Installing Dos3.31

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Planetdune
Posts: 3
Joined: 8. Apr 2020, 15:14

Installing Dos3.31

Post by Planetdune »

Hello

I have a hard time getting this working. I want to create a VDI with Dos3.31. Basically all I need to do is copy the files from the 3.31 floppy to the C drive. Problem is I never get any C drive. I make a new machine, add a dynamic drive and attach the floppy image to the controller, it works, boots up into the A drive as Dos3.31 .. however there is no C drive. What am I doing wrong?
mpack
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Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Installing Dos3.31

Post by mpack »

I'm afraid you need to do rather more than that, for example you need to partition (fdisk) and format ("format c: /s") the drive before you can start copying files to it. I suggest you Google for how to install DOS as the procedure in a VM is the same as on any other PC.

p.s. This is not a "Using VirtualBox" question. Moving this topic to "Other Guests".

Why 3.31? I think you're going to have more than the usual number of headaches getting that to work. For example, it predates 1.44MB floppies and CD-ROMs (I think) and offered limited hdd partitioning options since it also predated large hard disks (>504MB). Also, DOS 3.31 was Compaq only according to my searches, meaning it doesn't necessarily support non-Compaq hardware or BIOS.
Planetdune
Posts: 3
Joined: 8. Apr 2020, 15:14

Re: Installing Dos3.31

Post by Planetdune »

mpack wrote:I'm afraid you need to do rather more than that, for example you need to partition (fdisk) and format ("format c: /s") the drive before you can start copying files to it. I suggest you Google for how to install DOS as the procedure in a VM is the same as on any other PC.

p.s. This is not a "Using VirtualBox" question. Moving this topic to "Other Guests".

Why 3.31? I think you're going to have more than the usual number of headaches getting that to work. For example, it predates 1.44MB floppies and CD-ROMs (I think) and offered limited hdd partitioning options since it also predated large hard disks (>504MB). Also, DOS 3.31 was Compaq only according to my searches, meaning it doesn't necessarily support non-Compaq hardware or BIOS.
Hey, sorry for the late reply. I got it working now, for some reason I was misreading the size counts thinking it was totally mishandling the virtual drive combined with errors when I was trying to create directories made me look in places that had no endpoint.

I need Dos 3.31 as that is what is running on my Commodore PC 10 and need to have a testbed before deployment. MS did release 3.31 for non oem versions (I believe it was the very first retail release of Microsoft Dos. It also does support 1.44mb floppies though most back then were 180 or 360 drives.

Anyway, all is fine now so thanks for the support!
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