For sure you had 3 partitions, a bootloader, and in DOS a boot menu

Maybe the bootloader was NT one, in this case, you need to install DOS and win95 first, then last one NT, or dump the DOS boot sector to a file, for win95 and DOS partitions

theelf wrote on 2023-01-02, 12:48:

For sure you had 3 partitions, a bootloader, and in DOS a boot menu

Maybe the bootloader was NT one, in this case, you need to install DOS and win95 first, then last one NT, or dump the DOS boot sector to a file, for win95 and DOS partitions

well that tells me my suspicions about how he had the boot menu set up are correct. still can't get windows 2000 to see freeDOS as a second OS on the new machine. the reinstall failed to make it work even with drivers preloaded to a ZIP disk configured as a "floppy". it deployed the RAID drivers and I saw win2k spot the other OS but now that its fully up and running its not recognizing the other OS as a secondary. there has to be an .ini file or registry value to manually update or something.

meanwhile we are still no closer to DOS having it load straight into preprogrammed menus like the old machine did. I did further googling and came up empty again.

it just occurred to me that there is in fact a physical way to switch between operating systems if no software solution can be found. however it requires cutting the power cable to the windows 2000 hard drive and splicing in a physical switch. of which I have the parts for. the problem is
1. the moral dilemma of drilling into an antique case.
2. the power cable on an industrial DOM is a hair away from breaking as is. I'd hate to think of how much damage added strain might cause.
3. those cables are all proprietary and most don't even come with a cable anymore.
4. risking the DOM is unacceptable as those things are getting exceedingly rare as it is in sizes for later systems. until such time as someone starts making new ones or refurbishing the old ones en mass, they are gonna be too rare to risk.
5. the annoyance of needing to remember a physical switch was installed. if that sounds petty you don't know how fast things can go wrong when brain fog, chronic fatigue/illness scrambles your brain so hard you start screwing up the simplest of tasks, jumping into an extensive fix for a non-existent problem only to discover the faulty component was the user all along.
6. a software solution within win2k has to exist.

To make a NT bootmenu easy, check this tool

http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm

theelf wrote on 2023-01-02, 16:37:

To make a NT bootmenu easy, check this tool

http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm

awesome, I just woke up. google is still being useless. its now giving me truck and TV buying guides when I ask about DOS

speaking of a third party program, you don't suppose there is a DOS menu creator program out there do you? like something that could be set to auto run in a start up batch file when freeDOS loads up? I know my dad and his buddies used to write programs and games and share them round the office. cause I'm honestly starting to wonder if it was ever a basil function of DOS.

I'm gonna go try out that booter, if you haven't responded by the time I get back I'll just add an addendum to this comment to avoid double posting.

ok, didn't work, either I'm missing an essential "add on component" of windows like net framework or I'm not doing something right. I click on it, it pops up and then instantly vanishes. are there instructions or something? like do I run it from a particular place like the windows folder or something crazy like the invisible partitions?

Under Win 2K/XP you can setup a boot menu to pick from multiple operating systems by adding entires to the BOOT.INI file. Under MS-DOS you can make menus with CONFIG.SYS... see here: http://smallvoid.com/article/dos-multiple-con … igurations.html

I recall one of the PC magazines back in the '90s having a feature entitled 'Batch File Power Tools' (or similar) where they reviewed several third-party DOS programs that could be used to make interactive menus and text-mode-UI type things. Hard to find with a web search, but maybe these programs would be contained in one of the shareware archives.

