Packard Bell PackMate 3 and 2GB hard drive.

Twiggy

So I've put the 2GB IDE hard drive into the packardbell, and it recognizes it, however whenever I am setting up dos, at 99% it always fails reading "command.com".

I don't know what it is, when I boot off a boot diskette I can access "C:" just fine. It copies everything else to it, just not "command.com", which sucks because that's a crucial file, obviously.

I used BigCJ's advice and set the parameters to 1024, 16, 63.

As I said the hard disk is recognised and I can read it just fine when using a boot disk.

altracker9

Did you format the HDD with the /s parameter to load the system files?
a: Format c: /s

If not, you need to load the system files to the HDD:
a: SYS c:

Twiggy

altracker9 wrote:

Did you format the HDD with the /s parameter to load the system files?
a: Format c: /s

If not, you need to load the system files to the HDD:
a: SYS c:

I will try that, one sec.

EDIT:

okay, when I tried "format c: /s" it said it was checking the existing format, and then said "not ready"

when I did SYS c:

it worked as far as it said "system transferred", however when I rest the machine, it did try to boot off the HDD but took a while and then came up with a non-system disk error.

I'm probably having these problems because I am using a 2GB drive on a 286 system from the 80's...

guykramer

Try running Scandisk and do a surface scan to check for bad sectors

altracker9

Did you create an active partition on the HDD to match the parameters that you set in the Bios (1024, 16, 63)? I think that is for a 528mb HDD.

Twiggy

altracker9 wrote:

Did you create an active partition on the HDD to match the parameters that you set in the Bios (1024, 16, 63)? I think that is for a 528mb HDD.

No, how would I go about doing that?

SomeGuy

Something sounds screwpot. If it were me, I would start fresh. Throw MaxLLF at the drive: https://winworldpc.com/product/maxtor-l ... at-utility to make sure any bad sectors get re-mapped. Then FDISK and Format from DOS.

But things can get confused if the CHS value does not match the drive on earlier motherboards. Does this one not support LBA at all?

BigCJ

If hard disk checks out okay, try this:
FDISK
Set DOS partition
Create Primary DOS Partition
"Do you wish to use the maximum available size..." (N)
"Enter partition size in megabytes..." (503 or less)
Set active partition
"Enter the number of the partition you want to make active" (1)
Esc

Twiggy

BigCJ wrote:

If hard disk checks out okay, try this:
FDISK
Set DOS partition
Create Primary DOS Partition
"Do you wish to use the maximum available size..." (N)
"Enter partition size in megabytes..." (503 or less)
Set active partition
"Enter the number of the partition you want to make active" (1)
Esc

When I did that, it says the only startable partition is already set active.

I'm going to try someguy's way.

Twiggy

SomeGuy wrote:

Something sounds screwpot. If it were me, I would start fresh. Throw MaxLLF at the drive: https://winworldpc.com/product/maxtor-l ... at-utility to make sure any bad sectors get re-mapped. Then FDISK and Format from DOS.

But things can get confused if the CHS value does not match the drive on earlier motherboards. Does this one not support LBA at all?

It doesn't seem to support LBA. No.

BigCJ

My suggestion was in supplement to SomeGuy's, not an alternative. Check the disk using SCANDISK, then MAXLLF, and FDISK the drive.

popeyewinter wrote:

When I did that, it says the only startable partition is already set active.

That's fine, just so long as the other steps work okay. I was using MS-DOS 5.00, it didn't set it active automatically when manually specifying partition size.

Many BIOSes didn't support LBA until the mid '90s

Twiggy

currently low level formatting.

EDIT:

LLF complete,
Primary DOS partition created and set active.

MS-DOS 6.22 is now high level formatting and installing itself.

EDIT: Even after that it fails reading "command.com" after 99%.

I think I should buy a drive from that time, I found a 121MB one on ebay. That way I can enter the exact information. Maybe that'd solve the problem.

