Computing.Net > Forums > Disk Operating System > HELP installing ms dos 7.1

Computer Problems? Computing.Net has over 1,000,000 posts about all things technology related! Over 90% answered within 24 hours! Click here to start participating now! Also, be sure to check out the New User Guide.

HELP installing ms dos 7.1

Reply to Message Icon

Name: Arron
Date: November 17, 2003 at 22:52:51 Pacific
OS: none
CPU/Ram: 75mhz
Comment:

trying to install dos on a clean hd (no os), old system given to me by a family member. When i start the system it brings me to a screen says floppy a: installed, i have ms-dos 7.1 installer on a floppy with the comp boot sequence set to floppy first. when i start up it checks the drive but does nothing. Any suggestions? where can i dowload a dos installer off the net? Thanks any help is appreciated. Arron




Sponsored Link
Ads by Google

Response Number 1
Name: Vernon Frazee
Date: November 18, 2003 at 02:29:05 Pacific
Reply:

The last release of MS-DOS was version 6.22, in May 1994.


0

Response Number 2
Name: Wengier
Date: November 18, 2003 at 09:15:35 Pacific
Reply:

Vernon Frazee:

You are totally wrong. The best and up-to-date version of MS-DOS is 7.10!! More information is available at:

http://newdos.yginfo.net/msdos71.htm

Arron:

It seems that you didn't even make the bootable disk correctly. A lot of people have installed it sucessfully, so please check your steps. Note: You should WRITE the disk image to the floppy, not just COPY the files!


0

Response Number 3
Name: Arron
Date: November 18, 2003 at 09:16:07 Pacific
Reply:

ok, even so any help on my problem? ill try it with a dos 6.22 installer.


0

Response Number 4
Name: Wengier
Date: November 18, 2003 at 09:22:33 Pacific
Reply:

Arron, I have just answered your question, maybe you didn't see it just now. DOS6 is a very old version of DOS which was release about 10 years ago.


0

Response Number 5
Name: Arron
Date: November 18, 2003 at 09:38:12 Pacific
Reply:

Hey Wengier:
I saw your reply right after i posted that one, we posted almost same time. Thank you. As i understand it i need the bootdisc n installer dics, i got them all off that site you posted. i also wrote them to the disc with winimage not just copied them but none of them auto start in the old pc it just stays at the screen saying floppy a: installed.


0

Related Posts

See More



Response Number 6
Name: Wengier
Date: November 18, 2003 at 09:44:09 Pacific
Reply:

Maybe there is some sort of problem in WinImage or so which causes the disk to be unbootable. But there is an alternative: Start to DOS first(from another bootable disk, for example), and then go to Drive A, and type SETUP. This way should work, too.


0

Response Number 7
Name: Wengier
Date: November 18, 2003 at 11:36:25 Pacific
Reply:

Arron,

I have just tested WinImage 6.1 on WinXP to create the installation disk from the disk image and confirmed it's bootable. So I guess some versions of WinImage are buggy? Please check your email, thanks.


0

Response Number 8
Name: Arron
Date: November 18, 2003 at 13:11:50 Pacific
Reply:

First I downloaded the dos 7.10 install disc 1 & 2 off " http://newdos.yginfo.net/msdos71.htm " also downloaded the basic boot disc. Wrote them to a floppy using winimage version 5.00. tried booting them up in a real old system Pentium 75mhz, 850megs HD. Boot sequence is fine, floppy drive seems fine but I cant get to a dos prompt nor will any of the floppies auto start it brings me to the screen and last thing it does is "Floppy A: Installed" if I put in any floppies the drive starts up like its reading it but never does anything if I hit any key on the keyboard it starts up the floppy but the screen doesn’t change.


0

Response Number 9
Name: Mick C
Date: November 18, 2003 at 14:15:47 Pacific
Reply:

Wengier

"DOS6 is a very old version of DOS which was release about 10 years ago" May 1994 in fact.

For your information MS-DOS 7.10 was first released in September 1996! With Windows 95 OSR 2.0 (aka 95B) A little over 2 years after MS-DOS 6.22 which was and still is the last 'official' release of MS-DOS

While I still feel that your MS-DOS 7.10 installer is great. Vernon Frazee's statement is in fact correct as well!


