screwup. I went through the steps to format the harddrive and do a clean install of WIN95. Now I must of clicked on something without looking closely. Now when I turn on the computer all I get is the following.
"system is now starting up." I click on any key and I get -- "Invalid system disk Replace the disk. and then press any key".

So, the drive was never formatted. I mis-read the post. Sorry.
What you need to do is get a boot disk with CD drivers. That should 'see' your CD drive, and allow you to proceed with the format/re-install. I don't have the link offhand, but if you search through the posts or google 'boot disk' you should get lucky.

Hope this helps