It may boot, but your probably missing some vital files that will fail to show up sooner or later. Can't think of anything to "repair" DOS, other then to do a full re-install and try again.

If your disks are failing , you can try to install DOS onto your CF Card via VirtualBox (http://theinstructionlimit.com/installing-ms- … -to-ide-adapter). If you are using one that is.
Iv done this multiple times on my main 486 rig as my 3.5 drive is dead and its gone through fine. Just remember to FDISK /MBR in the virtual machine once after you install.

SodaSuccubus wrote on 2020-07-25, 03:35:

It may boot, but your probably missing some vital files that will fail to show up sooner or later. Can't think of anything to "repair" DOS, other then to do a full re-install and try again.

If your disks are failing , you can try to install DOS onto your CF Card via VirtualBox (http://theinstructionlimit.com/installing-ms- … -to-ide-adapter). If you are using one that is.
Iv done this multiple times on my main 486 rig as my 3.5 drive is dead and its gone through fine. Just remember to FDISK /MBR in the virtual machine once after you install.

Yeah that was my concern too.. Thank you for the article, I think I'm going to try this out now! Seems pretty awesome.

It works because DOS needs only a few small files in order to boot, the rest are utilities and such installed under C:\DOS. Keep in mind that the MS-DOS installation may fail in a similar way if you have cache/memory issues (bad cache module or timings set too tight for example). So you may want to double check that the problem was indeed an unreadable floppy and not something else.

TheMobRules wrote on 2020-07-25, 05:40:

It works because DOS needs only a few small files in order to boot, the rest are utilities and such installed under C:\DOS. Keep in mind that the MS-DOS installation may fail in a similar way if you have cache/memory issues (bad cache module or timings set too tight for example). So you may want to double check that the problem was indeed an unreadable floppy and not something else.

Hmm.... I honestly don't have much experience with tweaking things like timings yet. I want to learn though.

Related to Soda's post, I set up the virtualbox, and I am attempting to install the DOS disk images using it... however, it says it can't partion the CF card.

Any idea how I could resolve this? I think the card needs formatted or something..

Mattyice1994 wrote on 2020-07-25, 05:54:

Hmm.... I honestly don't have much experience with tweaking things like timings yet. I want to learn though. […]
Show full quote

TheMobRules wrote on 2020-07-25, 05:40:

It works because DOS needs only a few small files in order to boot, the rest are utilities and such installed under C:\DOS. Keep in mind that the MS-DOS installation may fail in a similar way if you have cache/memory issues (bad cache module or timings set too tight for example). So you may want to double check that the problem was indeed an unreadable floppy and not something else.

Hmm.... I honestly don't have much experience with tweaking things like timings yet. I want to learn though.

Related to Soda's post, I set up the virtualbox, and I am attempting to install the DOS disk images using it... however, it says it can't partion the CF card.

Any idea how I could resolve this? I think the card needs formatted or something..

Yeah its a bit finicky at first. DOS in my VM did that to me too and i fixed it by deleting the setup in virtualbox and starting from step 1 over again.

Some additional things iv noted about this that may help you:

You should go into Windows "Disk Management" control panel and find your CF card listing. Right click and delete any existing volumes/partitons/what have ye (if there are any) to refresh the card back to a blank state. Then follow the guide. Both CMD for the first few steps, and Virtualbox later should allways be run in administrator.

When the VM finishes installing DOS, you've FDISK'd it and confirm it can boot in the VM. Go back into Windows Disk Management, right click on your CF card's slot, "Change Drive Letters/Path" and assign it a letter so you can drag-n-drop in the windows explorer again.

The VM has to disable this temporary in order to get raw access to the disk.

SodaSuccubus wrote on 2020-07-25, 06:00:

Yeah its a bit finicky at first. DOS in my VM did that to me too and i fixed it by deleting the setup in virtualbox and starting […]
Show full quote

Mattyice1994 wrote on 2020-07-25, 05:54:

Hmm.... I honestly don't have much experience with tweaking things like timings yet. I want to learn though. […]
Show full quote

TheMobRules wrote on 2020-07-25, 05:40:

It works because DOS needs only a few small files in order to boot, the rest are utilities and such installed under C:\DOS. Keep in mind that the MS-DOS installation may fail in a similar way if you have cache/memory issues (bad cache module or timings set too tight for example). So you may want to double check that the problem was indeed an unreadable floppy and not something else.

Hmm.... I honestly don't have much experience with tweaking things like timings yet. I want to learn though.

Related to Soda's post, I set up the virtualbox, and I am attempting to install the DOS disk images using it... however, it says it can't partion the CF card.

Any idea how I could resolve this? I think the card needs formatted or something..

Yeah its a bit finicky at first. DOS in my VM did that to me too and i fixed it by deleting the setup in virtualbox and starting from step 1 over again.

Some additional things iv noted about this that may help you:

You should go into Windows "Disk Management" control panel and find your CF card listing. Right click and delete any existing volumes/partitons/what have ye (if there are any) to refresh the card back to a blank state. Then follow the guide. Both CMD for the first few steps, and Virtualbox later should allways be run in administrator.

When the VM finishes installing DOS, you've FDISK'd it and confirm it can boot in the VM. Go back into Windows Disk Management, right click on your CF card's slot, "Change Drive Letters/Path" and assign it a letter so you can drag-n-drop in the windows explorer again.

The VM has to disable this temporary in order to get raw access to the disk.

Awesome, this makes total sense. I just read the comments on that blog post, and someone mentioned deleting the volume as well. I assume I need to remount the card to do this though?

Thanks for the help!

EDIT: Nevermind! I got it all set! Thanks again, VirtualBox is really neat.