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Compaq Deskpro 386/20

Unless you have a need for larger hard drives or later DOS features, leave it alone. Compaq 3.31 was one of the "good" versions of DOS with many of the features of MS-DOS 4.0.
 
Yeah, I'm getting used to Compaq 3.31. I don't guess it has a built-in editor? Normally in 6.22 I can type "edit config.sys" and it will open it right up. However, that doesn't seem to be the case here.

I like the way you format floppies, with the GUI and all. Very stylish! :)

If I want to add a CD drive, what will I have to do to get it to recognize the Winchester port? Thanks!

Kyle
 
Oh, there's an editor in earlier MS-DOS all right--EDLIN. It'll remind you of mowing your lawn using nail scissors. But it came with DOS 1.0 and is still present in XP.

There are tons of text editors for DOS, thank heavens.

The GUI formatter was Compaq-specific.

You didn't say what you're using for a hard disk controller, but it sounds as if it's an old MFM job. If that's the case, it can't co-exist with an IDE controller (which you'll need for an IDE CD-ROM drive) which means you'll also want to install an IDE drive to take the place of your MFM one.

After that, it's pretty simple--you need an ATAPI CD-ROM driver, which are fairly common and MSCDEX.EXE, the Microsoft network redirector that hosts CD-ROM drives.

Alternatively, you can install a SCSI controller and a SCSI CD-ROM drive.
 
Oh, it wasn't THAT bad! :-D But yes, thank you again Chuck!

EDLIN sounds like...complete horror. I can't believe anyone would use it. Thank goodness for EDIT! Does EDIT run on older versions of DOS?

The Compaq has an MFM controller and a Winchester/FDD controller. What you're saying is it's impossible to use both at the same time?

Oh, and another quick question: the combo floppy drive only requires one cable. However, it has two drives. The cable also connects to a tape drive as well, but I thought one floppy cable could only carry two drive's worth of data. How can this work?

I was able to get my CD-ROM drive working on my main machine in DOS. Thank goodness! That'll make transferring files a lot easier since it can't recognize my 80GB partition.

Kyle
 
antiquekid3 said:
EDLIN sounds like...complete horror. I can't believe anyone would use it. Thank goodness for EDIT! Does EDIT run on older versions of DOS?
Click to expand...

It should, belonging more to QBASIC than DOS. If not, there are doubtless many others--check SIMTEL for candidates.

The Compaq has an MFM controller and a Winchester/FDD controller. What you're saying is it's impossible to use both at the same time?
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "winchester"? (I assume not David Ogden Stiers.) If the drive uses two cables; one 34-conductor and the other 20, then it's most likely an MFM or RLL drive. If your floppy controller is also present on the same card, you'll need to replace the board with a combination IDE/floppy controller (easy to find cheap) and an IDE drive.

Oh, and another quick question: the combo floppy drive only requires one cable. However, it has two drives. The cable also connects to a tape drive as well, but I thought one floppy cable could only carry two drive's worth of data. How can this work?
Click to expand...

The tape drive has a microcontroller on it that interprets the floppy signals in a non-standard manner. This allows it to share the cable with two floppy drives.
 
I'll try QBASIC and EDIT later. It'd be nice to have on this machine.

I believe Winchester and IDE are the same. The port is labeled "Winchester." It is the same size as IDE, so I presume I have an IDE/FDD controller. Even with this card, I still can't use the MFM drive and an IDE drive at the same time?

Kyle
 
The Deskpro 386 was the very first implementation of IDE. I have a DVD/CD-ROM combo drive installed on the same card, and it works as a CD-ROM drive just fine.

I'd recommend MS-DOS 5.0 if you're not planning to use it as a Windows machine. 5.0 contains the DOS Shell GUI and Edit.
 
I'll get some pictures before I put it all back together. But how did you go about configuring the IDE? I can't seem to find how to do that under SETUP.EXE. Any tips?

Kyle
 
I installed the driver and MSCDX233.EXE, but it doesn't seem to give it a drive letter. Also, I'm looking in my Disk Summary with Norton Utilities 5.0, and even before I installed the CD-ROM driver, drive H: says "3.5" 720K floppy." When I try and access it, it says drive isn't ready immediately. The hard disk is partitioned C: through G:. I'm using the generic CD-ROM driver...could that be why it's not working?

Kyle
 
antiquekid3 said:
I installed the driver and MSCDX233.EXE, but it doesn't seem to give it a drive letter. Also, I'm looking in my Disk Summary with Norton Utilities 5.0, and even before I installed the CD-ROM driver, drive H: says "3.5" 720K floppy." When I try and access it, it says drive isn't ready immediately. The hard disk is partitioned C: through G:. I'm using the generic CD-ROM driver...could that be why it's not working?
Kyle
Click to expand...
What's your config.sys and autoexec.bat look like?
And what specifically is "the generic CD-ROM driver"?
 
Here's my config.sys:
Code: 
device=c:\xtgold\vdisk.sys 360 128 64 /e:8
device=c:\xtgold\vdisk.sys 2400 512 512 /e:8
device=c:\cemm.exe 2048 auto
device=c:\cache.exe 2048 on /ext
device=d:\norton5.0\pcshadow.sys
device=exdskbio.drv
buffers=30
files=20
lastdrive=z
devicehigh=c:cdrom\aoatapi.sys /d:mscd001
device=d:\norton5.0\ncache-f.exe a: -a b: -a
device=d:\norton5.0\diskreet.sys

And autoexec.bat:
Code: 
@echo off
ver
prompt $P$G
path c:\;C:\DOS;C:\NORTON5.0;
@echo on
loadhigh=c:\cdrom\mscdx223.exe /d:mscd001
set nu=c:\norton5.0
c:\norton5.0\diskmon /protect+ /light+
c:\norton5.0\filesave /on
c:\norton5.0\image
c:\norton5.0\ndd /quick

I tried a driver called AOATAPI.SYS which I found on a CD-ROM installation diskette, and OAKCDROM.SYS, the generic driver.

Kyle
 
You might try the attached CD driver--it's what I use a lot. Don't know if it'll make any difference.

Does the CD-ROM driver (aoatapi.sys) give any messages when it loads?
 

Attachments

  • TIMCD.ZIP
    11.6 KB · Views: 1
That 720K "drive H" is most likely a result of the line:
device=exdskbio.drv
That's a driver for a third (external) floppy AFAIK.
 
I'll give that a try. I think I'll make a new config.sys and autoexec.bat so I can actually see the startup messages. Too many things get loaded too quickly for me to see the messages.

Does order matter in autoexec or config?

Kyle
 
Oh, I already figured out the drive h: issue. I deleted another line which took it away. One reason I want a clean install is because there are so many random programs and files and partitions, not many of which I need. I would like to keep Norton Utilities 5.0 and IBM Personal Editor.

As for the keyboard, I'll go into basic and write a program to test it, unless there is an easier way. Oh, and just recently I noticed I'm getting a 301 keyboard error at startup. But I can still type on the keyboard just fine.

Kyle
 
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