I'M HAVING A TIME TRYING TO GET A COMPUTER I HAD LYING AROUND COMPUTER UP AND RUNNING LIKE IT SHOULD BE. IT IS A QIC 386DX 33MHZ COMPUTER. THE COMPUTER USE TO STOP AT THE MESSAGE STARING MS DOS....., AND WOULD NOT DO A THING FROM THAT POINT. SO I REBOOTED AND HELD F8, I LOADED EVERYTHING THING AND NOW I GET A MESSAGE STATING THAT WINDOWS CAN'T START BECAUSE HIMEM.SYS ISN'T LOADED OR RUNNING. BUT MOVING RIGHT ALONG, I WOULD LOVE JUST TO KNOW HOW TO LOAD A 386DX 33 COMPUTER FROM A FORMATTED HARD DRIVE, TO INSTALLING DOS 6.22 AND WINDOWS 3.1 FOR STARTERS. CAN ANYONE PUT IT IN LAYMEN TERMS (1,2,3...)IN THE ORDER IT SHOULD BE DONE. ALSO WHAT DOES A TYPICAL CONFIG.SYS FILE LOOKS LIKE IN DOS 6.2/WIN 3.1, AND HOW THE AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE SHOULD LOOK ALSO.

so you have a blank hard drove? you have the dos install disks? you have the windows install disks? Put the first dos disk in the drive, press Alt-Ctrl-Del or swich it on! If you get the message about installing msdos on your computer, exit by pressing F3 and confirming that you wish to exit. So there you sit woth a flashing cursor Type at the command prompt a:\>scandisk a: /su Do this for all the floppy disks for dos and win 31 If you encounter an error with any of these disks, throw them ALL away, because you aren't going to get it to work. Assuming that you get no error messages, then you can install it. a:\>scandisk c: /su To check the hard drive for errors, but it should be ok. Now press Alt-Ctrl-Del again, and boot with the dos disk 1. Just accept everything it says if you just want to install it, but it will ask you things about keyboard layout, which you can change and display type. Accept the defaults for where dos will be stored and perhaps disable the dos shell, because you are going to install windows. Then just sit back and watch it install. If there are no errors because it read all three disks correctly, then the program will create a good autoexec.bat and config.sys for you. You should back these up, by putting them in the dos directory or on a floppy disk. Follow all on screen instructions, don't install the optional programs, actaull select the options not to install these programs. You do this, when given information about them, by pressing the up arrow, and the white or yellow bar to the option and pressing enter and entering the desired option. When completed, remove the disk and press Alt-Ctrl-Del again and the computer should boot into msdos. Put the first windos disk in the drive and type setup. Again just follow on dcreen instructions. When completed, restart the computer, and type win at the command prompt and windows should start. Now exit windows and put the first dos disk back in the drive and type setup /? I think the b switch is for installing the optional programs that you didn't load first time round. a:\>setup /b it will then ask you which programs you wish to install and whether you want them for dos/windows or both. I wouldn't even consider with the antivirus program. its so far out of date, it would just be a futile exercise in avoiding viruses with this program. Having installed optional programs, restart tthe computer, type win at the command prompt. Then exit windows to the command prompt At the command prompt type c:\>memaker Accept express setup, don't alter anything, just accept everything. The computer will reboot to the command prompt with a fater configuration than you had before (ususally) I really really really wouldn't bother with drive space!! I really really wouldn't. Disk access speed is usually slower, and the compression isn't as good as programs like winzip. Compress data, not programs that you run. To some extent, you should just experiment. Don't put anything ont the computer you can't afford to lose and back everything up. Run backup for win 31, and you will need two blank floppy disks for the floppy disk configuration, when you first run backup. The so called "Read-Wrute" Test. Well, best of luck. Personally, i would just put it all in the bin. Come back to the forum if you need any further help.

i take issue with a few small setails 1) if the disk volune labels on the dis disks are not just right disk 2 and 3 will not be recognized . the real label is simple disk 2 ( didk folowed by 5 spaces then 2 in other words the label has to use all 11 allowed spaces! strange but true let dos install and reboot as stated above . let it do its own creation of config.sys and autoexec.bat you can also rum memmaker to optomize it Now windows: you can either install disk buy disk or copy all disks to a directory on the hard disk NOT NAMED windows and run setup from there. now comes some tricky junk smartdrv and himen ? appear in both windopws and dos USE THE NEWER DOS VERSION the smartdrv in win and in dos load in different ways . make sure the line directing to dos is kept and the one directing to windows is deleted or at least has a rem in the beginning of that line if you don't like to delete lines. the above is common and prevents windows from running . or flakey stuff. also make a permanent swap file. speeds up win 3.1 a lot. wdegroot@ptd.net win 3.1 and it's cousins are