I have this old computer that I dug up, that hasn't worked for years. It's a Windows 95. When you turn it on, Windows doesn't start up. It says to run Scandisk. I do, and it finds some long filenames. Now what? Over the years that I've tried to fix it, and I've picked up a floppy disk that supposedly is a Boot Disk. I've also borrowed a Windows CD. So, what do I do? I've searched the web, but the internet's information is so disorganized that not even Google can help me.

Well Jon there is a few questions to ask first.When you turn PC on do you see the post screen(black screen/white words)?If yes then look to see if HDD is detected/RAM/etc.Is the windows CD you have borrowed XP or win 95 or 98?There is no support for win 95-98 from Microsoft as in lack of help and updates.Are you thinking of putting XP on the the old win 95?If you are as its an old PC it will need new IDE leads,more RAM,its max ram is proberly around 256.As DDR RAM is rather going up in price due to new preferals being released and DDR2 is out but it may be getting a lot cheaper but it is not compatable with the old win 95 PC.My point is it worth spending extra cash on an old PC?Proberly not.The power supply is a very low watt proberly about 120 watt and to be fair it will not run the PC at any great level.

The scan disk?mmm any chance of a few names?

Me I would just bin it or just tinker with it and you could see how a computer works on the inside,just to lean some thing.As you said it aint worked in years,I do not think it is worth any cash to be spent on it unless you can get old working parts/disks/RAM etc for free.

But a little more information whould help if you realy want to try to get it up and running.

This thing isn't worth spending any money on. I might as well just sell the moniter and speakers at a secondhand store. I just feel like trying to get it back on as long as I still can. Anyway, I checked the disks, the floppy says 95/98/XP, and the CD says XP, 2000, ME, and 98SE. I have an XP disk, but I don't feel like using it, as it would be much too slow. I'm not sure what the filename was, for two reasons:

1. Scandisk takes a long time to run.

2. I think it was shortened with "..." at the end, so I wouldn't be able to tell you most of it anyway.

Anyway, when I start it up, I get the black and white screen first. I always have, though. I just have to press F1 to continue. Then I get the Windows 95 loading screen, followed by the black and white command prompt thing. I can run scandisk through that, but otherwise I don't know what to do.

When I run it with the floppy inside, it doesn't do much. It says something about running Windows 98, but I don't think I get the Windows 95 loading screen. I haven't tried the floppy in a while, as I just started trying to fix it again. So far I haven't found a way to run the CD.

EDIT: Okay, first, when I run it normally, it says "file is missing or corrupted: COMMAND.COM" after the Windows 95 loading screen.

When I run it with the floppy, it gives me the choice to run with or without CD-ROM support. If I do without, it says it worked successfully, but it doesn't change much. If I do with, it says it's missing MSCD001. I'm not sure if the CD will work, anyway. And I can't find my XP disk, either.

Yes sell the bits you can,but you do know old RAM is expensive lot more than ddr2,if its got a decent size stick say 128 or 256 its worth a few £s.1 gig of ddr2 £19-99,1 gig older ddr £47-99.If any of the bits n peices lets say cd rom still work they may come in handy as spares.