Check the diskette volume labels. They should be DISK<6 Spaces># (where number is the disk number 1-3. Back in the day, we got a rather large batch of DOS 6.22 install disks that weren't labeled. We had to manually label each and every one of them (with the Label command.) I don't remember having this problem with the upgrade diskette, but the full install disks had that problem.

Not sure what you mean by banana drive. I like to FDISK and FORMAT outside of the installation program. Just starting from the top here, apologies if you've already done these things:

1) Make sure the hard drive is detected by the BIOS.
2) Assuming that it is, try booting up with MS-DOS setup disk 1. When it gets to the first screen, abort installation and get back to the A:\ prompt. Run FDISK. Make sure your hard drive is recognized. Delete any old partitions and create a brand new one in the empty space.
3) You will have to restart. Restart again with the setup disk 1. Quit setup again, and at the A:\ prompt format your hard drive by typing FORMAT C:
4) Then restart and launch setup again, and should walk you through it.

If you're still getting read errors from the floppy, could be that particular disk has gone bad.

"Banana" is just the device name for the CD-ROM. I believe some of the boot disks at bootdisk.com use this name instead of "CDROM," etc.

Artex wrote:

"Banana" is just the device name for the CD-ROM. I believe some of the boot disks at bootdisk.com use this name instead of "CDROM," etc.

I wonder who started that. Bootdisk.com maybe?

Artex wrote:

"Banana" is just the device name for the CD-ROM. I believe some of the boot disks at bootdisk.com use this name instead of "CDROM," etc.

Correct, which also means that these disks don't contain the original/untouched dos 6.22 as the original poster might be thinking

I got the impressions that he first tried booting from a disk from the web site, but switched to his real 6.22 disks when it didn't work. Re-reading his post, it looks like his 6.22 disk has a problem too (real or downloaded.) I missed that last part on my first read. It sounds like he exited out of set up then formatted the drive, but he doesn't mention partitioning it. After this his setup disk started giving him errors.... It sounds like the his setup disk is fried 🙁

Hi all,

I'm still battling with this. I'll admit to downloading DOS 6.22 off the Internet. While I have access to a TechNet subscription with DOS 6 and the 6.22 upgrade it just gives me a folder full of files totalling 5.80Mb with no clear way of splitting it between discs which isn't helpful.

My 1.2Gb drive is picked up in the BIOS fine and is configured. I low level formatted it to be sure of nothing remaining on it. When I F3 to quit out of setup to fdisk I get a read error again.I grabbed a different .IMG install of DOS 6.22 which when put onto a brand new 3.5" disc labelled as Disk 1 with 6 spaces. I booted off the disc with no errors and setup is saying you need to configure unallocated space on the drive which is the point I'm stuck at Insert Setup Disc 1 again.

Is something possibly up with my floppy drive or cable? I was tempted to order some real DOS install discs off eBay but I'd like to test the hardware with a DOS install first to be sure of no errors.

Sorry again!

Also I'd like to add. I'm using a USB floppy drive on my Windows 8.1 machine as I don't have a machine with a floppy drive any more. I have been building computers for almost 15 years so I'm fine with newer hardware but my first own PC was a Pentium 120 in my School days so it's been a while since I used anything old. I would like to get this machine working. Just need an OS installed on it first.

I agree on not using the MS-DOS setup to setup your drive.

To confirm it's not your copy of DOS try the FreeDOS floppy at the end of the page to format and partition your drive:

http://www.freedos.org/download/

Cheers. I'll give that a try tomorrow. Just got another issue to sort out now. I pulled a floppy cable from a different old PC which the drive didn't like. Now no matter how I try and set-up now using the old cable that did work I get the dreaded 40 floppy error message. Powered the thing off for tonight. Need some fresh eyes tomorrow for it.

Will let you know how I get on.

I'm a big fan of TechNet myself 😀 Most of my software I got from there; Visual Studio, MS Office, and several OS's - but sadly don't have access any more (had it through work, and I'm not working any more.) My Win3 installs, though, came as 7 .exe self extracting disk images. I didn't bother with DOS 6 though, so I don't know how that was packaged. I have install floppies for DOS 3+ (from PC buys back before I started piecing together my own builds.) I do know that Win3 (unlike any of the multi-disk DOS's, to the best of my knowledge,) could be installed from a directory where all the disk files have been lumped together. As for you DOS download, is there some sort of script file for the setup? I don't remember, and my off system is currently in pieces, so I can't check the disk easily. If there is, that could let you know which files go on which disk.

DosFreak wrote:

I agree on not using the MS-DOS setup to setup your drive.

To confirm it's not your copy of DOS try the FreeDOS floppy at the end of the page to format and partition your drive:

http://www.freedos.org/download/

You can also try using Super FDisk (SFDISK).

unospace wrote:

Cheers. I'll give that a try tomorrow. Just got another issue to sort out now. I pulled a floppy cable from a different old PC which the drive didn't like. Now no matter how I try and set-up now using the old cable that did work I get the dreaded 40 floppy error message. Powered the thing off for tonight. Need some fresh eyes tomorrow for it.

Will let you know how I get on.

Have you tried another floppy drive? I would also check the "Pin 1" orientation (red stripe on the cable) and make sure the cable is oriented correctly between the board and floppy drive - I know some motherboards are picky and things don't work right if the wrong end of the cable is plugged into the motherboard vs floppy drive.

Floppy Cables:

Floppy Connector ------ Floppy Connector ----------------------------------- Floppy Connector

is different than..

Floppy Connector ----------------------------------- Floppy Connector ------ Floppy Connector

Another update for you all. Thanks for all the advice!

I decided to take a different approach and get a different floppy drive and cable and test again. I had to modify a newer floppy drive with a 1.5mm drill bit for the blanked hole but it worked first time. I booted off the 6.22 Boot disk and ran fdisk. Was only able to create a 504Mb DOS partition but then inserted DOS 6.22 disc 1 and the installation was flawless all the way through. I was so relieved to get a flashing C:> prompt I can tell you! I then installed Windows 3.11 on the machine to give a bit of flexibility to this PC. I don't know as yet which part is bad with the old setup. Further testing needed on that. Also the banana drive is indeed the default name for the CD-ROM drive for the DOS 6.22 boot disk. I'll add one as soon as I find one!

My next challenge is get the ISA > Serial card and mouse working in Windows 3.11. I can't say I even know where to start with it. Time to hit google!

Only me again. Apparently the card has built in Windows 3.1 drivers. Just need to set the jumpers to get it working in the board. I have a PDF manual to print out to help me!

My next challenge is get the ISA > Serial card and mouse working in Windows 3.11

A 486 board without a serial header (or tWO) would be almost unheard of

Good point there. I have two serial headers. Ordered one of eBay cheap to connect up. Project is coming together slowly. Next up is an ISA sound card. This could be fun..