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Please help delete Floppy Drive!
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Windows 98 Annoyances Discussion Forum
The following are all of the messages in this thread (11 in all), shown in chronological order. Click any message subject to view that message by itself or to view the thread hierarchy.
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Please help delete Floppy Drive!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 1:02 am
Posted by Aun
(112 messages posted)
Hi all,
I have recently installed windows 98 se on an old laptop because i really need to
use a DOS program. The problem is that it has no floppy drive but still shows me
drive "A:" in "My Computer".
I'm using an external floppy drive which is detected as drive E:
The program that i need has to be installed from multiple floppy drives but when
i insert the second floppy it try's reading from A: and ignores the E: drive. For
some reason i cant browse to my external floppy drive E: when i restart in DOS prompt.
So basically i need to make E: my A: drive
Ideas?
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re: Please help delete Floppy Drive!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 4:29 am
Posted by Keith Stanier
(1655 messages posted)
Aun wrote:
|I'm using an external floppy drive which is detected as drive E:
Hi Aun.
What type of drive is this floppy?
Because its a laptop are you using a USB floppy? If so is it compatable with Win98SE
and do you have Win98SE drivers for it?
If you've never used the USB port then you need to enable it.
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re: Please help delete Floppy Drive!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 6:40 am
Posted by Steve
(23810 messages posted)
You can reassign USB Drive Letters in the Device Manager, not sure if Windows will
let you change it to A though since Windows reserves that Letter for Floppy drives,
but give it a try. Windows 98 may not see a USB Floppy as a real Floppy Drive, not
sure.
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Trying to install DOS app from floppies on system with no A: drive
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 10:50 am
Posted by gewg_
(4444 messages posted)
Aun wrote:
|I have recently installed windows 98 se on an old laptop
|because i really need to use a DOS program.
|
As DOS doesn't use the Windoze Registry
and doesn't (as a rule) scatter files all over the place, this *should* be easy
--but not directly to **your** system.
(Thanks, BillG for pushing to deprecate the floppy drive into oblivion.)
|The problem is that it has no floppy drive
|but still shows me drive "A:" in "My Computer".
|
The disk controller inside has a (legacy) Floppy Controller section.
*That* is what is being detected.
|I'm using an external floppy drive which is detected as drive E:
|
Forget that.
The software is written to look at a device connected to the Floppy Controller.
|The program that i need has to be installed from multiple floppy drives
|
...reflecting the limited world of 1985.
|but when i insert the second floppy it [tries] reading from A:
|and ignores the E: drive.
|
Welcome to 1985.
|For some reason i cant browse to my external floppy drive E:
|when i restart in DOS prompt.
|
...because USB wasn't around in 1985.[1]
Metaphorically look around you and see the limited world of old M$ software
where support is discontinued when the *next* new product is for sale.
{Insert Linux/DOSbox/FreeDOS fanboy spiel here.}
|So basically i need to make E: my A: drive
|
Forget that. Start thinking like it's 1985:
Install this on a machine that DOES have an A: drive
then copy the directory where it installs onto removable media.
(Check CONFIG.SYS to see if the install made any changes there;
if applicable, make a copy of those changes as well.)[3]
Now copy the directory to the machine where you want to run the DOS app
and alter CONFIG.SYS if necessary.
That wasn't so hard. Was it?
[1] Interestingly, FreeDOS[2] **does** do USB out of the box
--while M$ DOS doesn't
(though that wouldn't appease the installer software from 1985 either).
[2] Again, Free Software (gratis and libre) whips M$'s sorry butt.
[3] Obviously, this is easier if you made a copy of CONFIG.SYS *before* starting.
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re: Please help delete Floppy Drive!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Posted by Aun
(112 messages posted)
Yes its a USB floppy drive and it works fine in windows but when i restart in ms
dos then its not detected.
I had a hard time finding drivers but i managed somehow.
On Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 4:29 am, Keith Stanier wrote:
>Aun wrote:
>|I'm using an external floppy drive which is detected as drive E:
>
>Hi Aun.
>
>What type of drive is this floppy?
>
>Because its a laptop are you using a USB floppy? If so is it compatable with Win98SE
>and do you have Win98SE drivers for it?
>
>If you've never used the USB port then you need to enable it.
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re: Trying to install DOS app from floppies on system with no A: drive
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Posted by Aun
(112 messages posted)
" Install this on a machine that DOES have an A: drive
then copy the directory where it installs onto removable media.
(Check CONFIG.SYS to see if the install made any changes there;
if applicable, make a copy of those changes as well.)[3]
Now copy the directory to the machine where you want to run the DOS app
and alter CONFIG.SYS if necessary. "
Well i don't completely understand what you said here but i tried to do something
like that.
The thing is; i have installed a program in windows 98 which works only if i run
it by restarting in DOS. Its not working even if i try opening a dos window from
start - programs. ( Maybe that explains why DOSBox wasn't able to run it in Win XP)
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.
