MS-DOS 6.22 was released as CD-ROM at some point (just like WfW 3.11, btw).
Not sure if it required a separate boot disk, though.

Jo22 wrote:

MS-DOS 6.22 was released as CD-ROM at some point (just like WfW 3.11, btw).

Officially? No. I own one of the last OEM copys from 1999 and those still came on floppy disks. Unlike Windows 3.x, which you can install from any directory and just copy all files from all disks into that folder, MS-DOS can not be installed that way. And you can't change the disk image that a (bootable) CD-ROM booted from either. If there ever was MS-DOS on CD, it was either not from Microsoft or just served as a rescue disc.

But you can install FreeDOS from CD, and some chinese, hacked version of MS-DOS 7.x.

That certain "abandonware" site is revising history again. MS-DOS 6 CD releases don't legally exist. It doesn't exist in a bootable form either. You're talking freaking DOS, an OS without a CD-ROM driver of its own, to be isntalled from disc. On a fresh system, that's impossible without a boot disk with CD-ROM drivers (like.......win9x boot disks).

The closest you'll get are some OEM system restore CDs and that'd be too old for being bootable either.

derSammler wrote:

Jo22 wrote:

MS-DOS 6.22 was released as CD-ROM at some point (just like WfW 3.11, btw).

Officially? No. I own one of the last OEM copys from 1999 and those still came on floppy disks.

http://www.oldsoftware.com/dos%206.html
Not sure about the retail versions, though.

Ya you could instal dos 6.22 for a CD but i don't know why you would want to.

Basically you install a Virtual Machine on your main rig. Mount virtual 6.22 floppys to feed to the VM and install 6.22, next mount the Virtual harddrive to a drivelefter on the host computer. Create an el torito style Boot CD in like Nero 5.5 or 6 whatever version you have. Maybe other software can do this with like a 98se boot dsik and then copy all of the 6.22 files to the data portion of the CD. Run the 98floppy El-Torito CD on the other computer, fdisk and format the HDD and Xcopy all of the 6.22 files to the drive.

Can you do it yes
why you want to do this who knows. 🤣

It's only 3 floppies anyway. Installing Windows from floppy is much more aggravating.

leileilol wrote:

That certain "abandonware" site is revising history again. MS-DOS 6 CD releases don't legally exist. It doesn't exist in a bootable form either. You're talking freaking DOS, an OS without a CD-ROM driver of its own, to be isntalled from disc. On a fresh system, that's impossible without a boot disk with CD-ROM drivers (like.......win9x boot disks).

The closest you'll get are some OEM system restore CDs and that'd be too old for being bootable either.

You really don’t know what you’re talking about. I have a bootable MS-DOS 6.22 Full Installation ISO that I’ve used on both real PCs and VMs. It boots right into the MS-DOS Setup and proceeds just as if you were installing from floppies. Now, I don’t think this is an official Microsoft release, and I have no idea where I got it (I’ve had it for 15 years, at least), but it does indeed work.

Basically, a bootable CD-ROM contains (what amounts to) a 1.44MB floppy image in a special location that your system/IDE/SCSI BIOS looks for during startup. If it finds this image it loads it into RAM and uses it as a virtual floppy drive to boot from. This floppy image acts as a bootstrap loader of sorts; in the case of DOS it would contain the kernel and command.com, plus MSCDEX and CD-ROM drivers. Once those load from the virtual floppy you now have access to the full CD-ROM.

(What I just described is the Floppy Emulation mode of the El Torito standard; modern systems can use the direct access method, which gives them access to the full CD.)

Remember though, if you mainboard’s BIOS (or SCSI/IDE BIOS for addon cards) doesn’t support the bootable CD standard it won’t work. This didn’t become common until the later part of the 90’s, so most machines from before that period will be out of luck (unless you have one of the aforementioned addon SCSI/IDE card’s with bootable ATAPI support, then it would work; for example, I have a 386 that can boot from CDs thanks to the Adaptec SCSI card.) However, if your system can’t boot from a CD-ROM you could simply boot from a real floppy that loads the CD drivers and proceed from there. This is why Windows 98 still included bootdisks with CD drivers, even though the CD-ROM was bootable.

timb.us wrote:

You really don’t know what you’re talking about.

You skimmed past the word "legal" pretty quickly. Not to mention el torito came way after the release of DOS 6.22, don't know why you need to explain a bios addition. I wasn't born yesterday

Jo22 wrote:

Not sure about the retail versions, though.

