MS-DOS scandisk repair

[Cant-Fix-It]

I have an old laptop running windows 95, i have tried to run scandisk in ms-dos but it freezes on try to allocate a file, i have run chdsk and that tells me to run scandisk, anyway is there an alternative that can repair the hd that can boot from floppy and run in ms-dos?

Thanks

[jdlenke]

have you tried in safe mode?

[Cant-Fix-It]

Cant try in safe mode as the laptop doesn't even start, loads of missing files.

[ralph3124]

If it's an older computer, sounds like a heat issue or hard drive issue.

Do you hear the fans running when you power it up?
If it is a heat issue, that has to be taken care of before you do anything else.

[Cant-Fix-It]

I think it's a hard drive issue as when i format it will get to 53% then try and allocate missing files, then will just freeze.

I can hear the fan spinning

[lgbpop]

There's likely nothing wrong with your hard drive. It's probably your Win95 install itself is corrupted. Scandisk, when allowed to fix broken files automatically in 9x systems, merely truncates the files and creates more broken files as a result. One gets to the point where you are now.

You should be able to do an "over-the-top" install of 95; with your 95 disk in the CD drive, start up with a boot floppy with CD support, and let the missing files be reinstalled.

[SpywareDr]

... when i format it will get to 53% then try and allocate missing files, then will just freeze.

If it won't even format, sounds like the hard drive is dying. Most usually only last between 3 to 5 years, (of daily use).