Installing win3.1 help

[DaveLovesVBox]

Hi people,

I have just found VBox and I am trying to install DOS 6.22 and win3.1. I managed to create a new VBox and named it win31

I stuck a DOS 6.22 boot disk in the floppy drive and launched VB-win31. Not sure what to do next I used FDisk and created a partition and formatted C with system. So far so good.

After FDisk, the screen resolution changed to huge grainy characters but VBox still worked so I created a folder C:\DOS

I copied the files from the A:\DOS\*.* then placed the second DOS 6.22 floppy in the drive, pressed F3 to reuse the former command and hit enter.

I get an invalid media error.
"Abort, Retry, Fail"

OK, so I have probably done all the wrong things but is there a step-by-step tutorial for dummies like ME, to guide me through the steps of installing DOS to a C: drive and then win3.1?

Thanks in advance.

Dave

[mpack]

I suggest you move this discussion to the "Other Guests" forum, as there has been recent discussion of the issues there - and there's a Howto.

In fact I recently did it myself, and ran into problems caused by my forgetting how it used to be done on DOS!

As you have found, you need to run fdisk to create the partition on your C drive. You then need to do "format c: /s" to format the C drive for the FAT16 format and put DOS executables on it (msdos.sys[hidden], io.sys[hidden], command.com).

However, I found that the C drive still did not boot when that had been done. From the DOS-bootable A drive I had to do "sys C:" - and after that the C drive was bootable.

You can then proceed to create the DOS folder, copy over files etc. See the HowTos for installing CDROM support and optional network and mouse support. There's also info on getting Win3.1 installed.

[DaveLovesVBox]

As you have found, you need to run fdisk to create the partition on your C drive. You then need to do "format c: /s" to format the C drive

Hi MPack,

Thanks but I had done all of that, and I am still very conversant with DOS. I seem to have sorted all that out now and can boot to DOS on drive C: just fine. My current problem is that the floppy can only be read once per Mount. I have to keep un-Mounting and Mounting.

Even then it is not working all the time which means I have to go back to the start in setup trying to install win3.1. Then I have to install Corel and it is on 16 floppies!! <gag!!>

Maybe check my other thread "Read a floppy once -- problem"

Dave

[mpack]

Sorry, I thought you also had a problem booting.

My current problem is that the floppy can only be read once per Mount. I have to keep un-Mounting and Mounting.

Now that you mention it, I do recall having a problem like that: when I mounted a new floppy I would do "dir A" to check it, and I would then get an error message with the "A)bort, R)etry, I)gnore" option. I just chose "Retry" and the second access worked fine. Perhaps a bug in VBox to do with change detection on floppy drives?


Are you installing off the physical host floppy drive? IMHO things might go more smoothly if you first make images of all your floppy disks - that's what I did. Do a web search for "RawWriteWin", which is a freeware floppy imaging tool.

[DaveLovesVBox]

Are you installing off the physical host floppy drive? IMHO things might go more smoothly if you first make images of all your floppy disks - that's what I did. Do a web search for "RawWriteWin", which is a freeware floppy imaging tool.

Thanks again MPack, I finished up using the "Devices" menu and unmounting then mounting for each disk change. Tedious but I got through it.

Bummer is that now win3.1 will not run as VBox locks up when I click the mouse. A known problem (bug ticket 1502) but unfortunately I didn't get to know about it until about two hours back. <sigh> There's a day and a half wasted.

No parallel port support either. What a waste of time.

I have to laugh, the two things I needed to run this big-old flat bed plotter, win3.1 and an LPT: port and VBox does neither.

Anyway, thanks for offering the suggestions.

Dave

[ghr]

With 1.5.6 I don't have the mouse problem; sadly enough that still leaves you one to go.

Edit:  OK, by now I have seen the other posts, DOSBox seems like a good option for you.