That's just a complete restore cd with specific drivers, pictures of cows, a video of bill gates saying "cool" and Wfw 3.11 (along with Central Point Office and other crap). It's not a "MS-DoS R@RE 6.22 CD ROM"

Just floating a thought, but this would be an interesting project. Avoid dodgy software sources by building a script that assembles a bootdisk and bootable iso with component sets based on a legitimate set of install floppy images (including the addons). Installer could be based on FreeDOS package tools or something custom.

Install could proceed as:
Floppies -> Install to Virtual Disk
Virtual Disk -> Format Boot Floppy Image, Image should be in position for ISO creation
Virtual Disk -> Install boot sector, MSDOS.SYS, IO.SYS, COMMAND.COM, and necessary utilities to Boot Floppy
Host System -> Copy Appropriately licensed CD driver to Boot Floppy
Virtual Disk -> Create Package Sets, Sets should be in position for ISO creation
Host System -> Copy prebuilt Manifests / Scripts and installer binaries into position for ISO creation
Host System -> Build ISO
Host System -> Cleanup

Of course, installing DOS manually using a VM is straightforward, or you can always just use a Gotek.

ElTorito allows emulation of floppy and hard disk. So what about this?

- Create a 6Mb "fake" floppy image (so all three MS-DOS disks and even the supplementary disk fit on it).
- FORMAT & SYS the image with MS-DOS.
- Copy every file from MS-DOS disks to the image.
- Create a directory on the image and copy the supplementary disks content on it.
- Put the image as a bootable one on your CD.

Would this be enough to have a bootable and installable MS-DOS CD-ROM? I guess that you won't need any CD-ROM driver, because the entire installation would be running on emulation provided by the BIOS.

(BTW, remember that BIOS that can boot from CD weren't common until 1997 or 1998... you will need a bootable floppy for any other computer)

1. make a bootable DOS CD (ie. burn a DOS boot floppy image to CD). That image should have format, fdisk, sys, xcopy. Also CD-ROM driver should be configured.
2. copy whole C:\DOS folder from existing installation (could be a VM) to ISO part of the CD.
2a. add whatever else you want to the CD.
3. boot the CD.
4. prepare the HDD manually (fdisk, format, sys)
5. xcopy the whole DOS folder from CD to HDD.
6. profit 😀

Alternatively you can use some archiver for DOS directory instead of copying separate files.

Jo22 wrote:

derSammler wrote:

Jo22 wrote:

MS-DOS 6.22 was released as CD-ROM at some point (just like WfW 3.11, btw).

Officially? No. I own one of the last OEM copys from 1999 and those still came on floppy disks.

http://www.oldsoftware.com/dos%206.html
Not sure about the retail versions, though.

That's a rescue disc just as I assumed. These were made by the OEMs, not by MS. Retail versions of such don't exist.

Azarien wrote:

1. make a bootable DOS CD (ie. burn a DOS boot floppy image to CD). That image should have format, fdisk, sys, xcopy. Also CD-RO […]
Show full quote

1. make a bootable DOS CD (ie. burn a DOS boot floppy image to CD). That image should have format, fdisk, sys, xcopy. Also CD-ROM driver should be configured.
2. copy whole C:\DOS folder from existing installation (could be a VM) to ISO part of the CD.
2a. add whatever else you want to the CD.
3. boot the CD.
4. prepare the HDD manually (fdisk, format, sys)
5. xcopy the whole DOS folder from CD to HDD.
6. profit 😀

Alternatively you can use some archiver for DOS directory instead of copying separate files.

That's the easy way, copying a installation but (because of differences on drivers) won't boot on every computer and is not an automated installation.

derSammler wrote:

That's a rescue disc just as I assumed.

Well, yes, I guess so. But DOS/WfW can be installed from scratch, as well.

The manual says: This is the instruction manual for your Operating System CD.
This CD contains backup copies of MS-DOS (R) 6.22 and Windows(R) for Workgroups 3.11.
Inside are complete instructions describing how to use the Operating System CD and its directories.
Your Operating System CD must be in the CD-ROM drive before using any of the installation programs.

derSammler wrote:

These were made by the OEMs, not by MS. Retail versions of such don't exist.

Well, I've never claimed Microsoft made them.
It contains the COA certificate, though, so I fail to see why this matters so much. 😕

leileilol wrote:

Jo22 wrote:

Not sure about the retail versions, though.

That's just a complete restore cd with specific drivers, pictures of cows, a video of bill gates saying "cool" and Wfw 3.11 (along with Central Point Office and other crap). It's not a "MS-DoS R@RE 6.22 CD ROM"

So it must been even better than a retail, wow! 😁

For comparison: My CD-ROM copy of WfW3.11 is an OEM release, too, I believe.
It has that red Vobis branding, but otherwise it is just an ordinary install media (no recovery).
But even in comparison to the Microsoft CD-ROM release of Win95 or Tandy's Win 3.0 MME CD-ROM,
it has a very low cow-rating. 🙁

leileilol wrote:

You skimmed past the word "legal" pretty quickly. Not to mention el torito came way after the release of DOS 6.22, don't know w […]
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timb.us wrote:

You really don’t know what you’re talking about.

