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installing dos 3.2 to hard drive

oblivion

oblivion

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Aug 28, 2010
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Apache Junction, AZ
i suppose this may be a real simple question but. i recently installed a xtide controller in in tandy 1000sx. im useing a 32mb compact flash drive as the hdd and the xtide detects it fine. the issue is i'm trying to install dos 3.2 from the floppy which came with this computer to the hard drive as to cut down on wear/tear to my disk drive. issue is i don't know how as there doesnt seem to be an install command with this disk/version of dos. i copied all the files from the A drive over to a DOS dir. on the C drive but it won't boot from it. i'm assumeing i can just directly copy everything over to the C drive but i havnt tried this yet and it would be kinda messy. is this the only way or am i missing something here?

thanks
 
You are.

You can use the SYS command to put a system on a drive, but make sure that you have the "Active" flag for the partition set using FDISK or it still won't boot.

If SYS doesn't want to put a system on your drive because there are already files on it, use the FORMAT command with the /S option on your C: drive. This will delete any existing files and make a clean partition with only the files needed for booting.
 
Hello obivion:

Chuck & DOS are correct. Next, and if you are using the Tandy version of MS-DOS 3.2 (cat. 25-1051 disks 1 & 2), simply make a directory on your C:\ Drive called DOS, and copy all the files from both disks to that directory. Once your directory is loaded, run SETUP.EXE and you should be good to go. Note that SETUP.EXE is located in disk 2 (Supplimental Programs).
 
I saw it right after I posted mine. You've got to realize that while someone is posting there is lots of opportunity for others to post simultaneously. And you don't get to see these till you're done posting yours. All in all it is what it is. :)
 
Happens to me many times. I'll be replying, then after a while when I post, someone else has posted the solution.
Oh well, just joking around.
 
DOS lives on!! said:
Hence why it applies to DOS 3.2. Thanks for the info.

The OP is pushing DOS to the max with the 32mb hard drive.
Click to expand...

Strictly speaking, no. I recall that before the 32MB partition limit was lifted, there were a number of vendors offering patches. The trick was installing a pre-load driver (similar to the way that DDO does it) that blocked the drive up into 1024, 2048 or 4096 byte "logical" sectors. Yes, some things would bomb terribly, but others would work just fine. One dodge was to keep a 32MB partition as the C: drive and make the D: drive your "funny" one. You were still limited to 16 bit sector numbers, but the sectors themselves were large.

Since DOS allocates buffers in multiples of the sector size, memory got gobbled pretty well.

It was ugly, but if you needed a large logical drive, it was one way to do it. I can't even recall some of the product names--they were very short-lived.
 
ok, well i think its the tandy dos version but unfortunitly a disk #2 was not provided with the bunches of disks i got with it. i formated my hdd but when i try to run sys i get "no room for system on destination disk"
 
oblivion said:
ok, well i think its the tandy dos version but unfortunitly a disk #2 was not provided with the bunches of disks i got with it. i formated my hdd but when i try to run sys i get "no room for system on destination disk"
Click to expand...
Sheesh ;-) Read post #2! (the very first reply!)

The old versions were fussy that way. As Chuck suggested, start again with FORMAT C: /S, putting the system files on before you copy the rest of the files.
 
well that worked but i'm still missing something. i formated c: with the /s and after that sys worked fine and i got a "system transfered" and the activity light on the hdd went off the whole time. upon looking at the hdd dir though nothing appeared to be transfered. i tried copying the command.com and rebooting with no luck. i tried useing sys and then copying dos over manually and still just cant get it to boot from the hdd. i don't have a fdisk command only format so is there something i'm missing maybe to "activate" the hdd? could the issue be that i need that disk #2 since it appears to me tandy dos. on loading from the disk it says das 3.20 and a microsoft copyright line then says tandy dos 3.20.
 
oblivion said:
ok, well i think its the tandy dos version but unfortunitly a disk #2 was not provided with the bunches of disks i got with it. i formated my hdd but when i try to run sys i get "no room for system on destination disk"
Click to expand...

PM me and we can talk about Disk 2.
 
oblivion said:
upon looking at the hdd dir though nothing appeared to be transfered.
Click to expand...
The files that SYS transferrs over are important system files that DOS likes to keep invisible so they don't accidentally get deleted. Only COMMAND.COM will show up.

Like Stone said, just try any FDISK version. There's an option at the main screen to set the active partition.
 
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