601 - Diskette Controller Error
162 - System Options Not Set

I have not worked with a Compaq Deskpro 386 in probably 20 years, but during boot, you should find that the cursor briefly jumps to the right, and you should be able to hit F10 at that point to get into Setup assuming it's in ROM. If not, there were bootable disks called a Softpaq that has the setup program on them (of course, you have a diskette controller error though...)

Hey there. Thank you for responding. I will try that. Unfortunately I read that the setup utility is housed on a hard drive partition. Of course I don’t have that hard drive. But we will see!

olliethebassett wrote on 2025-07-22, 12:12:

Hey there. Thank you for responding. I will try that. Unfortunately I read that the setup utility is housed on a hard drive partition. Of course I don’t have that hard drive. But we will see!

First thing now is to get the softpaq (still floats somewhere on the net, not sure where and which softpaq) and create a boot disk. You can create the setup disks by running the softpaq in DOS with literally any pc that supports booting to DOS and has a disk drive.

Chances are, the softpaq disk you created wel still boot, despite the error.

It you manage to boot from the disk, you can recreate the boot partition. Unfortunately you'll lose the existing partitions or even have to remove any partition manually beforehand. So backup your data in advance.

The Deskpro 386 and Deskpro 386/20 are too old to support a system partition. They should be able to boot the setup floppy, though, even if the CMOS options are not set. Like IBM, Compaq had no Setup in the ROM, but required a floppy boot to configure the setup.

mkarcher wrote on 2025-07-23, 15:30:

The Deskpro 386 and Deskpro 386/20 are too old to support a system partition. They should be able to boot the setup floppy, though, even if the CMOS options are not set. Like IBM, Compaq had no Setup in the ROM, but required a floppy boot to configure the setup.

I recall F10 working on either a 386/20e or 286/25, but it's been so long ago I can't remember for sure.
The Softpaq disk did work as well, but I remember that being the only software I ever ran into that needed Loadfix.

I do know that my dad's portable 386 does not have setup in ROM and the softpaq is required. Same for my deskpro/m (EISA 386 desktop)

Okay so it sounds like the consensus is that if I can find the softpaq, I can create a setup disk and boot from that, correct? Even though I cam getting those disk drive errors? I have a grease weasel. This would be sufficient, correct?

Also f10 didn’t work probably because it needs a disk and/or I don’t have the necessary boot partition with the setup software on my cr card.