My project

[neuromancer]

I can't get to Geekfarmer Forum for over 24hrs. now so lets just jot some stuff here and see what ya think Sal.

I got this old `hand me down` computer from the local school system. It's was a win95 box. I want to load win for workgroups 3.11 on it. The box had Fortres 101 installed on it by the school tech guy. What this does is lock `access` to the C drive. I can't write to it or edit files there. The start menu will only provide a shut down option ... etc, etc, etc.

I got a boot floppy for win95. Navigated from the `a` prompt to `windows\command`. Ran `format c:` and wiped the drive. Could not get the machine to read the MS DOS 6.22 install disks. Thought OK ... maybe I need to wipe the MS DOS on the machine off. Ran `fdisk` and erased the primary DOS partition. Still won't read the install floppy for 6.22. Somehow, there are win95 files sitll present from the boot floppy. I'm not sure what to do. A friend told me I had to set up a new partition. The 6.22 install process should partition for me but I'm not sure at this point how to get there if the machine won't autostart the install floppy. I navigated from the `a` prompt to setup on the floppy but when I run it the machine tells me to restart the machine and it will run.

All I get is the message about how there is a non system floppy present and I have to remove it before continuing. Any ideas? Somehow I want to get the machine to recognize the floppy for 6.22. I copied the files off a friends copy. Is there a format issue with my floppies perchance?

David

[Weave]

Non-System disk means that the floppy doesn't have the boot sectors hooked up on it. Straight copying a floppy doesn't put the boot sectors on there. Since you can boot a 95 floppy ok, I feel that there is a big possibility that the 6.22 install disks are bagged. You might try nailing a 6.22 boot floppy from here:

http://www.oldstuff.myagora.net/lightspeed/main.html#Boot%20Disks

or let me know and I'll email you a self extracting image. I also might have an image'd set of 6.22 install floppies around here somewhere...  

BTW - imaging a floppy also cops it's boot partion when you reconstitute.

After you make the disk you can boot that,  partition and format, reboot (it will make do that), and your hard drive will be ready.

From there, boot to the new boot floppy, switch to the first 6.22 install disk and type "setup". Everything should chug from there.

The reason I am saying to get a DOS 6.22 boot floppy instead of using the Windows 95 boot floppy is that the DOS versions are different and many times you will get errors "wrong DOS version".

How big of a hard drive are you playing with? Not sure if the install will partition and format for you or not - I always just partitioned up myself.  I do know that DOS 6.22 doesn't do FAT32 - so if you try to use a Windows 95 boot floppy to partition and format and get asked about "large disk support" say NO.

Keep in mind that this is an excellent time to get familiar with all those destructive things that the books tell you not to do. Your first "format c:" is very liberating... and playing with partitions for awhile might also be fun. Partition Magic, anyone? Maybe Rannish partition manager?

I had a ball playing with that old IBM 486 I had awhile back - and experimented quite a bit. I encourage you to look back 9 pages or so at MisterWeave Computing for when I was messing with that old IBM - lots of good intel on Windows 3.11, hard drive and bios workarounds, install tips and links...

I hope this helps.

[Weave]

OR - boot the new floppy, partition hard drive, format c: /sys, after it finishes remove the boot floppy, reboot (it will make you) and then let it boot to the c: prompt (the /sys when you formatted c: made c: bootable and added the system files to the c: drive). Put in the first 6.22 install disk, switch to the a drive, and type setup. Should chug from there...

[admin]

OR - boot the new floppy, partition hard drive, format c: /sys, after it finishes remove the boot floppy, reboot (it will make you) and then let it boot to the c: prompt (the /sys when you formatted c: made c: bootable and added the system files to the c: drive). Put in the first 6.22 install disk, switch to the a drive, and type setup. Should chug from there...

 

i would go this route as well. and definetaly say No when it asks for large disk support as Weave mentioned.

I happen to have this uploaded to my site from way back when.

http://wwww.digisal.com/apps/msdos622.exe

its three discs, the third is supplental.

We installed msdos 6.22 over and over in one of my courses and everytime we just booted to floppy. So your floppy may indeed be jacked up...

[neuromancer]

Keep in mind that this is an excellent time to get familiar with all those destructive things that the books tell you not to do. Your first "format c:" is very liberating...

muaaaaahahaha I can dig it big time. I have never in my life wiped a drive (on purpose) and when it finished I was like .... way cool. Then when I had problems with the 6.22 disks I thought HEY! let's delete the primary DOS partition. I rebooted and got the NO ROM PRESENT and thought ... OH Yeah!!!!!

