[The puzzle with my Win 95 problem continues. Thanks to more people who
have sent me their thoughts. I include below some of these. Although their
suggestions are not sufficient, the scattered wit and wisdom about Windows
95 and related matters may seem to you worth the read. --WM]
[1] From: David Hoover <hoover@is.nyu.edu> (44)
Subject: Re: 10.0568 chronic Win95 pain
[2] From: "Michael P. Orth (Michael Orth)" (6)
<morth@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu>
Subject: Re: 10.0568 chronic Win95 pain
[3] From: "Paul R. Falzer" <prf@callnet.com> (40)
Subject: Re: 10.0568 chronic Win95 pain
[4] From: Neil Randall <nrandall@watarts.uwaterloo.ca> (22)
Subject: Re: 10.0568 chronic Win95 pain
[5] From: David Hoover <hoover@is.nyu.edu> (44)
Subject: Re: 10.0568 chronic Win95 pain
--[1]----------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 12:10:15 -0500 (EST)
From: David Hoover <hoover@is.nyu.edu>
Subject: Re: 10.0568 chronic Win95 pain
I believe that your supposition about the movement of Win95 being the
source of difficulty is correct. I made the same sort of mistake trying to
upgrade from a 1gig to a 1.6gig hard disk. I foolishly thought that I
could just install both disks in my computer, copy the smaller one to the
bigger one, change which one was the slave and be finished. But I got the
same sorts of nasty surprises as you did.
What seems to happen if one copies Win95 from one hard disk to another is
that it removes itself from the first disk at the same time, leaving
information on how to find various programs and documents behind.
Naturally, when I removed my old hard disk, the computer would not even
boot. Worse yet, it refused to recognize the CD-ROM drive, so it was not a
simple matter of reinstalling from the CD-ROM.
If I recall correctly, I eventually reworked CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT
so that I could access the CD-ROM and reinstalled Win95 on the old disk
and the new disk. The programs worked fine without reinstallation because
I had duplicated all of them on both systems.
Calls to Dell (which was to handle Win95 support) were unproductive. Their
advice was to reinstall. It does seem exceptionally perverse (even for
Microsoft, and that's saying something!) for there to be no way of adding
or replacing a hard disk without completely reinstalling and
reconfiguring.
Best of luck,
David L. Hoover, Assoc. Prof. of Engl. hoover@is.nyu.edu 212-998-8832
Webmaster, NYU English Dept. http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/english/
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."--Groucho Marx
--[2]----------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 18:03:16 -0800 (PST)
From: "Michael P. Orth (Michael Orth)" <morth@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu>
Subject: Re: 10.0568 chronic Win95 pain
Maybe we should start a thread of W95 spells and curses. I use it and
find it unstable and neurotic (and I'm an ex-clinical psych person). My
system rebels 'cause I play games on it--SPQR and Orion II distressed it
this Winter Solstice period. Anyhow McCarty, sympathies. DON'T
re-install W95; run FirstAid and ScanDisk and Uninstall 4, and when you
get tired of that move to NT4.
--[3]----------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 07 Jan 1997 21:27:58 GMT
From: "Paul R. Falzer" <prf@callnet.com>
Subject: Re: 10.0568 chronic Win95 pain
Perhaps others made the same recommendation. I hope you received my
email message, which contained this suggestion as well.
The reinstallation hassle is mitigated considerably by installing
applications from a CD ROM. Principally, what seems to be happening is
that the line between hardware and software is getting fuzzy -- not by
the assertion of something variously called "firmware" or
"middleware," but rather by software having specific hardware
requirements. So, for instance, Windows 95 wants to know what kind of
hard disk you have, how much memory, what kind of video card, etc.
This is part and parcel of what's called "plug and play."
One underlying message is: don't be installing software that your
system can't run. How many people have you heard to complain about the
poor performance of Windows applications -- and when you ask them what
kind of system they are using, you are amazed that they can run at
all?
The other message, advanced (ironically) by IBM in its OS/2 version
3.0, is that if you want smooth performance, you must match hardware
with software. Microsoft, which by the way is always following someone
else's lead, is doing with Windows 95 exactly what IBM tried to do
with WARP and, of course, what MacIntosh has been doing for many
years. What is Windows 97? It is Windows 95 plus two service packs,
available only to OEM's whose hardware complies with MS's
specifications.
>Further ideas will be greatly appreciated. I note that as operating systems
>get more and more sophisticated, their problems come to resemble human
>psychoses. Sometimes I think my computer needs to see a psychoanalyst.
>
Willard, I'd say that your computer's owner needs a course of new age
treatment in order to cope with a Microsoft shaped world. See you in
group therapy.
Paul
--[4]----------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 07 Jan 1997 16:27:32 -0500
From: Neil Randall <nrandall@watarts.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: 10.0568 chronic Win95 pain
Sorry I didn't see the original problem... I agree with
your last point, but in my experience the best thing is to reinstall. The
reason is Win95's registry: all the paths and variables are stored in the
registry for Win95 and the apps. Installing Win95 initially, and the apps
afterwards, builds the registry fine. To see the registry, go Start/Run and
type regedit - it's pretty opaque.
Note that, while it's best to reinstall most of the apps (not all of them -
Eudora and PaintShop Pro are fine, for instance), you can install right
over top the existing versions of the apps. In other words, you don't need
additional disk space, you simply have to reinstall for the sake of
creating the registry items. Some programs have a resinstall feature that
leaves the existing files as they are and just updates what's missing,
including the registry. Unfortunately, most don't, and they laboriously
recopy all the files, even though they're simply copying them over top the
existing ones.
Neil Randall
--[5]----------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 12:44:23 -0500
From: David Hoover <hoover@is.nyu.edu>
Subject: Re: 10.0568 chronic Win95 pain
I believe that your supposition about the movement of Win95 being the
source of difficulty is correct. I made the same sort of mistake trying to
upgrade from a 1gig to a 1.6gig hard disk. I foolishly thought that I
could just install both disks in my computer, copy the smaller one to the
bigger one, change which one was the slave and be finished. But I got the
same sorts of nasty surprises as you did.
What seems to happen if one copies Win95 from one hard disk to another is
that it removes itself from the first disk at the same time, leaving
information on how to find various programs and documents behind.
Naturally, when I removed my old hard disk, the computer would not even
boot. Worse yet, it refused to recognize the CD-ROM drive, so it was not a
simple matter of reinstalling from the CD-ROM.
If I recall correctly, I eventually reworked CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT
so that I could access the CD-ROM and reinstalled Win95 on the old disk
and the new disk. The programs worked fine without reinstallation because
I had duplicated all of them on both systems.
Calls to Dell (which was to handle Win95 support) were unproductive. Their
advice was to reinstall. It does seem exceptionally perverse (even for
Microsoft, and that's saying something!) for there to be no way of adding
or replacing a hard disk without completely reinstalling and
reconfiguring.
Best of luck,
David L. Hoover, Assoc. Prof. of Engl. hoover@is.nyu.edu 212-998-8832
Webmaster, NYU English Dept. http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/english/
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."--Groucho Marx