Hi I backed up a set of win3.11 floppies and zipped onto a cd a couple of years ago as I knew at some stage the floppies would pack it in. If I copy the contents onto a fresh set of floppies how do I do it so I can install win3.11 onto a little Toshiba 100ct? When I format the floppies in preparation...how do I do it? Is there a program I should use to transfer the files to the floppies? Also if I have had win98 on the laptop(it doesn't boot fully to the desktop only to the win98 logo) would dos still be on the machine? Or would it be corrupted like windows98 seems to be? Gee I know there was another question but I can't think of it but one of you helpful and knowledgable winX people would know what I need. Thanks!!!

"The meaning of life is to be happy and useful" Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama

You did not mention what method you used to backup the original floppies. If you made disk images using a utility like RAWRITE or WIMAGE, then just use the same utility to write the image back to a fresh floppy. If you copied the contents of each of the six disks into individual directories, properly named for the disk number, then you will need to prepare 6 blank floppies numbered 1-6. Then you need to use the DOS LABEL command and label them as follows: first disk labeled as MSWIN3111, second labeled as MSWIN3112, and so on to the sixth disk labled as MSWIN3116. Then just copy the files that were on the original floppies on to the properly labeled disk.

I am not familier with the specs for a Toshiba 100ct, but Win311 will work on any PC with, at least, a 80286 CPU and 2 MB or ram. However, it really won't work very well unless you have, at least, a 80386 and 8+MB of ram.

BUT, Window 3.11 is not an Operating System (I know some people will say later versions of Windows aren't either, but I mean Microsoft does not call it an Operating System). It is a graphical environment for the DOS Operating System. Which means that even after you get your 6 Win311 install disks ready, your going to have to have MS or PC DOS versions 5 or above to install Win311 on top of (again, I know other brands of DOS are known to work, I'm stating the Microsoft requirements).

As far as your question about the Win98 that is already on the laptop; what you need to do is press the F8 key just as Win98 starts to boot. If you catch it right (there's a 2 second window), then you'll get the "Windows 98 start-up menu" and you can select "command prompt only". If you then get the neferious "C:\>" thingy, then YES, you still have DOS (it will be MS-DOS version 7.10). And, in the past, I have actually used that DOS version to run Win311 and it worked real well.

But, you will not be able to install Win311 on to the existing Win98 installation. The easiest thing to do would be to get ahold of the set-up disks for MS-DOS (version 6.22 would be good) and then reformat the hard drive and do a fresh install of DOS followed by Win311. I can also tell you how to use the DOS 7.10 on the laptop, but that is rather involved and requires a lot of "steps".

Hi the latest is that I was able to format the hard drive after using dos5.0 and now I am in the process of installing win3.11. I didn't know about using rawrite. I just zipped the contents of each floppy. I will use the method of labelling that you suggest as I think that is why I am not getting very far with the installation. I thought all I had to do was format each floppy as a dos startup disk(i have winxp on one of my machines but I mainly use linux so it was hard for me to remember how to do all this) then copy the contents of each unzipped file over to it but that only worked to a certain point. The setup was asking for disk 1 and not seeing that it is in the drive even if i direct it to the appropriate file. Thanks will try all this tonight when I get back from a busy day!

"The meaning of life is to be happy and useful" Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama

Well I thought everything was going well with the install of win3.11 but there was something that I didn't understand when I installed disk 8. It said something about copying some to autoexec.bat I think and other stuff about what to do when booting which I already know. So I shutdown. Now it won't boot and it says that thing about non-system disk..............
Geez I hope I don't have to start again.

"The meaning of life is to be happy and useful" Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama

Yes, the setup program reads the label of each of the floppy disks. Without the correct label the program does not acknowledge the disk being present.

Hmm, I still have the original disk set for Windows 3.11, which came with a new computer brought many years ago, and there are only 6 disks. This was the set for "new computers", so I suppose you may have setup disks from a boxed retail set which included more stuff. I'm glad to hear the labeling scheme still seems to be the same (or else it wouldn't have worked).

I'm not familier with using WinXP for processing floppies, but "to format as a DOS startup disk" previously meant to format the floppy and transfer the DOS OS to it. The same as using the /S switch with the old DOS FORMAT command. All you really need are "DOS formatted" floppies, which you can do using linux.

The last step in the Windows 3.11 setup is to modify the DOS AUTOEXEC.BAT file to start Windows on boot up. The setup program copies the existing AUTOEXEC.BAT to C:\WINDOWS (as AUTOEXEC.BAK, if I remember correctly) and then appends the PATH statement to include C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM and puts the statement WIN at the end which calls C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM and starts windows "automatically" so the computer user doesn't ever have to see the horrid "C:\>" thingy.