PC Magazine did have an old disk with some tools about making simple DOS menus out of ascii and .bat files with choice.com etc (no scrolling selections, just pressing the specific keys to call executions) - however, this all predates NTLDR, DOS's startup menu, and commercial boot managers

bakemono wrote on 2023-01-03, 16:31:

Under Win 2K/XP you can setup a boot menu to pick from multiple operating systems by adding entires to the BOOT.INI file. Under MS-DOS you can make menus with CONFIG.SYS... see here: http://smallvoid.com/article/dos-multiple-con … igurations.html

I recall one of the PC magazines back in the '90s having a feature entitled 'Batch File Power Tools' (or similar) where they reviewed several third-party DOS programs that could be used to make interactive menus and text-mode-UI type things. Hard to find with a web search, but maybe these programs would be contained in one of the shareware archives.

yeah, can't find boot.ini. there is a configsys. no idea why 2000 would use it unless this asus K7 is so functionally primitive it requires DOS only type files. which given how much crap it gave me about needing DOS 6.22 just to access the CD-ROM it is a distinct possibility.

I ordered the batch tool disk and book. wont be here for over a week. if you have any suggestions on how to use it I would much appreciate that.

leileilol wrote on 2023-01-03, 17:04:

PC Magazine did have an old disk with some tools about making simple DOS menus out of ascii and .bat files with choice.com etc (no scrolling selections, just pressing the specific keys to call executions) - however, this all predates NTLDR, DOS's startup menu, and commercial boot managers

sounds correct, any idea what magazine issue?

boot.ini is a hidden system file.
You need to type at a command prompt:
attrib -s -h c:\boot.ini
notepad c:\boot.ini

I know the topic is "how did my dad..." but his way may or may not be the best way, do what works best for you...unless you don't want to.

You can always use a launcher instead of batch like: New MS-DOS Games Launcher / Menu System App (This one is just for games)
Just add the executable to autoexec.bat if you want it to load first or setup a small menu in autoexec.bat for it.
IMO, not much point in Tools, CLI, reboot options since the CLI should be default on a DOS boot and if not exiting the launcher should go to DOS, you tools should be in your path and in a known location and CTRL+ALT+DEL isn't hard to press (unless you have a disability or broken keyboard).

If you want batch then use the following but it can get out of hand the more you add:
Creating a DOS batch menu

Disruptor wrote on 2023-01-03, 19:37:

boot.ini is a hidden system file. You need to type at a command prompt: attrib -s -h c:\boot.ini notepad c:\boot.ini […]
Show full quote

boot.ini is a hidden system file.
You need to type at a command prompt:
attrib -s -h c:\boot.ini
notepad c:\boot.ini

thank you, that explains why it seemed to be missing.

DosFreak wrote on 2023-01-03, 19:53:

I know the topic is "how did my dad..." but his way may or may not be the best way, do what works best for you...unless you don' […]
Show full quote

I know the topic is "how did my dad..." but his way may or may not be the best way, do what works best for you...unless you don't want to.

You can always use a launcher instead of batch like: New MS-DOS Games Launcher / Menu System App (This one is just for games)
Just add the executable to autoexec.bat if you want it to load first or setup a small menu in autoexec.bat for it.
IMO, not much point in Tools, CLI, reboot options since the CLI should be default on a DOS boot and if not exiting the launcher should go to DOS, you tools should be in your path and in a known location and CTRL+ALT+DEL isn't hard to press (unless you have a disability or broken keyboard).

If you want batch then use the following but it can get out of hand the more you add:
Creating a DOS batch menu

nevermind the post title as long as it works. I have no idea what I'm doing as I'm basically starting over with how many years have passed since I last used DOS. I've basically been trying to do this any way I can and google is legitimately giving me random results back. two hours ago was really special. I googled "how to fix missing DLL mscoree.dll windows 2000" and the results that returned were "how to start a vegetable patch this summer" and "bicycle repair." I managed to find the fix by just going to ecosai and asking that search engine instead. turned out the fix for that was a missing roll up update.

so I'm gonna try making menus your way since whatever my dad did was lost to time and I was starting to fear that it wasn't possible without whatever him and his buddies wrote. I blame google. I'll be back with an update in a bit.

