DOS 6.2 doesn't support FAT32.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

DOS 6.2 doesn't support FAT32.

That is true. But do you have any ideas for "reactivating" a multiconfiguration?

Nagra

Nagra wrote:

That is true. But do you have any ideas for "reactivating" a multiconfiguration?

You mean selecting which O/S to boot through a menu of some sort? In order to do so, you'll need a boot manager.

However....

Nagra wrote:

So, I booted from the Win 98 CD, deleted the primary DOS-partition (FAT 16), created a FAT 32 partition, formatted drive c and successfully installed Win 98 SE.

See, since you have DELETED the DOS partition (FAT16), there's no way you can boot in DOS 6.22, since that particular version of DOS doesn't support FAT32. You do need a FAT16 partition for your DOS O/S and DOS application.

One could boot into DOS 7.0 with the same config.sys and autoexec.bat as DOS 6.22 had.
I guess what you're trying to say Nagra, is that WIN98 loads into GUI mode no matter what configuration you select in the multiboot menu. You need to disable automatic booting into GUI by editing msdos.sys and setting Bootgui=0. Or you can load command.com in autoexec.bat, windows will not load while the shell is active.

Okay, I think I am getting closer.

@Kreshna:
Just what I thought, my old DOS-folder located in c:\ is useless.

@gulikoza:
You understood exactly what I was trying to explain. Many thanks!
I set Bootgui to 0, and integrated the backup of my 6.22 startupfiles (autoexex.bat and config.sys) into the same files created by Win98. All I had to do was changing some of the DOS-lines to point at the new locations (c:\windows or c:\windows\command).

Now I can boot directly into DOS 7. But two problems are remaining:
1. My isa SB16 vibra pnp which worked perfect before under DOS 6.2 seems to be unsupported with DOS 7.
2. The cdrom-drive doesnt work as well.

But I have come a lot of steps forward, thanks again.

Nagra

Nagra wrote:

1. My isa SB16 vibra pnp which worked perfect before under DOS 6.2 seems to be unsupported with DOS 7.
2. The cdrom-drive doesnt work as well.

I might have an explanation for this one. It doesn't have to do anything with the DOS version, but rather with driver locations, some environment variables and the startup configuration files.
If you could post the contents of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files here, I'd try to solve the problem.

Hi 5u3,

thanks for the kind offer. There are still some phanomenons here.
Before posting my configuration I will have to deal with them first. Will make things easier for you (troubleshooting).

Nagra

I had the same problem with an awe32 pnp
On a pc which dual-booted dos 7 and dos 6.22, I replaced its vibra16 pnp by an awe32 pnp
On dos 6.22 It worked correctly
On dos 7 it worked as a sb16
On a win95 dosbox, it worked correctly
When I shut down win95 with restart in ms-dos mode, it worked correctly
When I rebooted to dos7, it work as a sb16
and I was using the same setting in autoexec.bat config.sys

This problem disappeared when I upgrade to win98
When I removed my awe32 to test a pci soundcard, already present at this moment, then I reinstalled my awe32, the problem comes back.
It disapeared when I add CTCM in config.sys, it was previously only in autoexec.bat

@ StickBy Dos:
The phenomenons I was referring to actually included a message about a sudden ctcm-incompatibility.

I will keep your post in mind and will report back, when I got more accurate news.

By the way, you have both DOS 6.22 and 7 running on the same machine? And with FAT16 file-system?

Regards
Nagra

Yes it was fat16, I created it with dos 6.22

Nagra, if you want use both 6.22 and 7.1 you have two ways:
1. (simple) - Create primary partition in beginning of hdd (or anywhere before 8gb crossline) with 2gb size and FAT16. Optional you may add one or more logical 2gb FAT16 partitions. Then create logical partition with FAT32 and size which you want. Then install dos.622 on primary fat16 partition and then win98 over it. In this case you have desired multiconfiguration with both dos6.22 and dos7.1/win98 with their logical partitions accessible.