I am downing your exe file now Sal. I am arseuming when I run it ... it will create the three floppies for me?

I had a feeling I was missing a boot sector on the floppies. I read that to create bootables I had to do format /S first. When I tried doing it on my winME machine it gave me the "This command is no longer supported in DOS" message. When I had the original floppies ... I should have made an image of them with winimage? Are you saying that image would be a bootable floppy or would I have to convert it out with winimage. I'm not real clear on this.

At some point I did get a message about the 512MB limit on drive size and asking me if I wanted to override it ... I said no since my drive is larger and I'm sure that 3.11 would gasp at all that real estate.

Tonight looks like a busy geek night for me. I want to give this a run for its money and tonight is the first night I get a chance to tune in "Off The Hook" on the shortwave. Geeking is way coooooooooool.

David

[Weave]

When I had the original floppies ... I should have made an image of them with winimage? Are you saying that image would be a bootable floppy or would I have to convert it out with winimage. I'm not real clear on this.

That is exactly right. With WinImage it makes an image of the whole floppy, including the boot sectors. When you transfer the image back to floppy, the boot sectors all "tag along" and the newly made floppy is bootable. I have a bunch of boot floppies for various systems created in this way... just in case I ever need one. After my old 486 laptop having "wrong dos version" errors all over it I discovered that a good set of boot floppies for multiple DOS versions is a handy thing to have.

In Win9x and on, boot floppies were easy... all you had to do was go to the "create a start disk" wizzard thing and click "Make disk". With DOS or Windows 3.11 (still, essentially DOS), you needed to make the floppy bootable with the format /s command, then copy over the files you wanted to use onto the floppy yourself. If you didn't know what you wanted or needed (cd rom support, perhaps?) then you had no clue as to what to put on the floppy.

[neuromancer]

Bingo! Got it!

Took Sal's download ... basically all four image files. Wrote them over to floppy with winimage.

I went a slightly different route from here. I took the win95 boot disk and booted with it. Took that out and put the first floppy from 6.22 and entered `setup`. It prompted to restart the machine and bingo it fired the 6.22 floppy. From there I installed 6.22. Then ran the win for workgroups 3.11 through and I now have a 3.11 install up and running.

I kinda like how it boots to DOS and you tell it to run win. I know I can change a file to get it to boot straight to win but the DOS initial boot is a cool bow to the geek in me.

Thanks for the file Sal. Excellent little ditty you posted there and thanks to both for the suggestions. I posted this project over here at Sal's ... think of it as a `Progressive Dinner Party`. You know the parties that used to be popular in the 70's where you had appetizers at one house, dinner at another, desert at a third house. LOL I will be sure to scour those links over at misterweave in the coming days as I play with 3.11.

David

[neuromancer]

So whats the first thing I do in 3.11?

Play a game of solitaire of course  

David

[admin]

cool, glad you got her up and running...

can you do screen shots in that system and save em? just to see how looks, since i never seen that OS..

[admin]

and to make a disc bootable after formatting it i have always done

sys a: from a command prompt.

[Rob]

Oh My God i have no clue what you guys are talking about . " Im alittle Slow "

All that stuff reads like Stereo Instructions  [smiley=book2.gif]

[neuromancer]

Here's a screen shot with the `main` menu open. It's really very simple.

sys a: from a command prompt

crap I am learning loads from this thread!

David

[neuromancer]

Quick question ....

I did an alt > print screen to put that in the clipboard. Then hit the clipbook viewer (see screen shot). In Mac I can view the clipboard but let's say on a winME OS ... How do you view the clipboard contents? Can you?

[neuromancer]

Oh yeah ....

No luck tonight on the `Off The Hook` broadcast. The air was just not right tonight. The only thing I could pick up that was close to the station was some crap heads at a religious meeting speaking in tongues.

Don't you just hate it when that happens ...

David

[Weave]

Quick question ....

I did an alt > print screen to put that in the clipboard. Then hit the clipbook viewer (see screen shot). In Mac I can view the clipboard but let's say on a winME OS ... How do you view the clipboard contents? Can you?

In Win9x there is a utility that you can install - the clipboard viewer. If you don't have it, got to the Add/Remove programs thing, hit the second tab and look for the clipboard viewer to install it. I do believe that ME and XP also have it.

OR-

You can just open up Paint and paste away...