I'm back, the menu program for games sort of worked. but there are still massive issues here is how it went and where I am stuck:
so I tried the menu program in freeDOS, welp I got the program working at least. no games ran.

finally after hours of remaking installation floppies for games I had and carefully putting the old labels on the new disks I found freeDOS wasn't going to cooperate.
so I said "**** it" and went back to using the drive with DOS 6.22 on it.

well, i got further at least, I got Keen 4 running. that's when I realized the soundblaster gold 64 didn't have drivers. so I looked over at the soundblaster 16 I just got done reccapping in gold caps with software disks (long story, it randomly showed up in my workshop repair bin one midsummer morning a few years back with most of the caps sheered off from what I can only assume was a tragic doorstop accident by whoever stuck it in there sight unseen) anyway so I looked at my speakers, I looked at the gold 64 and the fact the adapter still hasn't arrived and I stuck the soundblaster 16 into the machine and loaded up the drivers.

I tried running keen 4 again and got a memory crash. I wasted an hour in the launcher trying to figure out what was happning and then went back to DOS and tried again.

after another hour of screwing around and playing with config.sys and autoexec.sys I managed to squeeze a hair more memory into it. game ran but not well. its still lower than 400kb of ram available.

so I need help again. is there a way to get DOS to see all 768mb? or the new board's 1.5gb of memory? as well as use the K7 to its fullest with L2 cache and a large enough chunk of ram where it wont throw a tantrum? himem, high,UMB and the 386 NOEMS just ain't enough.

if it can't be done in 6.22 how do I get freeDOS to do it instead? there doesn't seem to be any config.sys do I have to create the file? if so how do I set it to max out functionality? google is still being useless and offering car parts when I try searching for anything.

also I'm still no further on the boot menu OS selection thing. I haven't had a chance to try out your suggested solutions and that third party program is still crashing. that kind of was on hold while I fixed the ATI error and the aforementioned menu program debugging

RetroVixen2K wrote on 2023-01-02, 13:13:

well that tells me my suspicions about how he had the boot menu set up are correct. still can't get windows 2000 to see freeDOS […]
Show full quote

theelf wrote on 2023-01-02, 12:48:

For sure you had 3 partitions, a bootloader, and in DOS a boot menu

Maybe the bootloader was NT one, in this case, you need to install DOS and win95 first, then last one NT, or dump the DOS boot sector to a file, for win95 and DOS partitions

well that tells me my suspicions about how he had the boot menu set up are correct. still can't get windows 2000 to see freeDOS as a second OS on the new machine. the reinstall failed to make it work even with drivers preloaded to a ZIP disk configured as a "floppy". it deployed the RAID drivers and I saw win2k spot the other OS but now that its fully up and running its not recognizing the other OS as a secondary. there has to be an .ini file or registry value to manually update or something.

meanwhile we are still no closer to DOS having it load straight into preprogrammed menus like the old machine did. I did further googling and came up empty again.

it just occurred to me that there is in fact a physical way to switch between operating systems if no software solution can be found. however it requires cutting the power cable to the windows 2000 hard drive and splicing in a physical switch. of which I have the parts for. the problem is
1. the moral dilemma of drilling into an antique case.
2. the power cable on an industrial DOM is a hair away from breaking as is. I'd hate to think of how much damage added strain might cause.
3. those cables are all proprietary and most don't even come with a cable anymore.
4. risking the DOM is unacceptable as those things are getting exceedingly rare as it is in sizes for later systems. until such time as someone starts making new ones or refurbishing the old ones en mass, they are gonna be too rare to risk.
5. the annoyance of needing to remember a physical switch was installed. if that sounds petty you don't know how fast things can go wrong when brain fog, chronic fatigue/illness scrambles your brain so hard you start screwing up the simplest of tasks, jumping into an extensive fix for a non-existent problem only to discover the faulty component was the user all along.
6. a software solution within win2k has to exist.

I’m betting he installed windows 95, then installed dos on a seperate partition then lastly set up nt on the final partition nt would tie them all together with its bootloader.