2. (best solution) - Use any boot-managers. IMHO boot-us is the best choice. Prog is shareware but If you need license file PM me 😉 Create with partition magic separate primary partitions with FAT16/32 - one active and another be hidden (DOS/WIN9x not supporting more than one active partition at the same time). Set FAT16 as active and install DOS6.22 on it. Then load partition magic again (you run it during boot from floppy or cdrom not from hdd!) and set FAT32 as active (fat16 become hidden) and install Windows98 from bootable cd or from HDD distributive during boot from floppy with dos7.1 system disk for necessary FAT32 access. After Win98 installing you must install boot-us and write their loader with your setup in MBR. In this case you have independed and hidden from others primary partitions for all your OSes. I'm succesfully use by this way - DOS 6.22 / Win98SE/ WinXP. Each in separate partitions isolated from other systems.

Sorry for ugly english 😉

Say, if you install Windows 98 on a FAT16 partition, is it possible to install MS-DOS 6.22 and add it to the Win98 boot menu without having to reinstall Windows 98? I've wanted to do that a few times.

Also, is it true that MS-DOS 6.22 can't boot from a primary partition beyond the first 8 GB? I've wondered about that too.

Regarding these problems with PNP cards, perhaps the "PNP OS" setting in the BIOS is not set correctly?

It is possible to install Win98 and dos 6.22 in the same fat16 partition, but I've heard of a bug in Win95 OSR2 (and 98 ?) which prevent this http://www.mdgx.com/dos.htm#OSR

8GB limit (also known as 1024 cylinders limit) is in dos 6.22 and in bios, when theese functions were created in 1984 for IBM AT, hd weren't so large and the size reserved to pass their arguments couldn't hold large numbers for hd coordinates (1024 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors, with 512kB sector size: 1024*255*63*512kB=8GB).
For older bios, the limitation is smaller:
512MB for 286, 386 and old 486 (bios whithout LBA or translation: max heads=16)
2GB for 486, recent 386
8GB for recent bios
If translation is buggy, the limit can be 4GB 6GB 7.9GB and sometime, prevent hd detection. Some hd have jumper setting for alternative capacity which allow their first 2GB to be detected
Modern OS like winNT or linux bypass bios to access hd but their boot loader and some start-up files must remain in the part detected by bios
For scsi hd, this limit depend of the controler's bios: usually 8GB (1GB for older)

dos 7 use other functions if bios support them to go higher than 8GB (LBA) and the type of partitions created with fdisk, which cross or exceed 8GB limit is different, they are called FAT16 LBA and dos 6.22 can't acceed them even if they are below 8GB

For PnP cards, i've already check PnP OS, It was aweutil who report an error aweutil err12 awe32 initialization failed

After a long consideration in what way to go, I decided to go almost all the way back.

I have a HDD D in my system as well with a maximum physical size of 2 GB. Place enough for all of my DOS-Games (250 MBs left right now).
One more time it turned out that it was a wise decision, to have ALL the DOS or lets better say FloppyDisk-Games installed on drive D.
Because I am (and was) able to easily conduct major changes on drive C without the need of reinstalling every single game again and again.

So, I booted from MSDOS Floppy Disk, deleted the primary Pri-DOS Partition (FAT32) and reestablished a FAT16 Partition on drive C.
It followed the normal DOS installation. After that I copied the backup files, like autoexec.bat and config.sys (configured to multibootconfiguration) and folders which concerned the SB16 Vibra and the CD-ROM drive back to C.

After a reboot I installed Windows98SE again.

When I now press F8 before booting into windows I can select my previous DOS-Version 6.2 and choose between my EMS-Games or XMS-Games configuration. Everything is fine again. Got 619 kb of free conventional ram in each configuration, with all drivers loaded (many thanks to memmaker).

I think I now have the best of both worlds. It turned out that a game like X-Wing that didnt play ANY sound under real DOS when General Midi (got a SCC-1) and Soundblaster are selected, plays both of em very fine when started directly under windows.

Thats what I always wanted: A pure DOS machine with a little help by Windows98SE in some special cases or some Windows 95/98 games.

Thanks for all of your advice and input. There may be better or more elegant ways but for me it is just perfect now the way it is.

Nagra