Booting into DOS

RWBRWB Icrontian
edited September 2005 in Science & Tech
As soon as I get rid of a FDD cuase I haven't used one in over a YEAR, I need it....

For some lame reason I have to boot into DOS... I don't have a damned Floppy drive anymore and this really ticks me off!

So, what do I need to do folks? :aol:

Comments

  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Create a bootable cdrom from win 98 startup files instead. Same thing.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    If your machine has USB mass storage boot support, you can enable legacy USB support in your bios, load DOS boot files onto a USB thumb drive, and boot it up from that.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Or you could could download the floppy images and use Nero to make a bootable cd.
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited January 2004
    Well, just for kicks I downloaded DOS6 from bootdisk.com and made a bootable floppy from the image. I then created a bootable CD from that floppy disk using Roxio 5.

    It put two BIN files on the CD. My computer will boot to it, but I can't access my hard drive. I can access both CD-Rom drives though.

    I made an ISO of the bootable CD I created and uploaded it to my webspace.

    DOS6.iso (1.75mb)
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    MrBill wrote:
    My computer will boot to it, but I can't access my hard drive. I can access both CD-Rom drives though.
    That makes sense. It would only be able to if your hard drive was formatted in FAT16. :D

    -drasnor :fold:
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited January 2004
    drasnor wrote:
    That makes sense. It would only be able to if your hard drive was formatted in FAT16. :D

    -drasnor :fold:
    I thought DOS 6 could read FAT32. :confused:
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    MrBill wrote:
    I thought DOS 6 could read FAT32. :confused:
    Negative. MS-DOS 6.22 was bundled with Windows for Workgroups 3.11, and FAT32 debuted with Windows 95 OSR2 (Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2, Win95 "B", or Win97 depending on who you ask). I've restored a bunch of 486's, and believe me it took awhile to get this all straightened out.

    BTW, Win95 OSR2 won't install on 16-bit processors, so no FAT32 for 486 unless they added it in something like DR DOS, FreeDOS, or one of those. I haven't really been following any of them so don't quote me on that.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited January 2004
    Well then. That certainly explains why I couldn't read/see the hard drive.

    Thanks for the info! :)
  • tedn61tedn61
    edited September 2005
    Drasnor got 486 systems working; does anyone know about file system finagling from the CD-ROM (no working floppy).

    I want to get Win 95 up and running and understand I need FAT16 to do it.

    Mandrake Linux did a partition for me and made the C-drive to be FAT32.

    Now I want to set up Win95 but it no-can-write to the C-drive. It does see it. It just does not like it and will not write on it.

    If I boot using Bart's NT-2000-XP CDROM bootdisk, the FDISK there will not reformat or delete the partition because it sees an EXTENDED DOS partition (Linux format, I think, actually).

    If I boot from a DOS 6 image -- can I reformat the disk? Maybe start all over again?

    -TEDN
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited September 2005
    Making sure I read this right:
    You're attempting to install Win95 on a 486:
    NB 1) Only two versions of Windows 95 will install on a 486, the original Win95 on floppies/CD and Windows 95a on CD.
    Your hard drive is formatted in FAT32 and your Win95 CD that you successfully booted can't see the filesystem on your hard drive.
    NB 2) In my experience, Windows doesn't like to install on partitions created by Linux partitioning programs.
    NB 3) Win95 and Win95a don't support FAT32.
    NB 4) Win95b and Win95c don't support 16-bit processors (like the 486).
    The partition shows up as DOS EXTENDED, which means that Mandrake created the partition as an extended partition rather than a primary one or the filesystem is confusing your bootdisk.

    What you can do to fix this is a standard Windows rescue disk. What you can do is make a Windows rescue floppy from your favorite Win95 or Win98 machine (the feature is under Add/Remove Programs) and then use your favorite disk tool and CD package to make a bootable CD image of the rescue floppy.

    -drasnor :fold:
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