XMSDSK v1.9i works fine in MS-DOS 7.1 on my Socket 7 computer with 64MB of RAM. Could you show how do you have set CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-08-13, 03:17:

Could you show how do you have set CONFIG.SYS....

1switches= /F
2device=c:\dos\himem.sys /testmem:off
3lastdrive=Z
4buffers=40
5files=128

and AUTOEXEC.BAT?

1xmsdsk.exe Z: 32767 /y

My config files aren't fancy. But the lockup occurs while executing that line in autoexec.bat.

One source states that it may be because I'm missing drive A and drive B? then again, I'm using a thinclient with a bootable CD acting like a hard drive image and this is where the problem occurred. because the plan is as soon as the CD boots, it is supposed to make a ram drive and copy the files over to the ram drive so the CD doesn't spin everytime I want to execute a command.

Seems fine, tried to reproduce it with those settings and didn't hang up on me when booting from the HDD. XMSDSK has a command line switch called "/t" which forces XMSDSK to allocate at the top of the XMS memory above 16MB, this could help you since according to the README some computers hangs up when there is no free memory under 16MB.

Assuming that it worked fine on MS-DOS 6.22, seems unlikely that the lack of A: and B: is the issue. Another thing is that I don't know if that version of HIMEM.SYS located at C:\DOS is from 6.22 since that one limits the XMS memory at 64MB.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-08-13, 19:07:

XMSDSK has a command line switch called "/t"....

Tried that switch too and got same issue.

Another thing is that I don't know if that version of HIMEM.SYS located at C:\DOS is from 6.22 since that one limits the XMS memory at 64MB.

I wonder if the boot disks from allbootdisks.com are corrupted in some spots because that's where I download the core dos OS from and they come with the HIMEM.SYS that is supposed to match that system. Even if the memory limitation is 64MB from a himem.sys driver, trying to allocate 32MB for a ram drive should not be an issue either way.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-08-13, 19:07:

Seems fine, tried to reproduce it with those settings and didn't hang up on me when booting from the HDD.

But in my situation, I'm using a CD as the bootable hard drive filled with dos files. the hard drive is not bootable as of yet. Maybe theres other settings I could modify.

In the dos boot disks for windows 95 and higher, msdos.sys can be modified. I made my msdos.sys file contain the following contents:

1[Options]
2AutoScan=0
3BootDelay=0
4BootGUI=0
5BootWarn=0
6DRVSpace=0
7Logo=0

Could I be missing a setting?

The [Options] are fine except for one little detail. MSDOS.SYS from the Windows 95 and 98 has some additional lines that does nothing and it is only used for compatibility as it needs to be more than 1024 bytes.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-08-13, 22:01:

The [Options] are fine except for one little detail. MSDOS.SYS from the Windows 95 and 98 has some additional lines that does nothing and it is only used for compatibility as it needs to be more than 1024 bytes.

But what makes me curious is to why the 1024 byte requirement. On the boot disks downloaded from the internet, the msdos.sys file there contains the following contents:

1;SYS
2

and doing a dir shows it as being 6 bytes.

And when I use format with the /s switch, the msdos.sys file then contains this:

1;FORMAT
2

Here is some information from Microsoft in archived site explaining why: https://web.archive.org/web/20080305062358/ht … t.com/kb/129998

Some programs expect the Msdos.sys file to be at least 1024 bytes in length. If it is not, these programs may not work correctly. For example, if an anti-virus program detects that the Msdos.sys file is less than 1024 bytes in length, the program may assume that the Msdos.sys file is infected with a virus.

If you use the SYS command to transfer system files from your Windows Startup disk to the hard disk, the Msdos.sys file that is copied to the hard disk is less than 1024 bytes in length.

FORMAT with /s parameter works the same way as SYS for transferring the relevant content for booting.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-08-13, 22:19:

FORMAT with /s parameter works the same way as SYS for transferring the relevant content for booting.

Yes but because I want to prepare my new boot drive from the get-go, I use format for good measure.

