Hello everyone, Today I wanted to create a new Game computer with my old installation of DOS disks, so that I can run Doom, and older games without having to emulate dos on XP. I have a major problem. Here is my hardware, Emachine 400IDX, 64MBRam, 3.6GIG Western Digital, 400mhzCeleron, Phillips 24xCDRW with ATAPI CDrom, Standard 1.44 Floppy, IDE cables 2, one hooked to Master on Hard disk, the other is on Master CDrom, Bios detects CDrom, and Hard disk. Jumpers are all set to Master, both on seperate IDE cables/channels, plugged into Motherboard. Here is my problem, I tried to install my Dos 6.0 which I fdisked using no on 32bit, it is a 16bit os, and formatted my drive perfectly. I seperated my main Hard drive into 3 drive letters, d and e are logical extended drives, and c is my primary each containing a little over 1 gig. Then I rebooted after installation of DOS6.0, I got an error saying invalid system disk or OS. I had seen that in the past, so I tried this. So I booted to my dos install disk exited the installation ran A:\SYS C: which it transferred the System Files to C then I ram a:\Fdisk /MBR c: to make sure the master boot record was still intact, and overwrote it, rebooted same problem. I then downloaded a boot disk for Dos 7.11 that would allow win3.x to install, it fixed the above problem, but now I have no functionality in DOS, because theyre two different versions of DOS, which means I cant run Himem or anything. I again ran Fdisk reformmated my partitions copied the disk to C:\ Then I spent some time and extracted MSCDEX.exe and OAKCDROM.sys to my hard disk along with several other files from my 3 Dos installation disks. I then edited my Autoexec.bat and Config.sys added these lines: config.sys= DEVICEHIGH=c:\Oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001 Autoexec.bat= LH c:\MSCDEX.exe /D:mscd001 /l:D Now when I reboot it says Oak Technology detected, number of Drives = 1 which is good, it detected my cdrom, however I do not have access to it in DOS, I believe I am missing a command to assign it a Drive letter or something. I am unsure what to do now, as what drivers to install or is there a generic IDE installer for Dos to load cd-rom drives? Again its a Phillips 24x CDRW. I have tried several installation floppy disks, and checked the cables replaced them no luck, nothing has loaded it, but the Windows ME disk boots up, and loads the cdrom when I select Load CDRom, I cannot figure out what lines to pull from the disk to add to my files. I appreciate any help you can give me. My pc is a 586Pc, and all setting in Bios/Cmos are correct, I do not want to flash them, Thanks PS> Please email me if you can. My only option is to install files from the windows ME bootdisk, and then reboot and run the setup files from the hard disk, however this is not much of a fix. Thanks, I have lots of computer experience, but over the last 10 years have forgotten a little about Dos LOL. or is it Dos-hell? hhahahaah Will soon begin to pull hair out.... Justin

You should first install MSDOS6.xx, if it earlier than version 6.22 you can update versions 6.20 and 6.21 to 6.22: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=96cc3197-b7e5-4b31-badb-ddaac771295f&DisplayLang=en Next you need a self installing CDROM driver disk I have found one listed here, which is a self extracting WinImage: http://freespace.virgin.net/x86.computers/msdosw95.htm Then run MEMMAKER to optimize memory, then install Win3 if required, then MEMMAKER again.

Quite a tortuous tale of woe - be nice if you could boil it down some. "fdisked using no on 32bit, it is a 16bit os" Not exactly - you're confusing the terminology, I assume you meant a FAT16 partition as opposed to FAT32 "which means I cant run Himem or anything." Say what now? Mixing versions isn't the greatest idea - to avoid confusion or having to use SETVER, best fix that - although himem.sys and emm386.exe are not as version dependent as most DOS executables "I believe I am missing a command to assign it a Drive letter" No, that switch isn't really required, drive assignment is automatic, first available letter after physical drives & partitions - by default, up to 'E:' is available without resorting to the 'lastdrive' statement in config.sys Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

For first post, I thank you for the links, and downloads, however after downloading the self installer for the cd drive, the cdrom still does not function and does not load, I am reinstalling dos 6.x now again. However cd drive remains unsolved at this point. Thanks for the pointers on memmaker, never thought about running that again after windows. Should I use Ram doubler within windows after I get my computer working? Second response, I was referring to the 16bit mode as opposed to 32 bit mode. The only reason I was mixing the DOS OS, was my installation wont boot to C:\ It halts after I install my diskettes, says invalid OS. I am back to square one again. No cdrom working at this point, installation system says os is invalid. Yet I can get dos 7.x to boot to an A: prompt, and I can get dos 6.0 from diskette to boot to a prompt, but after the DOS 6.0 installation to my hard disk, my hard disk wont boot to a C: prompt. I have set my autoexec.bat to lastdrive=z Still no luck... Any more suggestions, please only post if you have solutions, I am really not in any mood to hear about mispellings, or terminology quotes, about this, and that. I have had more experience in college, and experimenting, lol, than I ever care to hear again. LOL As I am a C++ Programmer, usually use Linux/Unix depending on what day I feel like using which OS. Today was my Windows DAY LOL I may retreat back to my BASH commands LOL... Justin

"please only post if you have solutions, I am really not in any mood to hear about mispellings, or terminology quotes, about this," That's too bad - this is an open forum, so you don't really have a lot to say about who posts what. Impressive 'credentials' (I guess) - you should be able to sort this out on your own then Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

Thanks for everyone's Input. I have fix most of the problems. I was able to install my dos again, then ran the boot disk for dos 7.10 and system transferred the files over top of the previous dos, rewrote the MBR now my pc boots. If anyone has any IDE installation drivers for a Phillips 24xCDRW for DOS, I would appreciate it. Thanks again If I am unable to find the cd-rom driver I, will either program a new driver for dos or switch back to my love, Linux, to get it to work.. Time consuming is all. Thanks again everyone. JBoy--maybe you should try Knoppix with KDE, Fluxbox or Gnome -knoppix.org load that onto your system. Smoking haha :) Smiles Later I may just choose SUSE Linux when I upgrade my ram, Or use Fluxbox as is. Take Care everyone... :) Justin

On second thought I found this it may help other people with cdrom issues for DOS.. :) http://www.drivermuseum.com/files/drivers/cdrom_d.html Sincerely, Justin