RetroVixen2K wrote on 2023-01-05, 03:41:

that's when I realized the soundblaster gold 64 didn't have drivers.

Well, for DOS games you need to initialize any AWE soundcard to hear FM music.
You need to run "aweutil /s" in your autoexec.bat
Please do this after plug and play initialisation (ctcm/ctcu).

RetroVixen2K wrote on 2023-01-05, 03:41:

so I need help again. is there a way to get DOS to see all 768mb? or the new board's 1.5gb of memory?

Just use Windows98' himem.sys
But: No DOS software will use that amount of memory.
I do not recommend to use 1.5 GB of memory, as it requires a lot of work to get Windows9x running.

RetroVixen2K wrote on 2023-01-05, 03:41:

after another hour of screwing around and playing with config.sys and autoexec.sys I managed to squeeze a hair more memory into it. game ran but not well. its still lower than 400kb of ram available.

so I need help again. is there a way to get DOS to see all 768mb? or the new board's 1.5gb of memory? as well as use the K7 to its fullest with L2 cache and a large enough chunk of ram where it wont throw a tantrum? himem, high,UMB and the 386 NOEMS just ain't enough.

DOS will never see more than 640k of RAM, but only having 400k available is extremely low and there will be quite a few games and other software that won't run with that available.

One thing which will make an immediate impact, but still not get nearly as much free ram for DOS as you probably can (and will probably need) is to start loading stuff into high memory. Go into the config.sys file and make sure it loads himem.sys and emm386 first, then put your dos=high,umb line as you mentioned, and then after that take all the lines which say "device=" and replace them with "devicehigh=".

Then in autoexec.bat put the command "loadhigh" before any executables that it is running.

Note that this is a very coarse, general approach. Some of these things are probably best not to load or device high, while for pretty much all of them a better approach would be too advanced them high with more of a scalpel than the sledgehammer I'm suggesting. I'm really just trying to give you an idea of the direction you can go.

Although some would rather avoid it (and not for altogether unreasonable reasons) DOS 6.22 comes with a program called Memmaker which will figure out how to free up ram by configuring your config and autoexec files. Every now and then it can make something not work right, so make a backup first of your config and autoexec files just in case.

Sphere478 wrote on 2023-01-05, 04:00:

RetroVixen2K wrote on 2023-01-02, 13:13:

well that tells me my suspicions about how he had the boot menu set up are correct. still can't get windows 2000 to see freeDOS […]
Show full quote

theelf wrote on 2023-01-02, 12:48:

For sure you had 3 partitions, a bootloader, and in DOS a boot menu

Maybe the bootloader was NT one, in this case, you need to install DOS and win95 first, then last one NT, or dump the DOS boot sector to a file, for win95 and DOS partitions

well that tells me my suspicions about how he had the boot menu set up are correct. still can't get windows 2000 to see freeDOS as a second OS on the new machine. the reinstall failed to make it work even with drivers preloaded to a ZIP disk configured as a "floppy". it deployed the RAID drivers and I saw win2k spot the other OS but now that its fully up and running its not recognizing the other OS as a secondary. there has to be an .ini file or registry value to manually update or something.

meanwhile we are still no closer to DOS having it load straight into preprogrammed menus like the old machine did. I did further googling and came up empty again.

it just occurred to me that there is in fact a physical way to switch between operating systems if no software solution can be found. however it requires cutting the power cable to the windows 2000 hard drive and splicing in a physical switch. of which I have the parts for. the problem is
1. the moral dilemma of drilling into an antique case.
2. the power cable on an industrial DOM is a hair away from breaking as is. I'd hate to think of how much damage added strain might cause.
3. those cables are all proprietary and most don't even come with a cable anymore.
4. risking the DOM is unacceptable as those things are getting exceedingly rare as it is in sizes for later systems. until such time as someone starts making new ones or refurbishing the old ones en mass, they are gonna be too rare to risk.
5. the annoyance of needing to remember a physical switch was installed. if that sounds petty you don't know how fast things can go wrong when brain fog, chronic fatigue/illness scrambles your brain so hard you start screwing up the simplest of tasks, jumping into an extensive fix for a non-existent problem only to discover the faulty component was the user all along.
6. a software solution within win2k has to exist.

