Windows 95 Setup cannot install Windows 95 unless a FAT partition exists on the hard disk. It cannot install Windows 95 on a computer that has only HPFS or Windows NT file system (NTFS) partitions. Windows 95 Setup reads most partitioning schemes and writes to the master boot record, unless disk partitioning schemes from other vendors are used.
The following table describes how Windows 95 Setup handles different types of disk partitions. For more information, consult the documentation for the related operating system.
Partition type | How Windows 95 Setup handles such partitions |
MS-DOS (Fdisk and other vendors' partitioning software) | Windows 95 Setup recognizes and begins installation over existing MS-DOS FAT partitions, if the partition is large enough to accommodate Windows 95 files (including swap files). Windows 95 supports MS-DOS Fdisk partitions on removable media drives such as the Iomega® Bernoulli Box™ drives. Windows 95 recognizes and translates disk partitioning schemes created by other vendors' partitioning software, including Disk Manager DMDRVR.BIN and Storage Dimensions SpeedStor® SSTOR.SYS. |
Windows NT | Windows 95 cannot recognize information on an NTFS partition. Windows 95 can be installed on Windows NT multiple-boot systems if enough disk space is available on a FAT partition. On a Windows NT multiple-boot system, Windows 95 Setup can either install Windows 95 on an existing FAT partition with MS-DOS and, optionally, Windows 3.x, or you must partition and format free space on the hard disk in a FAT partition, then perform a new installation onto this new FAT partition. |
OS/2 | You must run Windows 95 Setup from MS-DOS. If it is not already present on the computer, you must first install MS-DOS and configure the computer for dual-booting with OS/2. |
Windows 95 works with disk compression drivers, including those in the following list. For more information, see Chapter 20, "Disks and File Systems."
If you use other disk compression software, see the Windows README file, or contact your product support representative to determine compatibility.