You skimmed past the word "legal" pretty quickly. Not to mention el torito came way after the release of DOS 6.22, don't know why you need to explain a bios addition. I wasn't born yesterday

Jo22 wrote:

Not sure about the retail versions, though.

That's just a complete restore cd with specific drivers, pictures of cows, a video of bill gates saying "cool" and Wfw 3.11 (along with Central Point Office and other crap). It's not a "MS-DoS R@RE 6.22 CD ROM"

Some mid-90’s PCs did come with OEM licensed copies of DOS/WFW on CD-ROM. They weren’t retail Microsoft releases but they were still legal.

The reason I decided to explain El Torito and the fact that it requires BIOS support is your statement about DOS not having built-in CD support. It wasn’t clear if you were aware how bootable CDs worked or not.

Perhaps my opening statement was a bit harsh, I apologize for the tone.

Zup wrote:

ElTorito allows emulation of floppy and hard disk. So what about this? […]
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ElTorito allows emulation of floppy and hard disk. So what about this?

- Create a 6Mb "fake" floppy image (so all three MS-DOS disks and even the supplementary disk fit on it).
- FORMAT & SYS the image with MS-DOS.
- Copy every file from MS-DOS disks to the image.
- Create a directory on the image and copy the supplementary disks content on it.
- Put the image as a bootable one on your CD.

Would this be enough to have a bootable and installable MS-DOS CD-ROM? I guess that you won't need any CD-ROM driver, because the entire installation would be running on emulation provided by the BIOS.

(BTW, remember that BIOS that can boot from CD weren't common until 1997 or 1998... you will need a bootable floppy for any other computer)

I'm not sure if the DOS installer looks for a floppy switch.

I'm sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I am actually trying to find out if DOS 6.0 (or 6.22 for that matter) is actually capable of being installed from 'any' alternate location/drive letter. DOS 6.0 is my goal for reasons you'll see below.

I recently, after 20+ years of searching, obtained the files (not the original disk) for the 'Tandy Startup' floppy disk, for a 1st generation 'Tandy Sensation!' (model 25-1650). This floppy disk, in combination with using the Tandy System Disc (CD) version 1.2, basically ran DOS 5.0 SETUP.EXE like the below command:

1A:\SETUP.EXE D: \DOS50

On the CD, there is a DOS50 folder in the root, and under that a DISK1 and DISK2 subfolder with all the contents of what I assume is the typical DOS 5.0 setup disks. There were only a couple required files on the Floppy disk itself aside from the standard io.sys, msdos.sys, and command.com; IBMIO.COM, IBMDOS.COM, and maybe one or two other files. But ultimately, it would launch DOS 5.0 setup (whether you had a partition or not), create one and format it, if needed, and after a reboot and running SETUP the same way again, would actually install DOS 5.0 like it was being done off a floppy disk... only using the CDROM as it's source. It's not just some hack using XCOPY to make a DOS folder with files in it, it's the real setup process asking a couple questions like normal. I have yet to see this documented as a method anywhere, but it sure works. Blew my mind. Of course after installing DOS 5.0 along with proper cd-rom drivers, etc... you could reboot the PC and then run the 'install.bat' file which IS just a hacky XCOPY method of restoring the HDD contents from a CD:\ORIGINAL\* folder.

That said, There's also a slightly newer Tandy System Disc version 1.3, that instead of a DOS50 folder in the root, has a DOS60 folder (with DISK1,DISK2,DISK3,SUPLEMNT subfolders). So if you wanted to 'restore' your Tandy Sensation from factory using this newer CD and have DOS 6.0 instead of 5.0, you'd need a DOS 6 version of this floppy disk, which I honestly do NOT think exists. Oversite on Tandy's part but they went out of business not too terribly much longer after this thing was made. I tried using that v1.3 CD and a DOS 6 bootable floppy disk I made to see if running SETUP that same way would work, and indeed it does not. Floppy disk label is correct, etc... it just doesn't like the syntax. So, I was wondering if any of you fine folks know of a way to do this? And conversely, if you haven't ever seen the DOS 5.0 trick... I'm happy to show you also.

Also, if that is a known method of installing DOS 5.0, please point me to the documentation that say so. I looked and can't find anything. 😀

Thanks in advance!
Brian