Any Windows 3.1 gurus out there...Please????

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe Peach
  • Start date Start date
J

Joe Peach

Hello All.

Here's the story....

Friend gave me a WD 200meg HD, said it had some doc files & a program he
would like to access......said the last time he tried to use the computer
(years ago) it said the HD was non-bootable. Over time he junked the
computer but kept the drive.

I installed it in an old 166 Pentium......the drive was recognized, but I
also got the non-bootable reading. I used a windows startup disk (95 or 98)
to access the disk thru dos.....all the directories, folders & files show. I
got into the windows directory (LOL......I'm amazed I remembered some dos
commands) & typed "win" to fire up windows 3.1..........It sounded
good...but then came a blue screen with something about VFAT.

I will soon have access to floppies containing Windows 3.1, I also have a
small spare drive if needed,....

Any clue to get this up & running or at least pull up some files?

Also, the owner mentioned something about encryption, said he would remember
a password with a little trying, will this encryption be a problem or is
there a file/way around it.

Thanks in advance, I'll try to get you more info if you need it.

Joe
 
Hello All.

Here's the story....

Friend gave me a WD 200meg HD, said it had some doc files & a program he
would like to access......said the last time he tried to use the computer
(years ago) it said the HD was non-bootable. Over time he junked the
computer but kept the drive.
Click to expand...

Non-bootable drive is a DOS problem. In Win3.x, DOS was seperate from
windows, and needed to be installed seperately. Get a copy of DOS 6.22 or
possibly DRDOS or FreeDOS to reinstall. Also, look at the drive with fdisk.
Sounds like the partition is not set to bootable.
I installed it in an old 166 Pentium......the drive was recognized, but I
also got the non-bootable reading. I used a windows startup disk (95 or 98)
to access the disk thru dos.....all the directories, folders & files show. I
got into the windows directory (LOL......I'm amazed I remembered some dos
commands) & typed "win" to fire up windows 3.1..........It sounded
good...but then came a blue screen with something about VFAT.
Click to expand...
Might be a problem with the Windows installation as well. Might just be
that it didn't like your boot disk. Get the system booting in DOS first,
then tackle the windows problem.
I will soon have access to floppies containing Windows 3.1, I also have a
small spare drive if needed,....

Any clue to get this up & running or at least pull up some files?
Click to expand...

You could always put the drive in another computer as a slave and look at
the files there. What programs/files are on this old drive he needs?
Also, the owner mentioned something about encryption, said he would remember
a password with a little trying, will this encryption be a problem or is
there a file/way around it.
Click to expand...
Depends on what is passworded, etc. Win3.1 had no encryption, but some add
ons did. There were logon passwords, but these were easily bypassed, and if
you are reading the disk from DOS, no windows passwords apply.
Thanks in advance, I'll try to get you more info if you need it.

Joe
Click to expand...

JT
 
Hello All.

Here's the story....

Friend gave me a WD 200meg HD, said it had some doc files & a program he
would like to access......said the last time he tried to use the computer
(years ago) it said the HD was non-bootable. Over time he junked the
computer but kept the drive.

I installed it in an old 166 Pentium......the drive was recognized, but I
also got the non-bootable reading. I used a windows startup disk (95 or 98)
to access the disk thru dos.....all the directories, folders & files show. I
got into the windows directory (LOL......I'm amazed I remembered some dos
commands) & typed "win" to fire up windows 3.1..........It sounded
good...but then came a blue screen with something about VFAT.

I will soon have access to floppies containing Windows 3.1, I also have a
small spare drive if needed,....

Any clue to get this up & running or at least pull up some files?

Also, the owner mentioned something about encryption, said he would remember
a password with a little trying, will this encryption be a problem or is
there a file/way around it.

Thanks in advance, I'll try to get you more info if you need it.

Joe
Click to expand...
The first thing I would try is get hold of a DOS 6.2 boot disk, with
the file "SYS.COM" on it,then boot using that disk...type

sys c:

This will copy the boot files needed to make the Hard drive bootable

RedBack
 
Joe said:
Hello All.

Here's the story....

Friend gave me a WD 200meg HD, said it had some doc files & a program he
would like to access......said the last time he tried to use the computer
(years ago) it said the HD was non-bootable. Over time he junked the
computer but kept the drive.

I installed it in an old 166 Pentium......the drive was recognized, but I
also got the non-bootable reading. I used a windows startup disk (95 or
98) to access the disk thru dos.....all the directories, folders & files
show. I got into the windows directory (LOL......I'm amazed I remembered
some dos commands) & typed "win" to fire up windows 3.1..........It
sounded
good...but then came a blue screen with something about VFAT.

I will soon have access to floppies containing Windows 3.1, I also have a
small spare drive if needed,....

Any clue to get this up & running or at least pull up some files?

Also, the owner mentioned something about encryption, said he would
remember a password with a little trying, will this encryption be a
problem or is there a file/way around it.

Thanks in advance, I'll try to get you more info if you need it.
Click to expand...


No reason to get 3.1 UP to do this. Just slave the drive to another PC
running an OS that will run dos apps like 98SE and search for the files and
copy them. The program he wants should run fine on 98SE as well.
 
Joe said:
Hello All.

Here's the story....

Friend gave me a WD 200meg HD, said it had some doc files & a program he
would like to access......said the last time he tried to use the computer
(years ago) it said the HD was non-bootable. Over time he junked the
computer but kept the drive.

I installed it in an old 166 Pentium......the drive was recognized, but I
also got the non-bootable reading. I used a windows startup disk (95 or 98)
to access the disk thru dos.....all the directories, folders & files show. I
got into the windows directory (LOL......I'm amazed I remembered some dos
commands) & typed "win" to fire up windows 3.1..........It sounded
good...but then came a blue screen with something about VFAT.

I will soon have access to floppies containing Windows 3.1, I also have a
small spare drive if needed,....

Any clue to get this up & running or at least pull up some files?

Also, the owner mentioned something about encryption, said he would remember
a password with a little trying, will this encryption be a problem or is
there a file/way around it.

Thanks in advance, I'll try to get you more info if you need it.

Joe
Click to expand...
+++++
All you need to do is set this drive up as a slave in most any
Win95/Win98/WinME machine, and copy the files he wants to a folder on
your C drive. You could even burn him a copy to a CD if you have a
burner. Let him worry about the password, it's doubtful it will affect
any copying you want to do anyway.
Earl
 
Thanks all...

Yes, I don't know why I tried to do this the hard way......putting it as a
slave on a 98se system worked fine, Everything on the drive shows.

Again, thanks to all.

Sincerely....Joe
 
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