I’m betting he installed windows 95, then installed dos on a seperate partition then lastly set up nt on the final partition nt would tie them all together with its bootloader.

yeah I found thee hard drives from that machine.
a 1 gig seagate (no motor functions. board gets warm but not hot.)
a 4gig WD (click-o-death)
and a 40gig he had previously removed from the machine for an unknown reason. (found the NT drive)

Lazer42 wrote on 2023-01-05, 13:48:

DOS will never see more than 640k of RAM, but only having 400k available is extremely low and there will be quite a few games an […]
Show full quote

RetroVixen2K wrote on 2023-01-05, 03:41:

after another hour of screwing around and playing with config.sys and autoexec.sys I managed to squeeze a hair more memory into it. game ran but not well. its still lower than 400kb of ram available.

so I need help again. is there a way to get DOS to see all 768mb? or the new board's 1.5gb of memory? as well as use the K7 to its fullest with L2 cache and a large enough chunk of ram where it wont throw a tantrum? himem, high,UMB and the 386 NOEMS just ain't enough.

DOS will never see more than 640k of RAM, but only having 400k available is extremely low and there will be quite a few games and other software that won't run with that available.

One thing which will make an immediate impact, but still not get nearly as much free ram for DOS as you probably can (and will probably need) is to start loading stuff into high memory. Go into the config.sys file and make sure it loads himem.sys and emm386 first, then put your dos=high,umb line as you mentioned, and then after that take all the lines which say "device=" and replace them with "devicehigh=".

Then in autoexec.bat put the command "loadhigh" before any executables that it is running.

Note that this is a very coarse, general approach. Some of these things are probably best not to load or device high, while for pretty much all of them a better approach would be too advanced them high with more of a scalpel than the sledgehammer I'm suggesting. I'm really just trying to give you an idea of the direction you can go.

Although some would rather avoid it (and not for altogether unreasonable reasons) DOS 6.22 comes with a program called Memmaker which will figure out how to free up ram by configuring your config and autoexec files. Every now and then it can make something not work right, so make a backup first of your config and autoexec files just in case.

alright I'll give devicehigh a go today. pity it can only see 640kb and not in the MB range. is there a way that FreeDOS can be configured to use a K7 or at least the resources worth of a 586/686/786? right now its stuck in 286 mode and is being ridiculous. I tried finding the config.sys file but its missing. right now I'd settle for 64mb or 128mb even if I'm not likely to need all of it.

also not to sound like an idiot but where would loadhigh go in menu macro? like I got
C:
CD \rgames\keen\keen4
keen4.exe

where would I stick loadhigh in that?

right now commander keen is looking for a bunch of "extended system memory" options and it can't see the joystick. oh and the screen is jittering bad. but that might just be the s***** ATI 9800pro I stuck in there until a higher ATI is available for the right price. that and its hooked up to the horribly scratched up LG 1080p 75hz monitor on my test bench that wont die and not the 1024×768 resolution monitor that was made specifically for SVGA. as to the joystick I think its just the port needing to be replaced. I made a note that it looked gummed up with MIDI cheese.

Disruptor wrote on 2023-01-05, 08:58:

Well, for DOS games you need to initialize any AWE soundcard to hear FM music. You need to run "aweutil /s" in your autoexec.bat […]
Show full quote

RetroVixen2K wrote on 2023-01-05, 03:41:

that's when I realized the soundblaster gold 64 didn't have drivers.

Well, for DOS games you need to initialize any AWE soundcard to hear FM music.
You need to run "aweutil /s" in your autoexec.bat
Please do this after plug and play initialisation (ctcm/ctcu).

