[Offer/Ref/Rare] The Original Windows 95 30 floppy disks set

[gus33000]

Yes, it's not a mistake and you read it right, 30 floppies !

So a long time ago I did found parts of an original Windows 95 disk set but it was missing a lot of floppies and the floppies looked suspicious. But today I have all of them (30 disks !) and one of them is the rarest of all : I name the original Windows 95 CD Boot disk.

The whole set is in french but it is to give you an idea of the file structure of the original disks and most importantly of the Boot disk.

ATM I have not imaged all those floppies but here is a picture of the boot disk :



Setup disks

Boot floppy for setup.
Windows Series
High Density Floppy (1,44MB)

Setup Instructions :
1. Turn off the computer
2. Insert the boot floppy into the drive A
3. Turn on the computer


Here is the disk image of the boot floppy (again for reference for finding the real boot floppies in other languages)

https://mega.co.nz/#!mBBjTYZR!U4xJBGvtm ... _NGEVgJ8C8

Download Complete Disk Set : https://mega.co.nz/#!Lc5VTQ7Y!-PzD_xDQ8 ... MvcuNAj_6Q

[Threat]

30 Floppies? Win95 was 13 (DMF) and Win95B was 22? What version is this????

[Overdoze]

The sticker suggests this is infact an OEM release. It may be 30 disks if they're all 1.44MB and include some additional stuff not in the retail release. Maybe language affects this as well.

[Battler]

Judging from the boot disk, it's an updated version of the RTM. Most files are dated August 24th, 1995, which is correct for the French RTM, but some (COMMAND.COM, and IO.SYS, just to name two) are dated May 1996.

[gus33000]

30 Floppies? Win95 was 13 (DMF) and Win95B was 22? What version is this????

Yes, I did have the same reaction as you had. I'm currently dumping those floppies, it will take some time.

This is floppy 29 :

[gus33000]

The files are currently being uploaded to MEGA but the shared folder is live at : https://mega.co.nz/#F!nUpQWa6a!za6sZYFMrG6m0A48B1Dx0g

Wait 10 minutes for all files to pop-up.

New Download (As one disk did not successfully upload after many try) : https://mega.co.nz/#!Lc5VTQ7Y!-PzD_xDQ8 ... MvcuNAj_6Q

After Installation it's the regular Windows 95 RTM (not A, not B, not C) but in 30 floppies.

[Ahmed Jebara]

Judging from the boot disk, it's an updated version of the RTM. Most files are dated August 24th, 1995, which is correct for the French RTM, but some (COMMAND.COM, and IO.SYS, just to name two) are dated May 1996.

It's not an "updated version" - non-English RTMs tend to have timestamps newer than English RTMs.
e.g. Windows 98 Arabic Enabled has a timestamp "17 Sep 1998". English RTM is "12 May 1998".

[SoftPCMuseum]

Judging from the boot disk, it's an updated version of the RTM. Most files are dated August 24th, 1995, which is correct for the French RTM, but some (COMMAND.COM, and IO.SYS, just to name two) are dated May 1996.

It's not an "updated version" - non-English RTMs tend to have timestamps newer than English RTMs.
e.g. Windows 98 Arabic Enabled has a timestamp "17 Sep 1998". English RTM is "12 May 1998".

True, but it's not really possible to judge a French version of Windows based on when the Arabic versions were released, so I would say that Battler is likely correct here, especially given what he said earlier about the original French version of Windows 95 being dated August 24th, 1995.

Also, from what I seem to remember, the Middle East versions of Windows at that time were always released at a later date than the English and Western European versions were, whereas the French and other Western European versions of Windows 95 were first released closer to the time that the English version was released, if I am infact remembering it correctly.

[Ahmed Jebara]

Also, from what I seem to remember, the Middle East versions of Windows at that time were always released at a later date than the English and Western European versions were, whereas the French and other Western European versions of Windows 95 were first released closer to the time that the English version was released, if I am infact remembering it correctly.

It's not only the ME/Arabic version, other versions such like Russian tend to have different timestamp, and yes they are not that far in release date but they differ from English.

However I don't own french Win95 material to compare, nor MSDN Compilations are the ones to use to compare, but what I meant is it's not an updated version, i.e. not other than plain 950 but in different language.

[gus33000]

Just to let you know guys, the boot-disk was the only disk to have write protect disabled as MS tend to do to make their copy protection work (you know the "this copy has already installed by" screen, and this screen does appear). I think this is plain 950, but weirdly it comes in 30 floppies. If you want to look at the cd that was with the floppy set it is here on the ftp :

/(Abandonware) Operating Systems/PC/Microsoft Windows 95B (4.00.1111) (OSR2) [French] (CD) [OEM]
And surprise, there are 30 cab files

But the CD is from October 1996.

