First post, by Jo22
- Rank
- l33t++
Hi folks,
I've got a little question to you Amstrad/Schneider PC1512 owners.
(This thread is mainly about DOS Plus, rather than the old PC1512 hardware.)
I'm trying to install DOS Plus from my old PC1512 disk set, but I do not own the official manual anymore.
Is it right to assume that the installation goes as follows ?
Boot DISC1..
a) run FDISK, creation partition then mark active
b) FORMAT C: /S
Boot DISC4..
c) insert DISC5
d) run CONFIG
Remove disks, reboot.
Also, do you get ever any disk corruption on the real thing ?
I heard DOS Plus 1.2 was intended to be compatible with DOS 2.11, which had a 10MB limit for fixed disks..
On the other hand, it says "Loading from DOS 3 partition", so I believe it must be aware of
DOS 3.0 to 3.2 and partitions with early FAT16 (pre-FAT16B) at least.
Not sure about DOS 3.3 compatibility, though. I recall that PC-DOS 3.30 still had a 32MB limit (-> 512bytes/sector),
but supported extended/logical partitions also.
Anyway, I'm just asking because I get weird results in PCem and other
emulators when I do perform the installation via MS-DOS 3.2 only.
For some reason, DOS Plus can't find any files on the "C:" drive after a
reboot when the installation was finished. It also can't find COMMAND.COM (or dosplus.com),
even though DOS 3.2 sees them both.
What could cause this ?
I wondered if DOS Plus was using the second FAT or relies on any other unique behavior.
Like for example, expecting a special drive geometry, a diagnostics cylinder or requiring features of
ancient MFM/RLL controllers (WD100x).
Currently, I'm using an IBM PC/XT compatible type: IBM Fixed Disk Type 1 - 306cyls., 4heads, 17sectors (10M).
Floppy "drives" were configured to 360K, 5.25", both in the BIOS and machine settings.
Links:
The DOS Partitioning Scheme (PDF)
IBM 5170 - Hard Drive Type Number
"Type 1 is the original XT hard disk"
Any suggestions welcome!
Thanks in advance! 😀
Best regards,
Jo22
Edit: Title changed and text modified. Typos fixed.
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