RetroVixen2K wrote on 2023-01-05, 03:41:

so I need help again. is there a way to get DOS to see all 768mb? or the new board's 1.5gb of memory?

Just use Windows98' himem.sys
But: No DOS software will use that amount of memory.
I do not recommend to use 1.5 GB of memory, as it requires a lot of work to get Windows9x running.

I was trying to stay as far away from win9x as possible. heck the win2k install is just there for a vanilla install for stubborn lowspec games that wont like the jailbroken windows 2000 Blackwingcat pro edition with the phenom and the two 6990HDs. as well as to make servicing DOS or freeDOS easier. oh wait, there is one game that absolutely needed 2k rather than DOS. that keen DOOM crossover game. which reminds me I need to go download directX 8/9 this morning. I dunno, I've never had a 95/98 game that didn't run better on 2k. 95 and 3.1 always made me cry with crashes. 98se I have a lot of nostalgia for but I'm acutely away its misplaced nostalgia with how much better 2k always treats me. XP was another one of those systems that just doesn't like me.

also the other reasons I was going for the higher 1.5 gig was to mostly smooth out operations in win2k and get the better ECC CL2 ram in there. in DOS I was planning to use the BIOS to dedicate a good chunk of it for texture caching for the AGP card with the rest being overhead to keep win2k happy. if FreeDOS can be configured to use 4mb~128mb let me know.

also I already found the AWE 64 gold drivers on Phil's website. I just wanted to test out my gold recapping job on the SB16 as well as the fact I had to test some kind of sound output in DOS and the AV plug to 3.5mm adapter is still in the mail. but when I stick that AWE back in and load the drivers I'll remember those code lines.

alright, so I'm gonna go get started. lets see I have to try:
testing at devicehigh
test the asus K6 board and upgrade the bios for K6-III+ with the custom bios a number of you talked about in another thread. (this is my backup plan in case tie fighter takes exception to the slot A) gotta drop in the necroware Dallas clock replacement.
replacing the ports on that SB16.
still gotta test out the boot thing suggested earlier. that was delayed due to a doctor appointment.
I gotta figure out what is glitching textures in keen 9
as well as get ready to press this K7 into service as an arcade before it is done as my wife is getting antsy and some parts are still in transit.

and I'll be waiting for a response on the freeDOS memory issues and missing config.sys question.

honestly its anyone's game right now. will the winner be DOS 6.22 or freeDOS? its going to be educational finding out which can pull more out of the system without glitching.

this all would have been a lot easier if dad had replaced that AT power supply from 1988 before it took out the two most critical drives to the project then didn't even put a note on it. I could have most likely have avoided half these questions if I could have forensically dissected the settings he had going. however that thing was made out of scrap and very few actual upgrades on his part.

RetroVixen2K wrote on 2023-01-05, 18:29:

alright I'll give devicehigh a go today. pity it can only see 640kb and not in the MB range. is there a way that FreeDOS can be configured to use a K7 or at least the resources worth of a 586/686/786? right now its stuck in 286 mode and is being ridiculous. I tried finding the config.sys file but its missing. right now I'd settle for 64mb or 128mb even if I'm not likely to need all of it.

Just load HIMEMX in CONFIG.SYS, it would display the rest of the memory as XMS. That driver has the capability to limit the amount of memory, which is useful for troublesome games. For example: Some games using the DOS/4GW extender has issues with more than 64MB RAM and limiting it would be the solution (or using the DOS/32A extender).

also not to sound like an idiot but where would loadhigh go in menu macro? like I got C: CD \rgames\keen\keen4 keen4.exe […]
Show full quote

also not to sound like an idiot but where would loadhigh go in menu macro? like I got
C:
CD \rgames\keen\keen4
keen4.exe

where would I stick loadhigh in that?

No, the game is too big to fit into the UMB. Plus, it is only used for loading TSRs in AUTOEXEC.BAT.

oh and the screen is jittering bad. but that might just be the s***** ATI 9800pro I stuck in there until a higher ATI is available for the right price.