I suspect that you were just tired and left the Windows 3.11 disk 8 in the floppy drive when you rebooted, causing you to get the "none system disk" error. If you didn't allow the Windows setup program to modify the DOS boot files (it's a yes/no option) then you'll have to do the modifications yourself before Windows will work. I also think that you'll need to modify the CONFIG.SYS file (if setup didn't do it) to load C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS (which will be a newer version of HIMEM.SYS then came with DOS 5.0).

>>>Well I thought everything was going well with the install of win3.11 but there was something that I didn't understand when I installed disk 8.<<<

>>>Hmm, I still have the original disk set for Windows 3.11, which came with a new computer brought many years ago, and there are only 6 disks.<<<

Sounds like he's got Windows for Workgroups 3.11, and generally the last 2 disks aren't needed unless you're installing for a network. Just curious (and forgive me if I overlooked), have you tried just dumping everything into a single directory and installing from there (after you install DOS of course)?

Ah, yes. I have the WfW3.11 disk set too. Actually, WfW is significantly better system than conventional Windows 3.11. I remember reading an article written by a guy who actually did some low level dignostics on both systems and claimed that WfW was actually a different kernel and provided better support for things like DOS virtualization, etc.

..."have you tried dumping everything into a single directory"...

Well, it's been many years since I played around with stuff like that. I am positive that the SETUP.EXE program WILL NOT set up the system from a single directory. It is specifically written to work with the set of floppies. However, I do know that you can just copy the files from a Windows 3.11 installation to a computer with DOS on it and it'll work. I once actually experimented with the minimum files needed to start up the Win3.11 GUI and fit them on a single floppy. So, what you could do (if there was some reason you wanted this) is:
1. Do a fresh install of Win3.11 (or WfW3.11)
2. Without doing any farther configuration or installing any other drivers, just copy the C:\Windows directory, perhaps just use pkzip from the DOS command line to make it a single ZIP file.
3. Somehow get this WINDOWS directory written to CDROM, or some other media with sufficient capacity.
4. Also include a DOS batch file which will copy this WINDOWS directory from the CD to a target hard drive and also make the appropiate changes to the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files.

Then you'd have a "Windows 3.11" setup CD. However, everytime you tried to make configuration changes to Windows which called the Setup program, it would again instruct you to "put Windows setup disk (#) in the A: drive". I don't think that it allows you to redirect it to some other source. But, maybe it would. Someone would have to experiment to see if there's a workaround for that issue.

Can you recreate the floppies from the answer given here? http://www.computing.net/answers/wi...

pyrolitic-yes i did notice that the last two floppies were all about the network with win3.11. You were right about the labelling. It made all the difference!
Yes I had win3.1, win3.11 and win95 floppies not that long ago actually and I gave them away not thinking I would need them again. The win3.1 set were new and unopened. I decided for some reason to zip the win3.11 for some reason but not the others. I do have win95 on a cd still though, oh and win98. Dunno why I keep them.
I still have a machine running winxp on it and it is never online. Sometime windoze is useful especially because I am still very much a beginner with linux.
I am embarassed to say I can't remember how to get into dos and edit that file. Can you give me a detail instruction on how to do it. It has been too long since I have had anything to do with dos...thanks!
T-R-A
I am afraid I wouldn't know how to copy straight over to the drive.
pyrolitic-Um I am not sure. I don't quite follow how to do what you said.
Brim-Sounds interesting. I might try it when I can get some more floppies. Some of these floppies I have had been used too much and some are starting to fail.

"The meaning of life is to be happy and useful" Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama

rapattack - from what you've wrote, it's not exactly clear where things are at in your efforts at installing WfW3.11 on your Toshiba 100ct laptop. I am assuming that you used a MS-DOS 5.0 installation disk set to re-format the computer's hard drive and install MS-DOS 5.0. Then, after labeling the WfW3.11 installation disks, you were able to go through the Windows installation, but got confused by something at the very end of the windows setup. Then you said that the laptop would not boot due to a "non-system disk" error, which I hope was just due to a floppy being left in the A: drive. So, in answering your question about "editing that file", I'm assuming that the laptop is booting into DOS 5.0, but Windows is not starting up. If this is the case, then you are working at the DOS prompt (the "C:\>" thingy, as I've called it).

IF you did the full installation of DOS 5.0, then you should have the HELP command which will provide you all the information you need for navigating with DOS. At the "C:\>" just type HELP and <enter>.

