Cannot run certain software on windows 2000...help!
 

I have a certain program that I REALLY need to be able to use a certain part of it but it isn't able to work on win2k. Basically what I am doing is installing windows 95 on a friends laptop through floppies as that's all it has. I need to be able to format these floppies to 1.72mb. Well the software I use to do this with willnot work in 2000. Is there any suggestions on how to accomplish this task of putting 95 on with floppies? Thanks in advance.

Not sure I can help with this, but have you considered finding and borrowing an external CD-ROM to install it? Or, alternatively, removing your internal CD-ROM, temporarily transfering it to your friend's PC, and installing from disk. Less chance of an error that way...

It's a laptop, not a pc. I don't know of anybody who has an external drive and I am not even sure that would work since this laptop is so old. Thanks anyways.

I would sugest that if it is an old dos program (like most progs that I remeber were able to format 1.72MB disks were), try using a dos/win95/win98 boot disk ( http://www.bootdisk.com ).

An alternative is that if you can somehow put the laptop on a network (and the hd is large enough), dump all of the win95 install files onto the laptop, delete everything else and run the install from the laptop (added benefit that if you need the 95 install files, it's already on the laptop.

Not sure I follow about the bootdisk but there is no network card either :( so transferring the files that way is a no go either. Thanks for the suggestions though!

can you run vmware and 95 inside a 2k box and use the software that way instead ?

I'm pretty sure this is in win2k too, but i could be wrong. In XP if you right click the program and click properties, a window should pop up with 3 tabs, general, shortcut, and compatibility. Click the compatibility tab, check the box that says "Run this in compatibility mode for" and select which OS. Again, not sure if this works with 2k, but good luck.

The compatibility mode doesn't work in w2k, as far as I know.

Using vmware would be one option. Are you sure there are no w2k software that could format a floppy into 1.72MB? A quick google search with "1.72mb format windows 2000" (minus the "") came up with this possibly useful link:
http://www.sharewarejunction.com/inf...ProductID=3212

Although, one other page about the same program said "1.72MB format is not compatible with Windows NT" so you might be out of luck anyway. Still, the same page states that " The DMF (1.68MB) format is often used for distribution floppies under Windows 95/98 and Windows NT. "

Actually 0count, I downloaded and registered that maxformat software over the weekend in hopes that would solve my problem. It does NOT format to 1.72 in NT/2000 just like it says and 1.68 is not enough for win95. Thanks everybody for the very helpful information. I'll just probably end up dumping 3.11 on this POS...