VOGONS


First post, by Deczor

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Hi guys,

Yup, I've been all over the internet trying to find a solution for this already, so came here as a last resort. Apologies for being a pest.

So, situation is I have a Socket7 machine I want to run as a DOS 6.22 machine. I have no floppy disks, so am trying to make a bootable CF card. Here's the run down:

The Situation

- Brand new Verbatim 2GB card.
- Card detects fine in BIOS of socket7 machine. It detects it as a hard drive, can see all the space. Happy pants.
- Card detects fine in windows. Can format, copy files, etc.
- Following this procedure: http://theinstructionlimit.com/installing-ms- … -to-ide-adapter
- Card is set up as the mounted volume on the virtual box. No worries there.
- Card is unmounted in Windows.

The problem

Problem occurs when trying to format the card with DOS. It's almost like it can't write to it at all. It tries, but comes up with this crap:

rbrursf.png

2top5nL.png

4kQ9z2M.png

I'm trying to kill the partition in Fdisk, but it's not being my friend with the label either:

bgM5qMy.png

Doing in a high level format in Windows as FAT32 works fine, but that's obviously no good to us here.

Anyone have any idea how I can get this thing running as bootable in my damn Pentium-s?

here's the Vbox configuration. Pretty normal:

Mllfqot.png

Reply 3 of 8, by Jo22

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konc wrote on 2020-02-15, 09:04:

try an fdisk /mbr or this utility https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/WipeDisk before attempting to partition and format the card

I second that. Spur0Kill (S0KILL) is a similar utility, it also clears track 0 and any partition information that follows.
If you wish, it can wipe a whole disk, also: Re: IDE to Compact Flash as MS-DOS boot drive.

Also, if you still have issues with it, you like to give MS-DOS 7.1 a try.
It can handle large disks up, is LBA-aware and has FAT32 support.

Speaking of FDISK, some additional useful information can be found here:
https://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/FDISK.htm

Edit: Personally, I've never encountered a CF card that is non-bootable.
Anyway, perhaps I was just lucky. I definitely have to expand my CF collection! ^^

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 4 of 8, by Deczor

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Thanks guys. Think I've got it. Needed to keep unmounting it from windows while installer was going. It kept on being picked up by Win10, at which point the VM DOS installer couldn't write to it anymore.

It's now got DOS on it, and in the socket7 box it boots happily.

Now I just need to figure out how to get files on it. Seems Win10 doesn't like FAT16, so can't just drag and drop.

Reply 6 of 8, by Jo22

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A good idea. Another one would be to run DOSIdle on that Socket 7, so it can "sleep" during idling.
To do so, it will issue a command to APM or use HLT instruction, as found on 486 (or maybe 386SXL) onwards..
Re: Finally! My classic 486 retro rig.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 7 of 8, by Deczor

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digistorm wrote on 2020-02-15, 20:33:

If you have a network card you can install mtcp on it and run a FTP server to transfer files.

Cheers. Setting that up now.
seems it's one thing and another with this machine.

So I've got the drivers for the 3com III 5x9x card I've got in here. Card detects fine on startup, but the driver can't see it, I think. On setup or diagnostic keeps on saying "configuring adapter, please wait" and not doing anything. On Diagnostic it says it's looking for the card, but never finds it.

I did get the driver to install once, and that all seemed fine. Until I formatted the CF card to clean up the install, now we're back to the software not seeing the card again.

Reply 8 of 8, by Jo22

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Deczor wrote on 2020-02-15, 23:48:
digistorm wrote on 2020-02-15, 20:33:

If you have a network card you can install mtcp on it and run a FTP server to transfer files.

I did get the driver to install once, and that all seemed fine. Until I formatted the CF card to clean up the install, now we're back to the software not seeing the card again.

Sorry to hear. I've got a few ideas, maybe one them works.
a) Do a BIOS update. You can get patched (unlocked, higher LBA etc) BIOSes at http://wims.rainbow-software.org/ and https://www.wimsbios.com/large-hdd-patched-bios.jsp
b) Use XTIDE Universal BIOS
c) Try a Dynamic Drive Overlay (DDO)

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//