There is also the DOS editor. At the prompt, just type EDIT and <enter> and you will get a rather useful editor in white on blue text graphics. By using the <tab>, <alt>, and direction keys, you will be able to open a dialogue box which will let you see the files in any directory. You should see the files C:\CONFIG.SYS and C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT. First, open the AUTOEXEC.BAT and see if there is any mention of WINDOWS anywhere in the file. If not, then that means that these configuration files were not modified by the WfW3.11 setup program, and you'll have to edit them before starting windows.

There will be a PATH statement:
PATH C:\DOS

edit it to say:
PATH C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM
(note: above should be all on one line, it is being broken onto two lines by the web page)

If you want windows to start up "automatically", put on the last line of the AUTOEXEC.BAT:
WIN

Then save the file. Then open the CONFIG.SYS file. It should have:
DOS=HIGH
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
and perhaps a couple of other lines like:
buffers=10
files=15

This will work okay, but the windows setup program would have changed the HIMEM.SYS to a new file that came with WfW3.11, so it would read:
DOS=HIGH
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
it would be better to use the HIMEM.SYS that comes with WfW3.11

And that's it. After making these changes and saving the files, exit the EDIT program and then do a <ctrl><alt><delete> to reboot the computer. If you didn't add the "WIN" at the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, then after it boots up to the "C:\>" type WIN and <enter> and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 will start up in all it's 640x480 16-color glory, leaving you feeling, "why did I bother?"...

So, what are you hoping to do with this laptop? I do have a couple of old 486 machines around with DOS and WfW311 (as well as OS/2 warp 3 and a "linux from scratch" system built on a 486), but they are just for fooling around with occasionally, maybe playing some DOS games. I haven't figured out anything really useful to do with them.

Hi most of that is right but I did not leave a floppy in the a drive. When I booted back up I got the non system disk error. I just tried again and it happened again. It ofcourse goes through the process of showing how much ram there is first. There is no dos prompt with a c:
The rest I will follow when I know how to get the first part fixed....gee I don't know how to phrase that properly.

"The meaning of life is to be happy and useful" Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama

Sounds like you have a problem with your hard drive. If you can boot DOS on the A: drive, you ought to run FDISK and find out what you can about the partition setup. Of course, I suppose that would be best addressed in another forum.

I don't know how to do that. No i think it is me that mucked up and I am not able to describe things clearly. Anyway I am going to a place that I know has a lot of old stuff and I might be able to pick a pack of win3.1 or 3.11 whatever for next to nothing. They are a community run place that people donate things to. I often have donated win3.1/win95 both the os's and stuff for them plus other old hard etc.

"The meaning of life is to be happy and useful" Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama

I got curious about what a Toshiba 100ct was and looked it up on the Toshiba site. Cute little laptop. But, I noticed there was almost NO driver support for Win3.x. Good support for Win9x. Without the correct display driver, there's not going to be much you can do with Win3.x on that computer. That model's screen has an unusual aspect ratio and probably requires the model specific driver for a proper display (as versus using a generic NeoMagic driver for the chip or a VESA driver of some kind). But, maybe you already know this and it doesn't matter for what your wanting to do.

Yeah I know what you mean but I think I found another site that has the older drivers for Toshiba notebooks somewhere. I have the information somewhere. At the moment I don't remember.
Bad luck I went to this community place yesterday and no floppies for either win3x or win95 but as this is not an urgent thing i am sure i will track down win3x or win95 again. I often find them when I am trash hunting in rich areas of Sydney. We have these Council Cleanup days every sunday and you get some good stuff. I just scored a Compaq Presario 1500ap and it works!!!! Had to buy a power adapter for it on ebay for $20AUD but that is cool!!!

"The meaning of life is to be happy and useful" Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama

Geez, all I ever find trash hunting is trash...

He he yeah I am onto a good thing not living far from that really rich area. I used to live right in the centre of it(I had government housing) and I furnished my place from the streets. I also got everything I needed for the kitchen, towels etc. It was great as I only had a mattress and my clothes when I moved in.
Now I mainly go for techie nerd stuff and I am in heaven with the amount of stuff I get. I had a fantastic sony clie pda that does everything, I get mobile phones, heaps of mobo's and sometimes notebooks. The list is endless.

"The meaning of life is to be happy and useful" Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama

I am still looking for win3.1/3.11 on ebay. Seems people are asking too much for it. One lady agreed to sell me her disks after they didn't sell and then a week later changed her mind because there wasn't enough money in it for her. I have often sold stuff on ebay for less than I thought. That is how it is.

"The meaning of life is to be happy and useful" Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama