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Can´t install Win 3.11 on a 386

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mattisengstedt

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Joined
Jul 10, 2024
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I´ve been trying to install Windows 3.11 on a 386 through a Gotek floppy emulator.

I get to about 99% when the installer wants to make changes to WIN.COM but can´t because the file already exists and have read only permissions.

What can I try?
 
You could copy all the files to a directory on the hard disk and install from there.

Could you describe the system in more detail including the source of the disk images? Something went wrong but it is difficult to guess what with no information.
 
You can also copy a completed install from an other machine and then just run setup from the windows directory to change video drivers, etc, if needed.

DOS and windows 3.1 isn’t very picky about hardware, other than obvious things like network drivers, sound drivers, and video drivers. But it will usually still work fine. No registry or anything like that. In my college computer lab, we had boot floppies that would just format /s and then xcopy the entire hard drive contents from a netware file share.
 
Just to make sure, since I’m not sure of your experience with older windows like this, but you are trying to install it on top of a working DOS install, right?
 
mattisengstedt said:
I´ve been trying to install Windows 3.11 on a 386 through a Gotek floppy emulator.

I get to about 99% when the installer wants to make changes to WIN.COM but can´t because the file already exists and have read only permissions.

What can I try?
Click to expand...
Try using a regular floppy drive instead of the GoTek.
 
How much memory do you have? And have you loaded the correct drivers?

I second putting all the files in a directory and installing from that directory. That works well for me on a NEC 386SX. Though I only have 2Mb of memory, so can't really do anything with 3.11, though 3.1 runs well.
 
Considering that the error message is about a file being write protected, how about using ATTRIB -R to clear the read only attribute, if there is in fact already a WIN.COM. Or in case the message is inaccurate and WIN.COM is not the culprit but some other file is, just clear all the attributes on everything with ATTRIB C:\*.* -H -R -S /S
(preferably after running SMARTDRV so it doesn't take all day to complete)
 
I just had the same error, googled it, and ended up here. I am also trying to do the same thing on a Compaq Portable 386, so it must be something common with these machines.
This thread is recent, so I'll post what worked for me (mostly was following the instructions here: https://retropaq.com/installing-windows-3-1-3-11/)
- used this version of WFW311 https://winworldpc.com/download/01c38063-1542-c38a-11c3-a7c29d255254
- used these drivers for the plasma display https://www.retropaq.com/plasma/
- extract all files from all disk images and put in a single directory
- also copy plasma driver files in there
- edit setup.inf and put this line in under the [display] section below the vga = line:
plasma = 2:plasma.drv, "Compaq Portable Plasma", "100,96,96", 2:cga.2gr, 2:cgalogo.lgo, 2:vddcga.386, 2:plasma.3gr,, 2:cgalogo.rle
(don't copy and paste the line from retropaq, it has non-ansi quotation marks)
- copy directory to Compaq hard drive, boot machine, cd into dir, run setup
- in setup, it should detect the Compaq Portable Plasma as the display
- rest of the install worked without error!
 
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