ms-dos screen

[roberto56]

I have just been given a computer but it has no operating system on it. When you switch it on all you get is ms-dos screen have tried windows xp disc and windows 98 but cannot install either. can someone please help.

[greysts]

Does the screen show a prompt something like C:> ?If it does, type DIR and press the Enter key. Tell me what you see. If it doesn't, what does it show?

[roberto56]

have done that this is what is shown.
volume in drive c is ms-dos_6
volume serial number is 3945-8165
directory of c:\
dos <dir> 10-05-08 4:11p
command com 54,645 05-31-94 6:22a
wina20 386 9,349 05-31-94 6-22a
config sys 71 10-05-08 4:17p
autoexec bat 108 10-11-08 4:17
windows 3,492 10-11-08 8:53p
6 files 67,665 bytes
2,137,948,160 bytes free.

question- should commands be with caps on or lower case? thanks.

[greysts]

Last question first - you can use either upper or lower case on the command line.

As the machine is loaded with MSDOS 6 I would guess it was originally a Win95 PC. Try typing WIN and press Enter. What happens?

[roberto56]

tried typing win but no good message "bad command"
thanks

[roberto56]

is there anything on the bios menu I should be looking at?

[putasolutions]

The listing you gave indicates that the hard drive is blank, apart from the files that are needed to boot up and gain access to the CDROM.

Looking at the fact that you have 2Gb (2,137,948,160 bytes free) of hard drive space, suggests an exceptional old PC, probably a i486 machine, which won't have any chance of running XP even on a good day. You will get Win 98 running on it, but your best hope is getting Windows 3.11 or Windows 95 going

[roberto56]

thanks, think I will get another computer it was only going to be used as a second pc in case we both wanted to go online at the samr time.
once again thanks to you both for your assistance.