God where will i find a PC with a floppy drive now!! :(
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re: Trying to install DOS app from floppies on system with no A: drive
Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Posted by gewg_
(4444 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: Please help delete Floppy Drive!
Saturday, May 9, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Posted by dhm
(1069 messages posted)
As I understand it, you can use Win98 to copy the floppies onto the hard drive but
the installation of the program assumes you are working from an A: drive.
Gewg_ said, "Think 1985". I happen to have (not entirely for nostalgia) IBM PC
& XT User's Handbook, 1st edition (Cleveland:Weber Systems, 1985). It suggests
this:
ASSIGN A=C
That seems to mean that if all the floppy info was on the C:\ you could fool it to
look at C:\ and think it was looking at A:\.
The command to reset to normal usage is:
ASSIGN
I have never used this DOS command and I do not have a complete understanding of
your situation, but it may be worth the experiment.
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re: Please help delete Floppy Drive!
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 9:56 am
Posted by Ed
(741 messages posted)
1. In Windows 98, open notepad and edit the file C:\CONFIG.SYS by adding the following
lines -
rem ASPI Manager for USB mass-storage v2.24
rem Panasonic Communications Co 2000-2007
devicehigh=USBASPI.SYS /o /e /v
rem DI1000DD ASPI Disk Driver v2.00
rem (c) 2001 NOVAC Co Ltd
devicehigh=DI1000DD.SYS
Download those files to your C: root folder from http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/mhairu.zip
2. In Windows 98, open notepad and edit the file C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT by adding these
three lines -
PATH=%path%;C:\;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;E:\
MOUSE.EXE
SMARTDRV.EXE 4096 16>nul
3. Boot your Windows 98 laptop to a DOS prompt (press F5 or F8 during startup), or
with Windows 98 running restart in MS-DOS mode.
Alternatively, edit the Msdos.sys file located on your C: drive. Under [Options]
set BootGUI=0 then restart the computer.
You now have access to your USB device in DOS mode.
4. If your USB device is recognised as Drive E: you can try the following -
The comand ASSIGN was removed after MS-DOS v6.0 and is not available in Windows 98,
which uses MS-DOS v7.
The alternative is SUBST. Example:
SUBST A: E:
Ed
On Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 1:02 am, Aun wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I have recently installed windows 98 se on an old laptop because i really need to
>use a DOS program. The problem is that it has no floppy drive but still shows me
>drive "A:" in "My Computer".
>
>I'm using an external floppy drive which is detected as drive E:
>
>The program that i need has to be installed from multiple floppy drives but when
>i insert the second floppy it try's reading from A: and ignores the E: drive. For
>some reason i cant browse to my external floppy drive E: when i restart in DOS prompt.
>
>So basically i need to make E: my A: drive
>
>Ideas?
[Reply or follow-up to this message]
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re: Please help delete Floppy Drive!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Posted by gtea
(1 messages posted)
Thanks Ed. I'm glad you're response is recent (2009) to an old computer software
program (1993) I still use. I'm going to try the subst dos command and see if my
external usb drive (E:\) is recognized by my laptop instead of my broken floppy drive
(A:\).
On Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 9:56 am, Ed wrote:
>1. In Windows 98, open notepad and edit the file C:\CONFIG.SYS by adding the following
>lines -
>
>rem ASPI Manager for USB mass-storage v2.24
>rem Panasonic Communications Co 2000-2007
>devicehigh=USBASPI.SYS /o /e /v
>
>rem DI1000DD ASPI Disk Driver v2.00
>rem (c) 2001 NOVAC Co Ltd
>devicehigh=DI1000DD.SYS
>
>Download those files to your C: root folder from http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/mhairu.zip
>
>2. In Windows 98, open notepad and edit the file C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT by adding these
>three lines -
>
>PATH=%path%;C:\;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;E:\
>MOUSE.EXE
>SMARTDRV.EXE 4096 16>nul
>
>3. Boot your Windows 98 laptop to a DOS prompt (press F5 or F8 during startup),
or
>with Windows 98 running restart in MS-DOS mode.
>
>Alternatively, edit the Msdos.sys file located on your C: drive. Under [Options]
>set BootGUI=0 then restart the computer.
>
>You now have access to your USB device in DOS mode.
>
>4. If your USB device is recognised as Drive E: you can try the following -
>
>The comand ASSIGN was removed after MS-DOS v6.0 and is not available in Windows
98,
>which uses MS-DOS v7.
>
>The alternative is SUBST. Example:
>SUBST A: E:
>
>Ed
>
>
>
>
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re: Please help delete Floppy Drive!
Monday, September 14, 2009 at 11:18 am
Posted by Ed
(741 messages posted)
Good luck with this, Gtea.
Please post a further message here to let us know how you got on, as your experience
will help other people who refer to this thread in the future.
Ed
On Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 4:07 pm, gtea wrote:
>Thanks Ed. I'm glad you're response is recent (2009) to an old computer software
>program (1993) I still use. I'm going to try the subst dos command and see if my
>external usb drive (E:\) is recognized by my laptop instead of my broken floppy
drive
>(A:\).
>
>
>
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