re: Trying to install DOS app from floppies on system with no A: drive
Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Windows 98 Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by gewg_
(3939 messages posted)
Aun wrote:
|Well i don't completely understand what you said here
|
CONFIG.SYS is the closest thing DOS has to the stupid Windoze Registry.
If any device drivers need to be loaded, that is where they are listed.
If the app doesn't use special hardware, it likely doesn't alter CONFIG.SYS.
|but i tried to do something like that.
|
If you're calling up a window (meaning you're still under Windoze),
then you aren't understanding what I'm saying at all.
|The thing is[,] i have installed a program in windows 98
|
Forget Windoze. To do this, start the box using Real DOS(tm).
If the box you try doesn't have Real DOS,
then it probably doesn't have a Win9x-compatible filesystem either.
I was thinking *this* would be a solution to get DOS running on one of those
cache of http://www.fdos.org/bootdisks
--but I'll bet that even if you created a small FAT/FAT32 partition on the HDD
or had a thumbdrive FORMAT'd as FAT/FAT32,
the brain-dead app installer is hard-coded to use the C: partition only. 8-(
|which works only if i run it by restarting in DOS.
|
Probably because timing goes to hell otherwise.
Routing DOS stuff thru Windoze screws it all up if timing must be maintained.
M$ does a lousy job of emulating their own crap.
(In contrast, see the DOSbox link, below.)
It could also be memory management.
|Its not working even if i try opening a dos window from start - programs.
|
Again: Use Real DOS(tm) if you're trying to run a DOS app of any complexity
(e.g. a game).
|(Maybe that explains why DOSBox wasn't able to run it in Win XP)
|
Shelling out to another invocation of COMMAND.COM (a DOS Box--2 words)
was **NOT** what I was refering to at any point in my post.
When I said DOSbox (1 word), I was refering to a Free Software app
which blows away M$'s DOS "emulation" and which doesn't require any M$ software.
(It was originally written to run under Linux.)
cache of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOSBox
...and anything that NT-based Windoze has to offer is a poor substitute for DOS.
As I have already noted, M$ does a lousy job of emulating their own
crap.
|So once this program is started
|i need to install additional addons to it by importing from the Floppy Drive.
|I have no idea where these files are being imported to
|or i could have manually copied them there.
|
DOS apps generally create and use a single directory.
(If they use the \TEMP directory, they *should* be cleaning up after themselves.)
There definately aren't DLLs or junk like that scattered about to worry about.
|God where will i find a PC with a floppy drive now!! :(
|
Most people running Win9x do so on hardware that is 8 years old or older.
(The newer the hardware, the less likely it is to have device drivers for Win9x.)
Lots of small offices don't "upgrade" their computers until one completely dies.
Check to see if your town / community college has a computer club.
Students and enthusiasts hang on to old gear longer than the general population.
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 |  | |  | re: Trying to install DOS app from floppies on system with no A: drive (gewg_: Thu, May 7, 2009, 12:37 pm) |
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