Installing Windows 95 in VirtualBox

After figuring out to start the setup from c: root drive as "setup\setup.exe" instead of changing to the setup directory and starting it from there which would make setup hang when attempting to copy files, and after applying all the settings recommended here in this thread like using 8 MB video memory, 128 MB RAM, 500 MB hard disk ( I actually used the 2 GByte initially recommended by Virtualbox, but configured my primary partition to be 500 MByte ), disabling VT-x/AMD-V and pae/nx, my installation finally succeeded.
After re-booting from my disk Windows 95 won't start and comes up with an error message saying my command.com is invalid. .
Anyone has seen this and any idea how to fix ?

Regards .... Axel Magard

I managed to install Windows 95 (An OEM version) on a VISTA host (Not W7, sorry). But what I have to share may help to get it working for some people. So here goes ...

For Windows 95 Guest: ...
Memory: 8MB
Hard Disk: 256MB (non-expanding, must be fixed size)
Sound: SoundBlaster16

VT-x: Disabled
Nested Pg : Enabled

Display: 8MB
3D Acc: Disabled
Remote Serv: Disabled

Boot with a Dos 6.22 image as the Floppy disk (Link: MS-DOS Boot Disk Download | AllBootDisks - Providing Free Boot Disks from MS-DOS to Windows XP.)
* Booting with a Win95 Boot disk gave problems when Windows copied the files onto the HD.


For a Windows 98SE install: ... (I had to change a few things)
VT-x : Disabled
pae/nx : Disabled
HD : 504 MB
(However, this ended up being too small since Windows takes up over 300MB
- A 2Gig disk would be better)
RAM: 128MB
Video: 8MB (same as before)

Current Problems to resolve:
For both instalations, I am looking for video drivers that will give me at least 800x600 resolution. The current 640x480 screen size lacks space somewhat. Any help on getting that bit fixed would be appreciated.

Getting Soundblaster 16 drivers for Windows98 would also be good. The ones I downloaded didn't seem to work at all. Interestingly, Win95 had sound right from the first screens.

Tip to set up OS in VM:
Set the boot order to floppy on first boot of the VM. Once Dos has loaded, use FDISK to give you a partition on C: and then format C: Then install the OS. Once the OS has been installed, change the boot order to boot from the HD.

Well, best of luck getting these systems to work for you again!

Regards,

Alf.

I must add that the Virtual Box version that I got working was 3.0.6
I could not get Win98 stable on version 3.2.6. I didn't try Win95. On this newer version, the guest operating system would crash after only a few minutes. The newer version does not have the tweaks mentioned above. That may be the reason for the problems.

Orbital Shark said:

Ok, the first part of the installation has gone according to plan, until it restarts & tries to load files from the CD rom drive. I've got a mounted CD rom set up but it just wont accept any source drive.

Any ideas? (Pic Included)

I am having this same exact block on my Win95 install on VirtualBox. I'm assuming that during the installation the CDROM was mounted as a different drive? How did you crack it Orbital?

Actually wait I figured it out. I installed DOS 7.10 first, then through that I installed a copy of Win95 over it and it works flawlessly... with sound!

swarfega said:

You beat me to it :/ Thanks to your help Im pretty certain its because Im using the 64-bit VB.

Sorry Ive not been around much today to help with your Qs.

Swarfega, did you and Orbital Shark come up with a solution to the .dll problems after the reboot with the Win95 disk? I have run into the same thing, and was wondering if you could steer me in the right direction. For information, I am running VirtualBox on Windows 7 64 bit. I can't remember, but I probably used the 64 bit installer as well.

Thanks,
Monkrep

Hi,

I am trying to install Winodws 95 on virtualbox. I used the "Windows95 Boot Disk" and I managed to acess to my Windows 95 CD, the original one I have since several years.

So I have written "Install" to lauch the installation but a message appears and tell me I have to create a MS-DOS boot partition if I have HPFS or NTFS installed on my HD.

And now I am trying some ideas I have but it doesn't work.

Could you help me ?

Thanks a lot

(maybe you noticed it but english is not my mother tongue ^^)

swarfega said:

mp23 said:

I tried installing Windows 95 but it freezes when setup.exe starts. I think I'll just install Windows NT 4.0 instead.

Make sure Windows 95 machine is highlighted then click on settings. In settings click on system on the left and then click on acceleration tab on the right. Disable VT-x/AMD-V.

Click on system on the left. In the processor tab untick enable pae/nx.

Make sure video memory is 8mb.

Make the hard drive 504mb

thx dude, to disable VT-x/AMD-V solved my problem