Accessing C drive in DOS

[ms]

P 120. It has a low density floppy drive which I need temporarily for some
work. Initially, seems to have no OS.

In the initial POST screen, the hard drive is listed. In BIOS, I went to
Autodetect and let it run to be sure, rebooted, the POST display was
unchanged, The hard drive appears to look normal there.

I put in a DOS 6.2 boot disk, it goes to an A prompt.

But changing to C: gives error message "invalid drive specification".

If the drive shows up in POST, what results in error message?

ms

 

[Bill Blanton]

"ms" <ms@invalid.com> wrote in message news:5nmugnFj6l17U1@mid.individual.net...
>P 120. It has a low density floppy drive which I need temporarily for some
> work. Initially, seems to have no OS.
>
> In the initial POST screen, the hard drive is listed. In BIOS, I went to
> Autodetect and let it run to be sure, rebooted, the POST display was
> unchanged, The hard drive appears to look normal there.
>
> I put in a DOS 6.2 boot disk, it goes to an A prompt.
>
> But changing to C: gives error message "invalid drive specification".
>
> If the drive shows up in POST, what results in error message?

How is the HDD setup? That version of DOS doesn't understand drives
formatted as FAT32. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

 

[ms]

"Bill Blanton" <bblanton@REMOVEmagicnet.net> wrote in
news:OPa1HRPEIHA.3548@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:

> "ms" <ms@invalid.com> wrote in message
> news:5nmugnFj6l17U1@mid.individual.net...
>>P 120. It has a low density floppy drive which I need temporarily for
>>some
>> work. Initially, seems to have no OS.
>>
>> In the initial POST screen, the hard drive is listed. In BIOS, I went
>> to Autodetect and let it run to be sure, rebooted, the POST display
>> was unchanged, The hard drive appears to look normal there.
>>
>> I put in a DOS 6.2 boot disk, it goes to an A prompt.
>>
>> But changing to C: gives error message "invalid drive specification".
>>
>> If the drive shows up in POST, what results in error message?
>
> How is the HDD setup? That version of DOS doesn't understand drives
> formatted as FAT32. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
>
>
>
>
Don't know the history. But yes, it probably had windows before, so I put
in a W98SE boot disk.

Now it stops at the POST screen, never gets to A prompt.

My intent is to format, install W98, then copy the low density disks to
high density disks.

ms

 

[Don Phillipson]

"ms" <ms@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:5nn9ilFja9s7U1@mid.individual.net...

> My intent is to format, install W98, then copy the low density disks to
> high density disks.

You can select and download the correct boot
floppy at www.bootdisk.com. You d/l one EXE
file, then run it with a formatted floppy in A: to
write all essential files to A:

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

 

[Jeff Richards]

The operating system sees partitions, not drives. If the drive is not
correctly partitioned then DOS or Windows will not assign a drive letter and
a command to reference the drive will fail.

After you have booted from the floppy, do
FDISK /Status
to see what the OS can identify as drives and partitions.

You should be using a more recent boot disk to get access to all available
features. See
www.bootdisk.com
to get the latest bootdisk
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"ms" <ms@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:5nmugnFj6l17U1@mid.individual.net...
>P 120. It has a low density floppy drive which I need temporarily for some
> work. Initially, seems to have no OS.
>
> In the initial POST screen, the hard drive is listed. In BIOS, I went to
> Autodetect and let it run to be sure, rebooted, the POST display was
> unchanged, The hard drive appears to look normal there.
>
> I put in a DOS 6.2 boot disk, it goes to an A prompt.
>
> But changing to C: gives error message "invalid drive specification".
>
> If the drive shows up in POST, what results in error message?
>
> ms

 

[ms]

"Bill Blanton" <bblanton@REMOVEmagicnet.net> wrote in
news:OPa1HRPEIHA.3548@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:

