Okay, I'm trying to install DOS 6.22 on a formatted HD 350c IBM Laptop, so I can later install Win 3.11. But my laptop will not read drive A! "Non-sytem disk or disk error"?? I've read that I need to FDISK the drive but how can I do this without loading the boot-disk first??

Can you boot from the floppy? if not, go in the BIOS setup during the startup (usually it says something like "press del to enter setup" or f1, or another key). Once you are in the BIOS setup, make sure the floppy booting option is set. if so, use a dos6.22 boot disk with fdisk and format utilities on it (most important). Then, after backing up any files from you harddrive, go in fdisk IF you want to change your partition. if not, just do format c: WARNING! This will destroy ALL of the data on disk c: (as you probably know) then, now that c: is empty, you can either use dos's SETUP.exe on setup disk #1, or install manually (see documentation). An essential step to make c: bootable is to do SYS c: FROM THE 6.22 BOOT DISK, not a windows 9x/2k/xp. good luck!

How old is the laptop? Is the floppy 720kb or 1.44mb? If it's 720, then try creating a bootdisk on a working machine using format a: /F:720 /s You can get an adapter that will allow you to directly install your laptop drive into a pc making file transfers fairly easy.

I would have thought it unlikely the 386 has a 720kb double density floppy drive, more like 1.44mb high density. When you try to boot does it appear to access the a: drive? In order it install dos 6.22, you should have 3 discs. However if the hdd is already formatted, what o/s is on it? why do you want to fdisk the hdd? WHat is the precise message(s) output when it fails. The fact it gives disc error is suspicious. Sorry about this, but more detailed facts are required, as it should be so simple to boot of the fdd. Good luck - keep us posted.

I dunno what density the floppy is, but if this is a 386, then there is a chance that the floppy could be a 720kb. "read error" or "sector not found" - heads out of alignment (most of the time), dirty, or possibly a bad head actuator. "no boot device present or similar" or "no rom basic" - there are no drives entered or detected in the bios "invalid media type" - most often the disk needs to be formatted "invalid media track 0 bad" - gulp "non system disk" - the boot loader can't be found or similar boot sector stuff "disk error" - catch all when the bios doesn't know what to make of the condition