The scrolling issue is very well-known with several cards, ATi being one of them unfortunately. DOS compatibility isn't simple as one tends to think.

At least for Commander Keen 4, 5 and 6, there is a patch that deals with it.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-01-05, 19:00:

Just load HIMEMX in CONFIG.SYS, it would display the rest of the memory as XMS. That driver has the capability to limit the amou […]
Show full quote

RetroVixen2K wrote on 2023-01-05, 18:29:

alright I'll give devicehigh a go today. pity it can only see 640kb and not in the MB range. is there a way that FreeDOS can be configured to use a K7 or at least the resources worth of a 586/686/786? right now its stuck in 286 mode and is being ridiculous. I tried finding the config.sys file but its missing. right now I'd settle for 64mb or 128mb even if I'm not likely to need all of it.

Just load HIMEMX in CONFIG.SYS, it would display the rest of the memory as XMS. That driver has the capability to limit the amount of memory, which is useful for troublesome games. For example: Some games using the DOS/4GW extender has issues with more than 64MB RAM and limiting it would be the solution (or using the DOS/32A extender).

also not to sound like an idiot but where would loadhigh go in menu macro? like I got C: CD \rgames\keen\keen4 keen4.exe […]
Show full quote

also not to sound like an idiot but where would loadhigh go in menu macro? like I got
C:
CD \rgames\keen\keen4
keen4.exe

where would I stick loadhigh in that?

No, the game is too big to fit into the UMB. Plus, it is only used for loading TSRs in AUTOEXEC.BAT.

oh and the screen is jittering bad. but that might just be the s***** ATI 9800pro I stuck in there until a higher ATI is available for the right price.

The scrolling issue is very well-known with several cards, ATi being one of them unfortunately. DOS compatibility isn't simple as one tends to think.

At least for Commander Keen 4, 5 and 6, there is a patch that deals with it.

well, damn.

ok I got DOS "working-ish" but I may try an extracted DOS 8 as an experiment on a spare drive. I wont know much more until the new hard drives and motherboard get here. I still have to choose a new video card since this one is trash. I would have expected far more documentation out of freeDOS but when I search maximum memory supported all I get back is really unrealistic numbers of gigabytes but when I try to look up how to exactly implement that all I get back is nonsense as I can't find any guides or documentation. my dad had a way to get this working on a crappy jaton card. I refuse to believe that there is no way to push it a little higher.

also the joystick isnt working and I still have to test the AWE64 with it.

update: dos 8 went exceedingly poorly. didn't even load up. just glitched out. had to revert. joystick is now working.

second update: backup K6-III+ 500mhz is now operational, power supply exploded violently and took out the RAM. I had EDO backup sticks. pity we lost the ECC sticks. BIOS up to date thanks to Jan Steunebrink's modded BIOS website. most likely will be a couple of weeks until the next major update. parts are still in the mail. meantime google has started somewhat working again. I will see what I can do on my own. I'm still unsure as to what to do with the backup K6. I may bite the bullet and install 98 se. the adapters came so I will test out the SB gold AWE64. when this project is complete I will post a solution summary and links for anyone wishing to do a similar project who might stumble across this post. I'm going to try a couple of things with freeDOS and if it doesn't work I will just abandon it altogether. DOS 6.22 is somewhat functional for the time being.

ok this went to crap in a hurry. the drive or 6.22 went bad on me and is saying its not a bootable drive.

anybody know if DOS 2000 is any better than DOS 6.22? or more accurately the question should be which version of DOS should I be using to maximize memory capacity for gaming? last I knew DOS shouldn't be able to get up and wander off over night.

I don't even understand how this happened it was working perfectly last night and now its non-functional.

I'd suggest having an F-PROT boot disk handy, as a boot sector virus can potentially cause that problem. If your BIOS has a virus check option (which checks for boot sector modifications) that's also useful..