20 Nov
2017
20 Nov
'17
6:35 a.m.
On 17 November 2017 at 19:02, Tomasz Rola <rtomek at ceti.pl> wrote:
Er, yes. Thanks. I _do_ know about managing DOS hard disks, thanks. :-)
The problem is that the DR-DOS 7.01 tools cannot use the 7.01-8 files
to make a bootable volume in the normal ways (wither ``FORMAT /S'' or
format then ''SYS [drive letter]:''.
So I need to try other things, which are not on the current system.
It can sometimes work but it's not guaranteed.
I have tried all the obvious methods. Now I am going to need 3rd party tools.
The same problems are preventing me from making a PC DOS 7.1 hard disk
image bootable: the older DOS commands won't use the newer "kernel"
files.
Please excuse me if my remark is unnecessary, but if I read you right,
you have:
1. Downloaded "empty" disk image - which apparently boots enough to
display two dots
No.
The original DR-DOS Enhancement Project website --
http://www.drdosprojects.de/ -- is no longer there.
The download I found for 7.01-8 was here:
https://archiveos.org/drdos/
This download includes what it claims is a bootable diskette. It is
not a bootable diskette. It is an empty diskette image.
What I've done is make it bootable.
2. Copied system (DOS) files on it (say, from backup)
No, from within the same download archive.
3. You have not erased the boot-sector-from-the-i-net?
So it is there
and still boots the (now fully functional) DOS?
Yes.
If so, perhaps you should start over from totally new,
empty image?
I can do, but I need some more tools in my VM first. Unfortunately my
Mac with the more complete disk image is currently out of action.
Not copy from your currently working image, but from
your backup. Just
in case.
I can try it.
Or at least try to disassemble the boot sector to see
what it
is doing (I have no idea how, but somehow it must be possible).
"Things" can escape from VMs. I have plenty
of Xen warnings and bug
descriptions in my old mailboxes, chances are there will be more.
It's possible. I'm not working on Windows systems, so I don't have
virus scanners in place.
All I need to
do now is work out how to make the hard disk bootable,
and I'm in business.
Boot some other OS, (I am partial to GRML Linux, well packed with
rescue stuff and more - https://grml.org/ ); + fdisk, mark bootable? The DR-DOS 7
SYS command won't do it, as the files aren't named
IBMBIOS.COM and IBMSYS.COM -- they're DRBIO.SYS and DRSYS.SYS.
I copied them to the expected names. SYS completes but the disk won't boot.
Perhaps you should try again, copying one file each time, in the right
sequence (I do not recall, which one, but only two files, similarly to
how sys would do it). I did such "manual sys" once on MSDOS 6 (5???)
floppy and it worked (booted). Watcom C?
DJGPP?
Er, no. I am not compiling anything here. I am merely trying to make
some already-available parts into a working system.
I keep promising myself to do such stuff one day, only
with FreeDOS,
plus some utils to refresh my long forgotten i386 assembler. So, it is
probably FASM nowadays. And some editor which is at least minimally
usable... Or some really cheap alternative, with the same under
DOSBOX.
FreeDOS is fine if you like it. For me, it is just a little too unlike
the "real thing" for comfort. And as I'm interested in playing with
some fairly extreme DOS stuff -- multitaskers (DESQview, etc.) and so
on -- I want the highest level of compatibility I can achieve.
--
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