> "ms" <ms@invalid.com> wrote in message
> news:5nmugnFj6l17U1@mid.individual.net...
>>P 120. It has a low density floppy drive which I need temporarily for
>>some
>> work. Initially, seems to have no OS.
>>
>> In the initial POST screen, the hard drive is listed. In BIOS, I went
>> to Autodetect and let it run to be sure, rebooted, the POST display
>> was unchanged, The hard drive appears to look normal there.
>>
>> I put in a DOS 6.2 boot disk, it goes to an A prompt.
>>
>> But changing to C: gives error message "invalid drive specification".
>>
>> If the drive shows up in POST, what results in error message?
>
> How is the HDD setup? That version of DOS doesn't understand drives
> formatted as FAT32. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
>
>
>
Later answer. The machine is so slow, that it has a different result now.

I can at A prompt, change to C. In Dir on C, it looks like the contents
of the boot disk, except I didn't copy the boot disk to C. So the format
command is already on C.
I tried "format C"- wrong parameter. I ran scandisk, it completed
instantly ?? (1.6 GB HD), said no errors.

So I went back to A, "format C: /s"- format not supported on drive C

ms

 

[ms]

"Jeff Richards" <JRichards@msn.com.au> wrote in
news:e$e9Q8PEIHA.4400@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:

> The operating system sees partitions, not drives. If the drive is not
> correctly partitioned then DOS or Windows will not assign a drive
> letter and a command to reference the drive will fail.
>
> After you have booted from the floppy, do
> FDISK /Status
> to see what the OS can identify as drives and partitions.
>
> You should be using a more recent boot disk to get access to all
> available features. See
> www.bootdisk.com
> to get the latest bootdisk

Status gives:

Disk Drv MB Free Usage
1 504 504

So there must be a partition, and I will Fdisk to at least get rid of the
partition

ms

 

[ms]

ms <ms@invalid.com> wrote in news:5nnbn5Fj3hfgU2@mid.individual.net:

> "Jeff Richards" <JRichards@msn.com.au> wrote in
> news:e$e9Q8PEIHA.4400@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:
>
>> The operating system sees partitions, not drives. If the drive is
>> not correctly partitioned then DOS or Windows will not assign a drive
>> letter and a command to reference the drive will fail.
>>
>> After you have booted from the floppy, do
>> FDISK /Status
>> to see what the OS can identify as drives and partitions.
>>
>> You should be using a more recent boot disk to get access to all
>> available features. See
>> www.bootdisk.com
>> to get the latest bootdisk
>
> Status gives:
>
> Disk Drv MB Free Usage
> 1 504 504
>
> So there must be a partition, and I will Fdisk to at least get rid of
> the partition
>
> ms
>

A: fdisk - error reading fixed disk.

If disk has problems, scandisk didn't indicate that, although it did not
run normally.

ms

 

[Bill Blanton]

"ms" <ms@invalid.com> wrote in message news:5nnb9tFj3hfgU1@mid.individual.net...
> "Bill Blanton" <bblanton@REMOVEmagicnet.net> wrote in
> news:OPa1HRPEIHA.3548@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:
>
>> "ms" <ms@invalid.com> wrote in message
>> news:5nmugnFj6l17U1@mid.individual.net...
>>>P 120. It has a low density floppy drive which I need temporarily for
>>>some
>>> work. Initially, seems to have no OS.
>>>
>>> In the initial POST screen, the hard drive is listed. In BIOS, I went
>>> to Autodetect and let it run to be sure, rebooted, the POST display
>>> was unchanged, The hard drive appears to look normal there.
>>>
>>> I put in a DOS 6.2 boot disk, it goes to an A prompt.
>>>
>>> But changing to C: gives error message "invalid drive specification".
>>>
>>> If the drive shows up in POST, what results in error message?
>>
>> How is the HDD setup? That version of DOS doesn't understand drives
>> formatted as FAT32. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
>>
>>
>>
> Later answer. The machine is so slow, that it has a different result now.
>
> I can at A prompt, change to C. In Dir on C, it looks like the contents
> of the boot disk, except I didn't copy the boot disk to C. So the format
> command is already on C.
> I tried "format C"- wrong parameter. I ran scandisk, it completed
> instantly ?? (1.6 GB HD), said no errors.
>
> So I went back to A, "format C: /s"- format not supported on drive C

That was likely the RAMDrive that your bootdisk set up to decompress files to.
The bootdisk routine will take C: if it's available.

