Making an MS-DOS 6.22 boot disk \ VOGONS

Making an MS-DOS 6.22 boot disk

Topic actions

First post, by popcalent

Posted on Today, 17:10

popcalent Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 56
Joined: 2024-02-22, 21:34

Hi all,

I downloaded Dos6.22.img from here [1] and burned the image into a floppy disk using:

sudo dd if=Dos6.22.img of=/dev/sdc bs=512 conv=fsync status=progress

However, when I try to boot from my 386 with this disk it says "Non-system disk or disk error". I tried booting the image file on dosbox using the BOOT command it boots fine. Am I doing something wrong when I use dd?

This is the output of dd:

$ sudo dd if=Dos6.22.img of=/dev/sdc bs=512 conv=fsync status=progress
1471488 bytes (1.5 MB, 1.4 MiB) copied, 162 s, 9.1 kB/s1474560 bytes (1.5 MB, 1.4 MiB) copied, 162.434 s, 9.1 kB/s

2880+0 records in
2880+0 records out
1474560 bytes (1.5 MB, 1.4 MiB) copied, 177.923 s, 8.3 kB/s

[1] https://www.allbootdisks.com/download/dos.html

Reply 1 of 7, by jakethompson1

Posted on Today, 17:14

jakethompson1 Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2200
Joined: 2015-11-17, 04:16

Non-system disk or disk error is at least coming from the boot sector so that's a good sign that something is working (unless it is failing over to the hard drive and it's the VBR generating that message). Does the 386 definitely boot with other floppies? I have run into the floppy head not being able to seek for lack of lubrication, but the grinding sound during the BIOS disk seek made this obvious.

Reply 2 of 7, by popcalent

Posted on Today, 17:22

popcalent Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 56
Joined: 2024-02-22, 21:34

jakethompson1 wrote on Today, 17:14:

Does the 386 definitely boot with other floppies?

Yes, I have an original version of MSDOS 4.01 and it boots on the 386. Also, I tried burning the .img file on different floppies, and I get the error nonetheless.

Last edited by popcalent on 2026-07-13, 17:28. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 3 of 7, by jakethompson1

Posted on Today, 17:27

jakethompson1 Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2200
Joined: 2015-11-17, 04:16

I assume not a 720k (which 4.01 would be) vs. 1.44mb issue, but I'd think even the boot sector wouldn't load to give you this error in that case.

Reply 4 of 7, by nali

Posted on Today, 17:48

nali Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 223
Joined: 2004-03-25, 02:16
Location: Québec

I suppose sdc is a usb floppy.
I would make an image of an existing good floppy, then dd it back to a blank.

Reply 5 of 7, by nali

Posted on Today, 17:54

nali Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 223
Joined: 2004-03-25, 02:16
Location: Québec

Also , depending what you want to do with this floppy, I like to have a tftp server, then you can boot from network with AllInOne, even with some ISA network cards.
Not exactly an answer to your specific problem here, but it helped me many times for a lot of things.

Reply 6 of 7, by DaveDDS

Posted on Today, 21:39

DaveDDS Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1556
Joined: 2021-05-09, 23:07
Location: Canada

Are you absolutely certain that the image is good and for the same drive type that you are trying to boot it on.

I see that you are using LInux ... Is yours set up to be able to read a FAT floppy? ... if so, can you ls the content of the floppy? (ie: is the directory good)

Do you happen to have DosBox (or any other Virtual MAchine) installed? If so, can it boot the image? - DosBox> boot imagefile

On my MySite->Downloads you'll find DOSBOOT.ZIP which has known good boot images (I've booted them all in Virtual Machines - and written most of the more recent ones to physical disks and booted them on real hardware) for 13 different editions of DOS, including 6.22

https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ; "Daves Old Computers" ; SW dev addict best known:
ImageDisk: rd/wr ANY floppy PChw can ; Micro-C: compiler for DOS+ManySmallCPU ; DDLINK: simple/small filecopy(w/o netSW)via Lan/Lpt/Com

Reply 7 of 7, by nali

Posted on 32 minutes ago

nali Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 223
Joined: 2004-03-25, 02:16
Location: Québec

DaveDDS wrote on Today, 21:39:

Do you happen to have DosBox (or any other Virtual MAchine) installed? If so, can it boot the image? - DosBox> boot imagefile

He wrote he tried, and it boot.
I also tried the same Dos6.22.img on 86box and it works.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to Software