wrote:Are you supposed to use thermal paste on a 486 DX4 100?
I don't think it's really necessary, but I'd use it just for good measure.
Not needed
1+1=10
So what do the rest of you think? Thermal paste or no thermal paste? 😕
If you have it, use it, if you don't, then don't worry too much about it. But more than anything, it's really not a big enough deal to warrant spending any more time trying to decide which way to go.
It.....LIVES!!! 😏
(without thermal paste) 😁
Now I need to install DOS, configure start up files etc.
I don't have any floppy disks right now. I have the ability to slave the 486's HD to a modern machine at the moment though. Is there a way to install DOS on to the HD while slaved and then hook it back up to the 486?
Might I ask you how you have DOS if you don't have any floppies? You have images of them?
DOS is quite a pain to set up without floppies... I actually don't know how to do it just from files on a hard drive, without at least making a boot disk. Perhaps try a bootable flash drive?
wrote:Might I ask you how you have DOS if you don't have any floppies? You have images of them?
Yes I have images. Also, I can't use a bootable flash drive as the 486 does not have USB drives or the ability to boot from anything other than HD or floppy (as far as I know).
I think I'm going to have to wait until I get some floppy disks. 😢
wrote:wrote:Might I ask you how you have DOS if you don't have any floppies? You have images of them?
Yes I have images. Also, I can't use a bootable flash drive as the 486 does not have USB drives or the ability to boot from anything other than HD or floppy (as far as I know).
I think I'm going to have to wait until I get some floppy disks. 😢
Ok, now I see the problem 😉
Perhaps you could make the harddisk bootable using a 9x cd, then copy the DOS install files directly to that bootable harddisk?
If you need to "install" from the images I'd recommend using Virtual PC.
I'm not sure this is the best idea, but it's what I'd try to do
Edit: Still surprises me you don't have any floppies. Do you live in a small village? I'm not sure how that would impact your ability to get hardware.
I'm lucky to live in a large town which is near a city so I have several ways to get hardware.
I'm sure you should be able to pick up some floppies for really cheap somewhere.
Btw, grats on getting your 486 to post!!
Yes, this is a small town. There is a Radio Shack here but they didn't have any. I can order them online though. It's either that or an hour and a half drive to get to the city!
I can't use a bootable flash drive as the 486 does not have USB drives or the ability to boot from anything other than HD or floppy (as far as I know).
But you said you had the ability to install the drive in a modern machine... Just set the drive up as master, rather than slave, and you should be able to install DOS that way.
wrote:I can't use a bootable flash drive as the 486 does not have USB drives or the ability to boot from anything other than HD or floppy (as far as I know).
But you said you had the ability to install the drive in a modern machine... Just set the drive up as master, rather than slave, and you should be able to install DOS that way.
I could do that, yes.
Would save you a lot of time! I'd still get some floppies though, they are very useful when you tinker with old machines 😉
Bought 40 of the smeggers yesterday! Will be working on the machine again on Monday...
40 diskettes to the rescue 😁
So have you gotten anywhere yet with your 486?
Have MS DOS 7.10 installed. The hard drive I am using has 0.86 MB in bad sectors though. I am going to buy another one soon but I should be able to use this for now right? Doesn't it just mark the bad sectors as not usable? I want to start installing and configuring and don't really want this to hold me up. I was thinking I could use this hard drive for now and when my new one arrives just copy the entire old hard drive to the new one and carry on. Is that possible. If so what method should I use to copy HD to HD? Could I hook up the new HD to my 486, format it and then copy everything from one to the other and then remove the old one and make the new one master?
Bad sectors tend to behave like cancer when they are that many
1+1=10
wrote:Bad sectors tend to behave like cancer when they are that many
Yeah, I could tell it wasn't going to work when I started using it. I think that HD is on the way out. Anyway, new one ordered and on it's way. What is the max size your HD can be using DOS 7.10?
119GB iirc, but you're using a 486, so i'd advise just sticking to 7gbs as not many 486 motherboards exceed support for that much capacity. 7GB is a ton in 486 land. You'll know it once you try to think of 'what can fill this!?'