 

[Bill Blanton]

"ms" <ms@invalid.com> wrote in message news:5nn9ilFja9s7U1@mid.individual.net...
> "Bill Blanton" <bblanton@REMOVEmagicnet.net> wrote in
> news:OPa1HRPEIHA.3548@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:
>
>> "ms" <ms@invalid.com> wrote in message
>> news:5nmugnFj6l17U1@mid.individual.net...
>>>P 120. It has a low density floppy drive which I need temporarily for
>>>some
>>> work. Initially, seems to have no OS.
>>>
>>> In the initial POST screen, the hard drive is listed. In BIOS, I went
>>> to Autodetect and let it run to be sure, rebooted, the POST display
>>> was unchanged, The hard drive appears to look normal there.
>>>
>>> I put in a DOS 6.2 boot disk, it goes to an A prompt.
>>>
>>> But changing to C: gives error message "invalid drive specification".
>>>
>>> If the drive shows up in POST, what results in error message?
>>
>> How is the HDD setup? That version of DOS doesn't understand drives
>> formatted as FAT32. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
>>
>>
>>
>>
> Don't know the history. But yes, it probably had windows before, so I put
> in a W98SE boot disk.
>
> Now it stops at the POST screen, never gets to A prompt.
>
> My intent is to format, install W98, then copy the low density disks to
> high density disks.

Assuming the FDD supports both, boot with your 98 boot disk, put the source
disk in, and at the A:\> prompt type-

copy a:\ b:

You'll be prompted when to insert the "target' B:

 

[Jeff Richards]

Scandisk will check the file system, and is not useful for testing the disk.

Get a disk drive diagnostic program from the disk drive manufacturer's www
site and use that to test the disk.

Or, find a generic drive diagnostic utility.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"ms" <ms@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:5nnc3oFj3hfgU3@mid.individual.net...
> ms <ms@invalid.com> wrote in news:5nnbn5Fj3hfgU2@mid.individual.net:
>
>> "Jeff Richards" <JRichards@msn.com.au> wrote in
>> news:e$e9Q8PEIHA.4400@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:
>>
>>> The operating system sees partitions, not drives. If the drive is
>>> not correctly partitioned then DOS or Windows will not assign a drive
>>> letter and a command to reference the drive will fail.
>>>
>>> After you have booted from the floppy, do
>>> FDISK /Status
>>> to see what the OS can identify as drives and partitions.
>>>
>>> You should be using a more recent boot disk to get access to all
>>> available features. See
>>> www.bootdisk.com
>>> to get the latest bootdisk
>>
>> Status gives:
>>
>> Disk Drv MB Free Usage
>> 1 504 504
>>
>> So there must be a partition, and I will Fdisk to at least get rid of
>> the partition
>>
>> ms
>>
>
> A: fdisk - error reading fixed disk.
>
> If disk has problems, scandisk didn't indicate that, although it did not
> run normally.
>
> ms

 

[ms]

ms <ms@invalid.com> wrote in news:5nmugnFj6l17U1@mid.individual.net:

> P 120. It has a low density floppy drive which I need temporarily for
> some work. Initially, seems to have no OS.
>
> In the initial POST screen, the hard drive is listed. In BIOS, I went
> to Autodetect and let it run to be sure, rebooted, the POST display
> was unchanged, The hard drive appears to look normal there.
>
> I put in a DOS 6.2 boot disk, it goes to an A prompt.
>
> But changing to C: gives error message "invalid drive specification".
>
> If the drive shows up in POST, what results in error message?
>
> ms

Thanks to all

ms