Would've been great if it worked since I had it laying around and wouldn't need to buy one, but it seems I need to buy one.

BigCJ

Try an older version of DOS, one closer to that which originally shipped with the machine. 5.00 would be a good start. Repartition, reformat, then SYS the drive again and see if that works. It's a little late to ask this question, but does the drive actually have 16 heads? Strange as it is, I've come to realize I own a 6Gb drive with only 15. That might be a contributing factor, I'm not sure; I never had the privilege to play with a system that old.

Twiggy

BigCJ wrote:

Try an older version of DOS, one closer to that which originally shipped with the machine. 5.00 would be a good start. Repartition, reformat, then SYS the drive again and see if that works. It's a little late to ask this question, but does the drive actually have 16 heads? Strange as it is, I've come to realize I own a 6Gb drive with only 15. That might be a contributing factor, I'm not sure; I never had the privilege to play with a system that old.

Yes, it has 16 heads.

BigCJ

Hmm... I dont really know what to make of this then. Maybe do a drive overlay? Set it up to make a partition as small or large as you want, and maybe it could allow proper System Transfer to happen. Grasping at straws here, but it might work.

Twiggy

BigCJ wrote:

Hmm... I dont really know what to make of this then. Maybe do a drive overlay? Set it up to make a partition as small or large as you want, and maybe it could allow proper System Transfer to happen. Grasping at straws here, but it might work.

How would I go about doing that?

BigCJ

Download a drive overlay program like OnTrack or MaxBlast, write the image to a diskette, boot from the diskette and the drive overlay will run. You can set up the partition(s) however you want when the program loads. It should be a fairly simple process.

What an overlay does is modify the boot record to ignore what the BIOS says about the drive and follow its own proprietary code to view the true size. This disregard for the BIOS settings just may be what you need.

Beware, OnTrack failed on my Packard Bell, try MaxBlast. Designed for Maxtor drives, it works on any brand much like MAXLLF.

Twiggy

I can't seem to find it, I did try powermax, but it says "80386" required, and I obviously have an 80286.

BigCJ

Googled "maxblast drive overlay".

Very first result was it.

Click "DOWNLOAD HERE" under the first paragraph on this page and you'll get what you need.

Twiggy

Did that,

now says:

"Gathering Information

Just a moment...

"

and it's been saying that for a while now. I think something is wrong.

BigCJ

The download failed? Odd... I'll upload my copy someplace else and you can grab it from there instead.

One moment, please.

Twiggy

it downloaded fine, created the diskette fine,

But when I run the program and go through all the start menus it then says it is gathering information , just one moment.

It has been saying that ever since.

BigCJ

Well, crap. MaxBlast may not play well with a 286 then. Try a version of OnTrack. There's many versions in the library, maybe one of those will work for you.

https://winworldpc.com/product/ontrack-disk-manager/5x

Twiggy

even after doing this, after formatting and getting system files copied, it doesn't work.

I guess I need a real physical drive which is from that time, and the right size, so I can put correct information in that the BIOS will understand.

Twiggy

the 121mb drive I bought finally came in, it came with a print-out for formatting information and info from Norton Disk Utilities.

Hopefully I can use this to figure out what to tell the BIOS about it.

EDIT: Silly me, I just turned over the paper and it says in plain English how many sectors, heads, cylinders etc there are.


Installed it, sys'd the drive, and command.com will actually run off it. So this is a good sign.

Now I'm installing MS-DOS 6.22, hopefully it'll all work. If it does, I will then have to format it again, and install the packard bell OEM DOS 3.3 that's in the archives, then I will test my "5.25 inch copy of 3.1 and see how well it works, if it's really slow, then it's Windows 286 time...

EDIT TWO: MS-DOS 6.22 Installed and boots successfully!

Okay, for some reason the setup on MS-DOS 3.33 packard bell OEM keeps changing my BIOS configuration.