Troubles with setup of MS DOS 6.22

This discussion was created from comments split from: MS-DOS 6.22.

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  • edited October 2019

    I have another problem with the downloaded images.Till today my IBM 300PL 6562-340 told me "No system disk" on start. Then I'v started with another version of 6.22, change the disk to the downloaded one, and format a new diskette with the /S option. Then I'v copied the entire disk to the new one. That disk is now starting the PC, MS DOS, and even the setup dialog for DOS 6.22 by itself, but after the message "Insert #1 Disk" and "enter" the message appears again, and again,.... The setup disk 1 is in the drive!!!
    I'v tryied to rename the disk several times, without any changes.... Can somebody help? (sorry about my english...)

    I have to say, few months ago, there was a running Windows XP, 32Bit on that machine. By an accident, probably of static electricity while switching an KVM switch between the second computer, the disk was gone. I'v tryied several rescue actions, without any result. While this OS was many years running, I only remember, I'v used an Ontrack Boot Manager to use the entire 120GB disk. After the damage, I'v tryied to delete, create and formate the volume several times, but the try to install Win 98SE ended usually with the message "there is an 64kBit partition on the volume... can't continue..." I'v deleted ALL partitions several times, create new ones, 12Bit, 16Bit, 32Bit, NTFS,.... Then i'v remembered, the Ontrack software use the boottrack for install..... Then I'v errased the whole disk with a new purchased software. It tooks 7 days to do that.
    Now I'v downloaded the EZ Disk Manager, wich install itself also on track 0...!! So what. I just hope to get my XP on that drive again, and then Win3.1, 3.11, 95, and 98SE in the VirtualBox.....

    And for that, I need a running DOS...!!!

  • If I recall correctly, the volume label must be "DISK" followed by 6 spaces, and then the number.

    But you would not have had that problem if you wrote the disk image with WinImage.

    Never, EVER, use 7z, zip, or RAR archive tools to open an IMG file. Those are garbage, and will not preserve all of the information in the IMG.

  • edited October 2019

    Thanx for the quick response. Maybe you'r right with "never..." but now I have to pay M.......t one year for the UniversalZip, wich I needed just once to open a 7z file. Now I'v downloded the latest ver. of it. And I need that for installing BIOS, and they comes (from gigabyte) as 7z. Sorry.
    To my problem. I think I just put 2 spaces less into the name, because in that "list" file I count just 4 spaces. I'll try again, later. Now I'm tuning 3 other machines, after small rebuild yesterday....
    I will report the result as soon as possible.
    Thank you.
    Oh, one more: is the first one 1 or 0 ?

  • The first disk should be one.

    But perhaps I was not clear enough. DON'T BOTHER manually setting the label. Just open the IMG file with WinImage http://www.winimage.com/ (shareware, just nags if you aren't registered) and instruct it to write the image to the disk. That will set everything for you. You won't have to worry about making mistakes.

    Also, you paid for a tool to uncompressed 7z files?! 7Zip is free, open source software. https://www.7-zip.org/ (of course, if that tool had additional features you wanted, then fine)

  • edited October 2019

    It works. 6 spaces. But now the C: drive is not present for the setup. I can type dir/p, and all files on C: (previous DOS and Win files and folders) are there. Setup try to formate the D drive, wich is my working space, including all the softwares i had installed before. I have to remove the drive. It's not possible to edit the dos .ini file....

  • Of course is 7z free. That's why I'm p...d of to pay M.......t for something I don't even use. And now I'm doing what you just wrote. Disk 2 don't work no more. I'll do it with WinImage. Let's see the result.... I only formated all diskettes with 6.22 on the old machine.

  • But by the way: the files you can download from your site are 7z. Not .img !

  • And by the way, WinImage can't open a 7z file. So I'v downloaded and installed it for nothing. Just useless spending time.

  • There is no need to get upset. 7zip is for compression, so I assume the files are stored here that way so that they are smaller and so that you only download one file. You need to extract the img files with 7zip and then use winimage to write the img file to floppies.

