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DOS + SATA HDD = Fail

OldSkoolOldSkool
edited March 2012 in Hardware
Hello I want to install MS-DOS 6.22 in a virtual machine app that uses (virtual) SATA drives (like VirtualBox).

And i want to use the SATA drive setting...

I always wondered why there is a SATA CD/DVD driver for DOS, but there is no SATA Hard disk drive controller. But i've been searching for a while, and still... nothing.

Comments

  • stitchstitch
    SATA CD/DVD drives do not need any protocol beyond the base ATA command set to work, that is not true with SATA hard disks. So while there's drivers that can work with the bus itself, it's not intelligent enough to speak with the hard disks. Nobody's really seen any reason to implement this in DOS either, sure while it may be decent for a recovery environment where CD access would be desired, you can't mount any form of modern partition in DOS that would allow access to a file system the size of modern SATA drives.

    Just use an IDE controller in vbox and call it a day. SATA won't work, it's not designed to work, and it probably never will.
  • OldSkoolOldSkool
    but now i want to know...

    how do i install dos 6.22 from a cd, I know you can do this just need some confuration to do this.
  • TCPMetaTCPMeta
    Simple, boot from a floppy bootdisk that has a driver set for a optical drive and then install it from there. You could use ISOMagic to make the CD bootable by making it load a virtual floppy.
  • OldSkoolOldSkool
    how do i load a virtual floppy?
  • stitchstitch
    OldSkool wrote:
    how do i load a virtual floppy?

    have you even bothered to consult the virtualbox help docs, dontabandonme? http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch05.html#vdidetails

    ADD: you might be looking for this instead: http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso- ... ble-cd.htm
  • noonenoone
    stitch wrote:
    OldSkool wrote:
    how do i load a virtual floppy?

    have you even bothered to consult the virtualbox help docs, dontabandonme? http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch05.html#vdidetails

    ADD: you might be looking for this instead: http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso- ... ble-cd.htm
    Chuck_Norris_Approves.gif
  • OldSkoolOldSkool
    never mind that but now i need to make sure that it won't say "Insert Setup Disk 2".
  • stitchstitch
    What exactly is preventing you from circulating out the 3? floppy images in vbox directly for setup?
  • OldSkoolOldSkool
    IDK, it just says "insert setup disk 2"


    EDIT: Am I just better off making a DOS boot CD and run stuff from there?
  • stitchstitch
    So insert disk 2 through the virtualbox disk image tool thing and press enter in the setup? Are you telling me you never bothered to try the official method to install? That's *all* you have to do, is cycle out the set of 3 floppies. You don't need to burn a damn thing to a CD or make an iso to install it.
  • TCPMetaTCPMeta
    Edit DOSSETUP.INI towards the top there is a line
    [dist_label] DISK      1 DISK      2 DISK      3

    Change it to
    [dist_label] DISK      1

    Save it and exit.

    Also to make sure to add the CD-ROM driver set and repoint the Autoexec.bat to launch the DOS setup.exe to the CD-ROM's drive letter.
  • OldSkoolOldSkool
    @TCPMeta: Thank You, that was the kind of answer that i was looking for.
  • lonestar473lonestar473
    Unless there is a specific reason you need MS-DOS 6.22, if you want to use SATA, would FreeDOS work?

    I found a reference on a forum of HP bundling FreeDOS 1.1 with Machines with No OS (A-la-carte) which
    was located on an 8GB partition on a 250GB SATA HDD.
    (Source: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum ... post215246 )

    I also found another forum reference with FreeDOS, Accessing SATA devices; And Accessing up to 2TB, though
    it seemed to be finicky to get past 8GB.
    (Source: http://www.bttr-software.de/forum/forum ... hp?id=3008 )

    However its likely that in either case they are using SATA drives set to Legacy, or IDE instead of AHCI in the bios..
  • OldSkoolOldSkool
    I just want to make a MS-DOS 6.22 CD for those who seem to can't install from floppy or the floppies are damaged.
  • JoshJosh
    There's also a DOS 7 that was extracted from Wind0ws 9x I believe. There was a pre-made bootable ISO made that was floating around at one time. You might want to look into that.

    Also, unless you need DOS 6.22 for testing purposes, I would highly recommend that you take a step back and install the OS on legacy hardware using legacy methods (IE floppy disks). It just adds to the feel.
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