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Looking for legit source for 286 compatible software online - Freeware ect

H

Haemogoblin

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2011
Messages
233
Location
Sheffield, England
Hi everyone!

As of yesturday my Sharp 7200 is up and running, with new 1.44mb floppy drive and 1gb internal hard drive ;)

I've been looking on ebay for software, but i was wondering if there are any good places i should be visiting for freeware/abandonware. I've no problem buying software if i need it, so i dont want people to think this is a post asking for dodgy software. I'd just like to get some apps for my newly fitted hard drive :)

Many thanks
James
 
Well at the moment i have just a 6.22 boot disk, i really wouldn't mind getting my hands on a proper set of dos disks as well. I've seen free dos and the iso you can download, but i'm unsure how i'm meant to get that on to floppy and installed on my system. So was going to stick with what i know.
 
DrDos is available for download in disk images http://www.drdos.net/download.htm You just need the 3 disk set. The 5 disk set includes netware iirc. Its a bit different than MS dos, well documented http://www.drdos.com/dosdoc/, but does run most dos software.

You could probably make your system quite usable with the boot disk you have depending on the tools that are on it. Would start off as a real lean dos installation then just add the utillities as needed. http://www.opus.co.tt/dave/utils.htm

Edit: Just looking at Open Dos 7.01 readme you can create disks in 1.2meg, 1.44meg or 720k formats. Some members might find that usefull- ftp://ftp.fsn.hu/pub/OpenDOS/OpenDOS.701/README
 
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Well the boot disk works and it doesn't, it has fdisk on it, format ect. But i'm lacking things like Edit for altering the config and autoexec. I've use the floppy to get the hard drive booting, however i need to edit the config.sys. I'm getting some error about Himem, i need to note it down. But i'm pretty sure it's because i have 640kb of memory and it's trying to load stuff up for a more modern 90's sort of machine :p
 
There's a few other text editors you can use to do that. For example http://www.freedos.org/software/?prog=ospedit
You could probably burn the freedos iso to cd as well and use that as a source of dos programs. Another source of programs is a win 9x cd. Though you'll have to extract the *.cab files first. More ways to skin a cat and all that.;)

In saying that MS/PCDos full disk and manual sets should be easy and cheap enough to get.

Almost forgot. There's a downloadable/trail version of PTS Dos 2000 http://www.phystechsoft.com/ptsdos/index.php?page=20
It has a time lag set at boot time though. I think the installer creates three 3 1.44megs disks.
 
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I was looking on the Freedos iso and i couldn't see how to get what is on the iso on to floppies.

I actually do have windows 98 cd somewhere and a 95 hiding some place..Will have to have a good dig over the weekend. Now i've said i have them, just watch and see that i've gone and thrown them away! It's always the way of things.

I'm hoping to use the Sharp for a bit of gaming and writing. I did consider using it for email, as i have seen people getting old 286's online, however i'm not sure whats involved :D

--James
 
Haemogoblin said:
I was looking on the Freedos iso and i couldn't see how to get what is on the iso on to floppies.

I actually do have windows 98 cd somewhere and a 95 hiding some place..Will have to have a good dig over the weekend. Now i've said i have them, just watch and see that i've gone and thrown them away! It's always the way of things.

I'm hoping to use the Sharp for a bit of gaming and writing. I did consider using it for email, as i have seen people getting old 286's online, however i'm not sure whats involved :D

--James
Click to expand...
It just ment use the freedos cd as a storage access to utilities if need be ;). Mind you there's plenty of links in the FreeDos site. I'm sure the old hands that could help on the email front.
 
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Thanks for the link, i think i can say the responce from my initial post has returned some good resources for me to look at, MOST importantly i now have a word processor for the machine, which is what i wanted the most. So thank you very much guys!! :)

--James
 
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