Also, I noticed something.

I decided to make my CD act like a bootable floppy now instead of a bootable hard drive, and the XMSDSK driver loaded fine that way. But I need to transfer more than 1MB of data so somehow I gotta make my CD work like a bootable hard drive and still make XMSDSK work.

So I tried again with the boot CD functioning as a bootable hard drive and I still run into the same issue again with XMSDSK. Lockup.

What's even more interesting to note is I boot in safe mode to access command prompt, and if I try accessing a floppy disk drive letter A or B, I get:

1Invalid drive specifcation

I then use the DOS editor to see what drives are available and all I get is my boot cd drive, drive C and my cf (hard drive) drive D.

So something tells me XMSDSK depends on the existance of at minimum drive A. I don't know why tho.

I was doing some research about this since you are using a thin-client PC. There are some USB drivers for DOS that may or may not help with your situation.

A site mentions ways to use the USB CD drive with MSCDEX. IIRC, back then I only tested something similar with a USB flash drives since I don't have any USB CD drives. It took some time to initialize and consumes a lot of conventional memory.

For convenience I post another link here which contains the drivers mentioned on the previous link I posted.

Here they are: https://www.hiren.info/downloads/dos-files

I did try a setup where I make the boot disk as a floppy and then added all application files to the CD.

The problem there is despite all the cdrom drivers listed on the site someone just suggested to me, none of them want to work with my external DVD/RW drive and its connected via USB.

But anyways, if you want reference (because just maybe there's a DOS driver....), according to the box, the name of the drive is:

ASUS
External Slim DVD-RW
Model#: SDRW-08D2S-U

The box claims the drive is compatible with MAC OSX 10.6 and up, and Windows XP and up. Funny thing is it recommends a computer with 512MB+ ram but my thinclient only has 256MB.

Most of the DOS CD drivers commonly used on this forum are only for IDE CD devices. Among the drivers did you tested the ones that begins with USBCD? These requires USBASPI to be loaded prior according to the first link I posted.

USB support on DOS are hit and miss though since that port was being developed when DOS was falling out of favor for mainstream users.

The system requirements for CD drives are quite arbitrary, it's there to avoid calling tech support in case a user want to report that their device doesn't work on a unsupported environment.

Gmlb256 wrote on 2021-08-14, 01:48:

These requires USBASPI to be loaded prior according to the first link I posted.

I see usbaspi1.sys, usbaspi2.sys, usbaspi3.sys, usbaspi4.sys, and usbaspi5.sys but the description of each one doesn't match the name of my DVD/RW writer.

Perhaps there's another ramdrive software that replaces XMSDSK that works with DOS 7.x without the hard drive being bootable. Maybe there's software that can make dummy A and B drives.

mike_canada wrote on 2021-08-14, 04:20:

I see usbaspi1.sys, usbaspi2.sys, usbaspi3.sys, usbaspi4.sys, and usbaspi5.sys but the description of each one doesn't match the name of my DVD/RW writer.

USBASPI1.SYS (the Panasonic one) seems universal, it is for the USB controller found on chipsets such as Intel, VIA, SiS, etc.

mike_canada wrote on 2021-08-14, 04:20:

Perhaps there's another ramdrive software that replaces XMSDSK that works with DOS 7.x without the hard drive being bootable. Maybe there's software that can make dummy A and B drives.

There is one ramdrive software made by the late Rudolph R. Loew (RLoew) that doesn't even require HIMEM.SYS to be loaded.

SOLVED!

Turned out that XMSDSK didnt want to work after all. I ended up going for a new ramdisk driver that functions very similar to XMSDSK. It allowed me to allocate a 30MB ramdrive. through autoexec.bat regardless of the status of drive A and B in DOS.

That driver is named rdisk and info is here:

https://fd.lod.bz/repos/current/pkg-html/rdisk.html

and direct download is here:

https://fd.lod.bz/repos/current/drivers/rdisk.zip

I found it through FreeDOS.

Glad that you solved the problem!