  • the img files are included in the 7z archives. extract them using 7zip or whatever you use for that.

    remember that you can edit posts for up to four hours after posting.

  • edited October 2019

    Everything was going fine. I made 2 new floppys and install 3 disks, exept the last file (wntools.gr_ was declared as damaged. I tryied to expand manualy, but i get "input file error", and "output file error". But that's no problem. The problem is, the machine don't start from HDD. I get, as before, a "boot sequence error" and advice to insert a floppy...
    I'm sure, there is no bootmanager on the HD. I'll send you a pic of the HD before I delete the whole disk (as i said before) If the resolution is good enough you will see, there is no bootmanager on volume1 (SYSTEM IBM, 1st from left side, sector 0 below)

    All other volumes,even if empty, have a bootmanager in that sector!
    And here you can see why I made the disks with 7z FileManager:

    But something is still wrong....
    I'm sorry, it's 6:00 in the morning, and I should go to sleep.... but No.1 and No.4(IBM) are still on. I'll shut down No.4 and start again to access BIOS and try to change something. Somehow "Ctrl+Alt+Del" don't do a new start realy....
    There's not much to adjust in that BIOS. I set the "Disketteless operation" to "enable", but the error stay the same.... I go to sleep.

  • edited October 2019

    You cannot just copy the img file to a disk. You have to use a program that writes the img to the disk, such as winimage.

    Did you use fdisk, from the dos floppy, to create the partition? Some of those partitions in the screen shot look like fat32 which is not supported by MS-DOS 6.22. You’ll need to delete the partition and create a new one with fdisk.

    Then, depending on the version of DOS, you’ll need to format /s the drive. Some oem, non-upgrade versions don’t like to install if the drive is already formatted.

  • edited October 2019

    Jafir, the picture is 3 months old. As I said before, I'v deleted the entire disk with Paragon Disk Manager. It tooks 7 days. Then I put the disk back into the IBM, made a new partition (just one!), and formated it with my (30 years old) version of DOS 6.22 from diskette. The strange thing on it is, with fdisk there is a 16Bit partition of 16MB, but the result of formating (of course with /S) is a size of 8???MB. What's wrong?
    And if you look at the picture above, I did few months ago (after the crash) the same procedure like today. New partition, formating (with /S), on the same machine, with the same DOS diskette. And the size of the drive is 4GB !!!
    I'm sure if I put the drive into my external bay, the same software will show me the same dimensions of volume 1. The remaining part of the drive is empty....

  • edited October 2019

    I'm fairly sure your computer does not support LBA addressing required for drives larger than 8GB. Without a drive overlay program, disk tools will report the total size of the 120GB hard drive as 8GB (or ~4GB on some machines).

    MS-DOS 6.22 does not support individual partitions larger than 2GB. So you really won't be able to use the entire 120GB anyway.

    What I would do is use MAXLLF https://winworldpc.com/product/maxtor-low-level-format-utility to wipe the partition information and any overlays clean. You may stop MAXLLF after a minute or two, wiping the entire drive would take a long time and is not needed.

    Then boot the MS-DOS 6.22 disk.

    Run DOS FDISK and create a primary partition (FAT16) of the maximum size. This will create a 2GB partition. Make absolutely sure this partition is set as "Active".

    Reboot from the floppy and run FORMAT C: /S

    Reboot without the floppy and make sure the hard drive now boots. If it does not, you may need to check your BIOS settings.

    Optionally, create an "extended" partition using the remaining free space, and fill it with additional "logical" partitions. (drives D, E, and F depending on space). Again, you will not be able to use more than 8GB total.

    I would not bother trying to use drive overlays and larger partitions than that unless you plan to use Windows 95 OSR2 or Windows 98.

    If you plan to use 2000, or XP, the simplest thing to do is install the OS in one of the FAT partitions under the 8GB mark. Then once 2000SP4 or XP is installed, you can add a larger partition for data and applications above the 8GB mark, although it will not be visible from DOS.

