FreeDOS won't boot without CD \ VOGONS

FreeDOS won't boot without CD

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First post, by foul_owl

Posted on 2023-11-18, 02:39

foul_owl Offline

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Fresh install of freedos to sd card via ide to sd card adapter. If I try to boot from the sd card, I get "read error while reading drive". However, if I swap out the sd card with windows 98 install (also on sd card) it boots without issue. Also if I boot from the freedos install cd and then choose "boot from hard drive" it boots freedos fine.

Taking a look at the freedos sd card in Linux, it looks like there's an empty 4 megs at the beginning of the disk, then the rest is fat32, but with bootable flag enabled on the fat32 partition. Not sure why there is this empty 4 megs at the beginning, I started with a blank sd card.

How can I get freedos to boot without the cd?

Reply 1 of 6, by Duffman

Posted on 2023-11-18, 02:53

Duffman Offline

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What motherboard do you have?

MB: ASRock B550 Steel Legend
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: Corsair 64GB Kit (4x16GB) DDR4 Veng LPX C18 4000MHz
SSDs: 2x Crucial MX500 1TB SATA + 1x Samsung 980 (non-pro) 1TB NVMe SSD
OSs: Win 11 Pro (NVMe) + WinXP Pro SP3 (SATA)
GPU: RTX2070 (11) GT730 (XP)

Reply 2 of 6, by foul_owl

Posted on 2023-11-18, 03:26

foul_owl Offline

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Intel AL440LX

But I know it can boot from sd cards without issue, as I can boot my Win 98 install.

Reply 3 of 6, by giantclam

Posted on 2023-11-18, 03:48

giantclam Offline

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freedos went with C/H/S values, whereas win98 likely went with LBA?

Reply 4 of 6, by foul_owl

Posted on 2023-11-18, 22:04

foul_owl Offline

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Joined: 2011-11-24, 23:54

I know that means cylinder / head / sector, but how does that affect boot? How would I solve this? Do I need to reinstall freedos?

Reply 5 of 6, by myne

Posted on 2023-11-19, 02:38

myne Offline

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You could attempt using the sys command.
It writes the boot sector, and copies msdos.sys, io.sys, command.com
Assuming hdd=c:, cd=d:
sys d: c:
Should do the trick

Things I built:
Mechwarrior 2 installer for Windows 10/11 Re: A comprehensive guide to install and play MechWarrior 2 on new versions on Windows.
Dos+Windows 3.11 auto-install iso template (for vmware)

Reply 6 of 6, by Max Headroom

Posted on 2023-12-01, 20:36

Max Headroom Offline

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Location: Europe

foul_owl wrote on 2023-11-18, 02:39:
How can I get freedos to boot without the cd?

I also had similar problem; perhaps my solution will work for you: first format your SD card in Windows using defaults for that card. No, don't select „FAT32” or anything else — just in that little window click the button described „use default values” (or similarly). Then connect that SD to the machine you're using FreeDOS on, and after booting it from CD you can do „SYS C:” (or whichever letter your SD gets assigned).
That made my 2 GB CF card bootable.
As for cylinders/heads/sectors you rather want to rely on values „autodetected” by the BIOS of that mobo devoted to FreeDOS.

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