Removing Windows 95 with Your Previous Operating System

Use this procedure if you cannot start a computer in Windows 95 real mode, as described in the preceding section.

Before you begin this process, make sure you have a bootable floppy disk that contains an earlier version of MS-DOS and the SYS.COM file. The process for removing Windows 95 makes your hard disk temporarily unbootable, and the Windows 95 startup files (real-mode operating system files) must also be deleted.

Note The MS-DOS 6.x disk #1 is bootable, but the retail MS-DOS 5.0 disk #1 is not, and OEM versions might vary. To make a startup disk with MS-DOS 6.x, run setup /f from disk #1.

To remove Windows 95 when the computer is started with the previous operating system

  1. Start the computer and press the F8 key when the Starting Windows message appears.
  2. Select the Previous Version Of MS-DOS option.
  3. To make it easier to delete files and directories, copy the Windows 95 version of DELTREE.EXE to the boot drive. At the command prompt, type:

    copy \windows\command\deltree.exe c:\

  4. To copy the Windows 95 version of ScanDisk files from the Windows COMMAND directory to the root directory, type:

    copy \windows\command\scandisk.* c:\

  5. Use Notepad or a similar text editor to edit SCANDISK.INI. Change the entries controlling whether ScanDisk looks for invalid characters in filenames and volume labels:
    • Set labelcheck=on to specify that ScanDisk should check volume labels for invalid characters.
    • Set spacecheck=on to specify that ScanDisk should check for invalid spaces in filenames.
  6. To remove all entries that your earlier version of MS-DOS might see as invalid, at the command prompt, type scandisk followed by the letter identifying the drive containing the Windows 95 installation. For example:

    scandisk c:

    If you receive error messages during the ScanDisk process, refer to the online Help for information to help you resolve the error.

  7. To delete the Windows 95 directory, in the root directory of the drive containing the Windows 95 installation, type:

    deltree windows

    In this command, windows is the name of the directory containing the Windows 95 files.

    Caution All subdirectories of the Windows 95 directory will be deleted by this command. Before performing this step, make sure that the Windows 95 directory tree does not contain any critical data that has not been backed up.

  8. To delete the Windows 95 real-mode operating system file named WINBOOT.SYS, which was renamed from IO.SYS when you started the computer with your previous operating system, type the following command from the boot drive (or from the root directory of the host drive, if the boot drive is compressed):

    deltree winboot.*

  9. Delete the Windows 95 files MSDOS.W40, COMMAND.W40, CONFIG.W40, and AUTOEXEC.W40 files. (The renaming of these operating system files occurred when you used F8 to start the previous operating system.) To do this, type the following command at the command prompt (if the boot drive is not compressed):

    deltree *.w40

    If the boot drive is compressed, you must delete MSDOS.W40 from the root directory of the host drive and COMMAND.W40 from the root directories of both the host drive and the boot drive.

  10. To delete the setup, boot, and detection log files, type:

    deltree setuplog.*

    deltree bootlog.*

    deltree detlog.*

  11. If you are using Stacker version 3.1, either skip this step or back up the STAC DBLSPACE.BIN file before completing this step. To delete the Windows 95 compression drivers (DBLSPACE.BIN and DRVSPACE.BIN), in the root directory of the boot drive (or from the root directory of the host drive, if the boot drive is compressed), type:

    deltree d??space.bin

  12. Put a bootable floppy disk with the earlier version of MS-DOS into drive A, and then restart the computer. After the computer starts from the floppy disk, put the earlier version of MS-DOS back on the boot drive (or the host drive, if the C drive is compressed) by typing sys followed by the letter identifying the drive and a colon. For example:

    sys c:

  13. If you have MS-DOS version 6.0 and are using compression, copy DBLSPACE.BIN to the root directory of the boot drive. Also, for all versions of MS-DOS, if you have a shell= statement referencing COMMAND.COM from a different directory, copy COMMAND.COM to the root directory. Then remove the floppy disk, and restart the computer from the hard disk.

If you remove Windows 95 from a dual-boot installation, Windows 95 will be removed completely, and the computer will start the same way it did before installing Windows 95.

If you removed Windows 95 from an upgraded Windows 3.x installation, you might need to reinstall your previous version of MS-DOS if some of the necessary files were removed by Windows 95 Setup. Drivers that were located in the Windows directory (such as HIMEM.SYS, IFSLHLP.SYS, and EMM386.EXE) will be missing until you reinstall Windows 3.x into the Windows directory. After you have reinstalled Windows 3.x, the computer will start the same way it did before Windows 95 was installed.

To remove Windows 95 from a computer with Windows NT installed

  1. Follow the steps in the procedure named "To remove Windows 95 when the computer is started with the previous operating system" earlier in this section.
  2. Use the Windows NT Setup disk #1 to restart your computer.
  3. When prompted, choose Repair. Then insert the Windows NT Emergency Repair Disk and choose the option to repair the boot files.
  4. Restore your original MS-DOS and Windows 3.x configuration.