0

Response Number 10
Name: Wengier
Date: November 18, 2003 at 14:41:57 Pacific
Reply:

Mick C,

Oh yes, I was not very sure about the exact dates, thanks for that. It's a pity that Microsoft did not continue development of MS-DOS a couple of years ago due to the reason only known to themselves. BTW: MS-DOS 7.10 in 1996 and MS-DOS 7.10 in 1999 are not identical, and the former one sometimes looks like a beta version of the latter.

Arron said: "I cant get to a dos prompt nor will any of the floppies auto start it brings me to the screen and last thing it does is "Floppy A: Installed" if I put in any floppies the drive starts up like its reading it but never does anything if I hit any key on the keyboard it starts up the floppy but the screen doesn't change."

It appears to be a problem with BIOS setting, the drive, the floppy disk, or some versions of WinImages. I have sent some more details to his email.


0

Response Number 11
Name: Mick C
Date: November 18, 2003 at 15:34:35 Pacific
Reply:

I had a BETA copy of MS-DOS 7.0 which was little more than version 6.20 In fact it shipped with DoubleSpace!

Your are right of course! I would call Windows 98 version MS-DOS 7.10a

MS-DOS has always been a 'Work in Progress' with each successive version or sub-version being an improvement on the last. It is a great pity that version 7x never got released as a stand-alone version, and I am sure they some some business to IBM because of it.

I am still surprised how much interest there is in DOS The number of visitors I and other 'Classic' DOS/Win3x Websites still get says it all!

This may not be the largest forum on Computing.Net but it is still well visited not just by enthusiasts but by IT Managers still wanting DOS help in NT, Windows 2000 & XP Pro.

I say LONG LIVE DOS



0

Response Number 12
Name: Wengier
Date: November 19, 2003 at 04:44:37 Pacific
Reply:

Of course, LOVE LIVE DOS.

It's Microsoft who "forgot" to release a stand-alone MS-DOS 7.x(except for MS-DOS 7.0 beta). But can we make it for them? I would release it under GNU GPL, the same license as FreeDOS and Linux.

Again, LONG LIVE DOS and Win3.x.


0

Response Number 13
Name: KenOath
Date: November 27, 2003 at 06:49:22 Pacific
Reply:

I have a similar problem.

My computer boots , starts as ms-dos 7.1 off the floppy , starts the install of dos but on the third screen when it comes to checking my hard dirve partitions it just hangs.
So i boot the computer again with a 7.1 boot disk then place 7.1 disk 1 in drive a: and type setup ,it gets to checking the H/D again and just hangs.
The hard drive was partitioned and formatted with a dos 7.1 boot disk.
When I boot the computer with the 7.1 boot disk then put the 1st dos 7.1 install disk in a: drive and type gdisk it hangs exactly the same.
The unit is just a crash tester running a 200mmx with 32mb sd ram pc66 with 120meg H/D.

Dos 5.0 works on it,
dos6.0 +6.22 works on it
WFW 3.11 works just cant install dos 7.1

The 7.1 disks were made with winimage pro, which I used to make Dos 5 + 6.0 +6.22 which all work fine.
I'm just about ready to hack a version of dos from win98 if I don't end up working this out.
Any suggestions anyone.


0

Response Number 14
Name: Wengier
Date: November 27, 2003 at 07:24:56 Pacific
Reply:

KenOath,

The problem you met is actually a Norton GDISK problem. Probably Norton GDISK is NOT compatible with your harddrive due to some problems with your harddrive or GDISK itself. Please check if there is any updated version of Norton GDISK or any problem on your hardrive.


0

Response Number 15
Name: Wengier
Date: November 27, 2003 at 09:00:19 Pacific
Reply:

OK. Now I have added a switch for the setup program to DISABLE HARD DRIVE DETECTION BY GDISK. So please download again and start the install program as follows:

SETUP /H
(where /H means "disable hard drive detection")


0

Response Number 16
Name: KenOath
Date: November 27, 2003 at 09:46:12 Pacific
Reply:

Every link associated to gdisk through Symantec is a dead link.

