Compaq Deskpro boards/hard drives from the late 1990s

[Liam Proven]

On Fri, 23 Jul 2021 at 18:56, Grant Taylor via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> If memory serves, that mass of floppies was dwarfed by Windows 95,
> particularly later versions.

Win95: 13 disks.

Win98: 38 disks.

Netware 3.1: can't remember... lots:
http://www.os2museum.com/wp/diskette-puzzle/

Ha! Trying to google, I found a piece I wrote myself!
https://www.theregister.com/Print/2013/07/16/netware_4_anniversary/

I think it was circa 20-25 disks. I remember I had to copy them before
installation, in case. And at that time, the DOS 3.3 DISKCOPY command
didn't swap to disk or XMS/EMS, and with 640 kB of RAM, copying a 1.4
MB floppy could take 3-4 reads and as many writes.

It took me over an entire working day to duplicate all the disks, IIRC.

> Aside:  I don't think I've ever seen Windows 98 on floppies.  I think
> I've only seen CD-ROM.  Though I expect that there is a way, likely from
> Microsoft, to create the floppies.

There was, and I think in some markets -- Japan maybe? possibly
because of non-adherence to CD standards? -- it was sold on floppies.

I also have unpleasant memories of trying to install Slackware from
floppies, because it couldn't see my SCSI card, and the only CD-ROM I
had was SCSI. The command switches for Linux kernel modules weren't
standardised and I couldn't find out how to tell Linux about my cheap
& nasty built-in AHA1520 SCSI controller's IRQ and DMA settings. I
knew what they were, but I didn't know the syntax to tell the
module...

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