Installing Win95 From a Parallel Port Zip Drive 


  The boot disk that you are given for loading Windows 95 is pretty
Generic.   It contains the Win95 basic Operating System (Just DOS),
and drivers for recognizing an IDE Cdrom Drive, and the probable path
where the drive would be located and the subdirectory on that drive
where the Windows Binary files (.CAB) files can be found.
  It's all done in the same (Config.sys) and (Autoexec.bat) files that
you are normally used to seeing.

  To get this boot disk to work with a Zip Drive, you just modify the
the (Autoexec.bat) and (Config.sys) files.   First thing is first.  You
must find and copy all required drivers necessary for recognizing and
using your "Parallel Port Zip Drive" to the Win95 boot disks (There's
Plenty of room for them don't worry).   These are the drivers that the
Zip Drive's "Guest.exe" program uses to recognize and install a "Parallel
Port Zip Drive", and assign it a Drive letter so that it can be used on
your machine.
   You can leave the drivers in for the Cdrom drive, and the computer will
just use whichever one it finds and recognizes as being "Drive D:".   If
you don't have a Cdrom installed it will only give you an error message.

   If you don't have a Cdrom Drive installed, the drive letter would be
what the Cdrom Drive letter would normally be (Drive D:), or you can
modify the "Autoexec.bat" and make it whatever the Zip Drive comes up as
if you do have a Cdrom drive, or Other Harddrives in your system. ( E:, F: )
   Next, you create a directory on the Zip Disc called "Win95"...this is
where the "Autoexec.bat" file will look for the Win95 binary files it will
need to install Windows 95, but that too can be changed.
   Finally, copy all the files in the "Win95" Directory on your Cdrom Drive
to the "Win95" Directory on your Zip disc, and you've just created a Zip
Disc version of your Cdrom Windows 95 Installation CD.

   This system of loading software from your Zip disc should work with any
Software CD as long as the source will fit on a 100 meg Zip Disc (The only
catch).

Note:  This also works with Microsoft Office 95, but it requires 2 Zip Discs.
        Microsoft Office 97 requires 2+ Zip Discs.
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