Iv'e changed the hard drive to a 545 mb seagate hard drive, partitioned/formatted/scandisked no bad sectors found, yet still no progress, When it comes to checking the disk partitions the system hangs control/alt/del won't work so I have to reset the computer to un freeze it.
You say to download it again,do you mean the program with the new options you've just made available.If so ,were from.

Iv'e just tried to install the program again using the switch you just posted [SETUP /H] with the same outcome , freezes when checking H/D partitions.

Thanks : KenOath


0

Response Number 17
Name: Wengier
Date: November 27, 2003 at 12:38:39 Pacific
Reply:

KenOath,

I mean, download from here:

Disk 1: http://dos.h-t-t-p.com/dos71_1.zip
Disk 2: http://dos.h-t-t-p.com/dos71_2.zip

Then use "SETUP /H". This time it won't check H/D partitions at all if you specify the switch "/H" for setup. And yes, you are right, this is a new option I've just made available to prevent this Norton GDISK problem.


0

Response Number 18
Name: KenOath
Date: November 27, 2003 at 18:27:47 Pacific
Reply:

Disk 1: http://dos.h-t-t-p.com/dos71_1.zip
Disk 2: http://dos.h-t-t-p.com/dos71_2.zip

Disk 1: http://dos.http.com/dos71_1.zip
Disk 2: http://dos.http.com/dos71_2.zip


http://dos.h-t-t-p.com
http://dos.http.com

http://dos.http.com


Iv'e tried all of the above to download the programs again with no luck.

pasted the links in the address bar + yahoo / google search

What am I doing wrong ?


0

Response Number 19
Name: Wengier
Date: November 27, 2003 at 19:16:18 Pacific
Reply:

You mean the download links above don't work??

How about these links:

Disk 1: http://newdos.yginfo.net/dosware/dos71_1.zip
Disk 2: http://newdos.yginfo.net/dosware/dos71_2.zip


0

Response Number 20
Name: Wengier
Date: November 27, 2003 at 19:25:39 Pacific

Response Number 21
Name: Kenoath
Date: November 28, 2003 at 04:21:44 Pacific
Reply:

Well I got Dos7.1 up and running , but not without trial & error.
The newest version with the SETUP /H switch only works in capital letters even though I noticed in the setup.bat file provision was made for both caps or not + when asking to update the mbr I made the mistake of clicking yes - which obviously involved gdisk , freezing the system, next time I clicked no.
Then I ran a test on all 8 cases I have here up and running
1xPentium 4
1xP3
1xP2
5xP1 Of the 8 units 2 of the Pentium 1's had AMI bios's - the rest Award.
I booted all 8 with a Dos 7.1 boot disk then placed the 7.1 1st install disk in the a: drive and typed gdisk,symantec's version of fdisk. The 2 units with AMI bios's froze completely..1=PC-ChipsM550/1=KTX430DataExpert
Everything with award bios worked fine.


0

Response Number 22
Name: Wengier
Date: November 28, 2003 at 04:54:30 Pacific
Reply:

So, you mean Norton's GDISK has compatibility problems with some AMI BIOS? Well, GDISK could be buggy, but this problem hasn't appeared on my computers yet.


0

Response Number 23
Name: KenOath
Date: November 28, 2003 at 08:55:48 Pacific
Reply:

What made me think to check was when I made the AMI bios's detect the hard drives it always detected the sizes as being smaller than was written on the drive but stated the right amount of cylinders/heads/sectors.
Yet all of the award bios's detected the size as advertised on the drives.
I only have 2 computers here with AMI bios's so I don't know if it applies to all , just the 2 I have here who's bios dates are mid97.

Thankyou Mr Wengier for helping me with my problem.


0

Sponsored Link
Ads by Google
Reply to Message Icon






Post Locked

This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.


Go to Disk Operating System Forum Home


Sponsored links

Ads by Google


Results for: HELP installing ms dos 7.1

MS-DOS 7.1 Question www.computing.net/answers/dos/msdos-71-question/11958.html

Help with DOS 7.1 www.computing.net/answers/dos/help-with-dos-71/14712.html

DOS 7.1 & HDD limit www.computing.net/answers/dos/dos-71-amp-hdd-limit/14168.html