I would first try and format the harddrive with a Windows98 start disk.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/progFDISK-c.html
Probably the problem you must did was formated the harddrive as NTFS, Win95 cannot read that. You might have to format it into FAT16 depending on your version.
Version Number Version Supports FAT32?
4.00.950 Original Version of Windows 95 No
4.00.950a Original version of Win95 with Service Pack #1 installed No
4.00.1111 OEM-only release of Win95 with FAT32 support (known as OSR2 or Win95b) Yes
4.00.1212 OEM-only release of Win95 with FAT32 & USB support (known as OSR2.1 or Win95c) Yes