I need Help(obviously). I have a game that needs 600k of free conventional memory. the game says it requires DOS 5.0 or higher to run, and I need to add himem.sys to the boot disk(I guess so I can get 600k??? help me anyone) I tried the boot disk that came with the 1991 game but it said could not find himem.sys cannot execute. so I put himem.sys on the boot floppy, and edited my config.sys file, on the first line of the file I put DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS and saved and rebooted, now it won't boot. it just acts like the disk is corrupt(its not) what did I do wrong and can someone tell me what my boot floppy's config.sys file supost to look like, I tried editing my himem.sys file but I got all these strange charaters, so when in doubt leave it alone.

When in doubt??? How about you just leave it alone anyway.

You forgot to mention what Dos versions you are working with.

You should be able to get Dos v6.2x up to, and maybe over 600 if you remove enough drivers in the config.sys and loadable programs from your autoexec.bat.

Curiously, I used to have better luck with v5.0, but v6.2x has better optimizing features - memmaker.

From the sounds of it, with your experience level with Dos, I'd recommend installing a fresh copy of v6.22, remove CD-Rom drivers, then run memmaker and see how it goes.

I will try it! thanks

For a simple boot disk, you don't really even need himem on it, you could use the version on C: - as long as C: isn't a Large Disk (FAT32 - more than 2Gb). Unless your machine is a 286 or otherwise 'odd', himem shouldn't have prevented it from booting - try making another disk.
Using the files on C: drive just means it will load everything a bit faster than it would from a: (floppy reads are pretty slow) - depending on your file locations, try the following -

a:\config.sys

device=c:\dos\himem.sys
device=c:\dos\emm386.exe ram
dos=high,umb

- this allows himem to load DOS into the high memory area, saving quite a bit of low memory (conventional) - as well as providing upper memory management to let you load your mouse driver (for example) into upper mem, saving a bit more conventional mem.

a:\autoexec.bat

lh c:\mymouse\mymouse

- if you need the mouse for your game.

You can use the

mem/c /p

command to check your free memory

If you have problems, post back with your OS info, amount of memory and cpu class - even the game's name (can't hurt)

If you use DOS6xx, you can use the ever popular multiple configuration option (don't need a boot disk then)

btw - don't even try to edit himem.sys - it's a binary file NOT text (I don't know why folks like to try that one ;-) - you could possibly corrupt it.

how do u actually make a boot disk?