  • Dear SomeGuy, let's start with small steps. Read my answer to Jafir. The only difference between then and now is the DOS diskettes I used for the install.
    I removed the drive from the IBM machine, put it into my external bay, and start the same software like months before, after the crash. Compare the SYSTEM IBM drive in the earlier pic with this one:

    I used 2 different softwares to look at the content of the drive.Left, right.
    The software right is not even sure about the FAT system. In one window is it FAT12, in another FAT16.
    From 4 results of 2 softwares I choose the FAT12 as the actuall one. And as I my opinion was, there is no bootmanager. Neither at pic above or from today.
    While removing the drive I also checked the cable conections and jumpers.
    Now how comes that the creation of a new volume, partitionating, setting active, formating with the software you will install later, installing the software, results in a system drive without bootmanager in sector 0 ?
    In the early pic even the empty logical volumes have a bootmanager !
    The only difference between partition 1 and thee others is the software wich did it.
    Partition 1 was made IN the machine, all others (FAT32) on another computer with another software.
    Like Monthy Python's Mr.Gumby sais: "My brain hurts!"
    And I'm sorry, but few moths ago I had a C: drive with Windows XP home, SP2, PS 6, Cubase 3.2, Oracle VB 3.?.?, a.s.f of 120GB !

  • I'v downloaded MS-DOS Plus enhanced Tools few days ago.After few tricks I had 4 diskettes, and could do the install. (some files on disk 3+4 are corrupt or not present)
    But the computer won't start from HDD. In the MSD tool I found the "environment" entries, and there is a path for command.com to A drive. If I could change it to "C:\DOS" or "C:\", probably the machine will start from HDD. Right? But where can I find the "environment" file. It's 30 years ago I'v programmed in DOS....

  • edited October 2019

    that would probably be in your c:\autoexec.bat file. Edit it with a text editor, and if a line "set comspec=a:\command.com" exists, either change it to "set comspec=c:\command.com" or just delete the line.

    Note that this environmental variable is always automatically created even if it is not specified. If you booted from a floppy, it would indeed be set to the a: drive.

  • That's a good idea. I edited already config and autoexec files. They are rudimentary, and there's no such a line. If you look at the following picture, there is Boot Drive set to A. I don't remember a way to put this into config or autoexec files. And in the environment string is the PATH not defined, but I set PATH to C:\, and C:\dos, wich was already there. And allso EMM386 is nowhere to find, neither some LOAD HIGH or DEVICE HIGH.

    By observing the machine while booting, it try to read the diskette 1st, and then a long gap until start (or error message(if diskette is not in)).

  • comspec dos'nt work. Are you sure with autoexec? I'm just looking for ways to change system environment strings. It's not easy, cause the most commands I'v found don't exist in this version of OS. Or you need a program to find, and/or modifie them.

  • Well, comspec won't help you if your hard drive is still borked.

    MAXLLF (only run for a few minutes)

    FDISK (from DOS, create one 2GB partition)

    FORMAT C: /S

    If this does not work, then your hard drive or computer is broken.

  • Hi everybody.
    I'm not shure if somebody still visit that discusion, cause I had to do with my other machines.
    But now I think to know the reason why there is no bootmanager. SomeGuy, you'v been using earlier the "drive overlay" term. I think I'v been using a Drive Overlay software to install my WindowsXP. And if I remember right, this software manipulate BIOS, and the track 0 on the HDD. That's why there is no bootmanager on that drive!

    If I remember right, I'v tryied to do it again with the old floppy disk, but it didn't worked.

    Now the next problem appears: in the other tab of my browser is the IBM site open, where I'v been searching for the original BIOS for my machine. It looks like they don't have it anymore. Search result for "BIOS for 300PL 6562-340" is "No matches found".
    Few days ago I'v been downloaded a BIOS file(s) for 300PL, but I read the info just before, and all the files in that 7z archive are NOT for my model. So I think a BIOS flash will damage the PC completly...
    Somebody knew a place to download the right one?

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