Greetings,
Here goes!
> Can someone please tell me how to format and reinstall a PC that was a
> given to me by a friend.
> It is a Compaq Armada, I have all the compaq disks and the Windows 95
> cd but I'm not quite sure where to start.
An Armada would be a laptop, no? Shouldn't make any difference, but I
would investigate the possibility of some sort of proprietary Compaq
software related to laptops that could give you problems if it's
deleted. I have no experience with laptops. You could ask at the
alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq newsgroup.
You got a WIN95 cd? Are you sure it's not a Compaq Quickrestore disk?
Quickrestore will put everything back just like it was the day it was
purchased, if that's what you want to do. Simply boot from the QR floppy
and follow instructions. ALL DATA WILL BE LOST!
> Is there a Compaq flavoured win95, I have seen some machines with
> software that seems to have been made specially for Compaq machines
> (their logo)
The red Compaq logo is hard coded in the bios. All the other start-up
screens are useless Compaq fluff which can be gotten rid of. Compaq
doesn't have a special "flavor" of WIN95. They do, however, install
Compaq specific software to their systems. Phone Center and Compaq Fax
come to mind (they've recently quit installing these 'cause they were
such garbage and nobody used them.)
> What do I do so I can use the CD Rom to do the install, I know it has
> something to do with MSCDEX or something like that.
You will have to make a boot disk with your cd-rom drivers on it so
you can access your cd to install the os. You will also need to find and
back-up to a floppy your video, sound and modem drivers, if you want to
install WIN95 clean (that is, NOT Quickrestore). Windows will install a
usable video driver (it SHOULD anyway) but modem and sound drivers
you'll have to find. If the computer has an on board ESS sound card you
can get it off the internet. You can try Compaq's web site for driver
info or email customer support and ask for the driver's files' names,
but I doubt you'll get a reply. Modem drivers will be the trickiest to
find, unless you have a modem card with its own drivers on a floppy.
Then, no problem.
> What should I do step by step.
You can go here
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Haven/6446/freshstart.html
and get all the info you need to do a clean install and info on making
your boot disk with cd drivers. Realize if you decide to do a clean
install, you will lose all the software that Compaq added to WIN95 (MS
Works, Phone Center etc.). It's kind of a scary proposition the first
time you do it. I did a clean install of WIN95 on my Compaq and I'm glad
I did. The upside? More disk space and control over software YOU decide
to install. The downside? None. If worse comes to worse and something
bad happens, you can always do a Quickrestore.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Kelly Younger
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