I also know some guys which do have a copy of plain 95 RTM in French but as said earlier in much less floppies. I will post a screenshot of all the floppies on a table when I am at home because I only have part (1) and part (3) of the floppy set where I am, the rest is at my home and luckily I did already dumped the part (2) (They came in 3 boxes, I did only have the box (2) for some time but I did have no idea that there was 30 floppies, but that was before yesterday)

[Threat]

Why do the pictures show a nomal floppy label underneath and microsoft labels stuck on top at bad angles???

I am thinking this is some kind of recovery media on a pc harddrive where they give you labels to stick on the floppys you generate.

[gus33000]

That's why I said they are suspicious. Where I found them it was at an IT pro office, they had many other floppies of the same manufacturer ( RPS ), If you look closely on the label, you can see it has been cut from a sticker paper (you have some dots at the top and the bottom). One possibility is that MS offered those floppies to download and shipped the stickers (probably because it is cheaper) and then the guys of the office got some floppies, imaged them and put the stickers on them.

Edit : Or the possibility you said earlier.

Edit 2 : This is what make me think that (look at floppy 12) :

[gus33000]

I found something new :

Look at this floppy (number 6) :



Looks normal isn't it ?

Now look at this picture taken by my phone (same floppy) :



Do you start to see what I'm showing ?

Now look at this photo with an edited contrast and color value edited :



What should I look at ?

I don't know if you see but there are two stickers, one, the most visible is the sticker from disk 6, behind it is the sticker from disk 7. However disk 7 does have the correct sticker so that would mean that the stickers were not shipped in one set, there was some other stickers in case you messed up the placement. Now, I think I should search again for those (If I can find them) but that will be in one month (sorry)

[mrpijey]

[...] One possibility is that MS offered those floppies to download and shipped the stickers (probably because it is cheaper) and then the guys of the office got some floppies, imaged them and put the stickers on them.

Many OEMs shipped only stickers with them, and had a floppy recovery application on their PCs that reconstructed the installation floppies, of course using any floppies you had handy. That's why these floppies are not originals but more of a "OEM recovery" kind. I have several sheets of these stickers myself, the stickers themselves are Microsoft originals, but the floppies you recreate will never be original...

[gus33000]

Many OEMs shipped only stickers with them, and had a floppy recovery application on their PCs that reconstructed the installation floppies, of course using any floppies you had handy. That's why these floppies are not originals but more of a "OEM recovery" kind. I have several sheets of these stickers myself, the stickers themselves are Microsoft originals, but the floppies you recreate will never be original...

For how many disks those stickers are made ? The regular 23 or 30 ?

I wish I could find the computer with the recovery partition who made them, but unfortunately I think the computer doesn't exist anymore or it's hard-drive has been completely reformatted.

[Threat]

One question, I can't download anything here .... but do they contain the actual official Windows Setup or some OEM reimaging files/procedure?

What sort of files on say Disk 2+ ? windows cab type files? What size? Guessing this is more of a "backup" image that may also contain OEM bundled "enhancements"

[gus33000]

One question, I can't download anything here .... but do they contain the actual official Windows Setup or some OEM reimaging files/procedure?

What sort of files on say Disk 2+ ? windows cab type files? What size? Guessing this is more of a "backup" image that may also contain OEM bundled "enhancements"

It's the official Windows Setup without any addition (just the copyright protection which has been enabled), but I'm still inspecting the installation result to see why it takes 30 disks.
On Disk 2+ there are the regular cab files :

precopy1.cab
precopy2.cab
win95_3.cab etc...

[mrpijey]

For how many disks those stickers are made ? The regular 23 or 30 ?

I wish I could find the computer with the recovery partition who made them, but unfortunately I think the computer doesn't exist anymore or it's hard-drive has been completely reformatted.

I don't remember entirely, but I think i've seen both. I need to go through my galleries and see if I can find it. I still have the original stickers stored away with all my floppy collections, but I did scan them before I put them away. They could even be on BA, not sure .

[gus33000]

Just arrived at home with the whole set intact :




That's a lot of floppies.

[os2fan2]

It looks like someone bought a few floppy disks and created the disks via diskimage.

Floppy disks used to come with multiple coloured labels, like yellow, red, blue, greem etc. You see a stripe of these on each disk, even down to that they are pretty much in that order in the layout.

[Windows Historian 77]

So what i am hearing is that these are not original? I am confused...

[os2fan2]

If this is in 1995, then cdroms would only just be coming in, and i believe we are looking at a intermediate cut of the disks.

What this means is that some shop would be supplied a source set of diskettes, prehaps on a cdrom, and a supply of diskette labels. They would then supply their own diskettes, and place the diskette labels on them.

I have an OS/2 Warp beta on HH (Computer Hand-Holding - a small local computer), which were evidently imaged onto house diskettes.

[mrpijey]

So any heads up on this? Is it a proper floppy set, and if so, should we add it to the FTP? What build is it etc?

[Windows Historian 77]

In my opinion we should, but I don't have FTP anymore so I really don't care what you do, as long as it's on MEGA it is good for me!

[ExplicitNuM5]

Seems to have IHC. I don't know if it's legit IHC problem or not, but here's the Disk01: