hELP Cannot find OS

[modobo]

I have installed MSdos 71 on my old HP Vectra 386 but I cant get it to boot up. After bios its says 'Cannot find operating system' then it hangs.   There is no other OS on this system. When I use a startup floppy for win 98 to get to dos prompt and I type autoexec, then MSdos starts up.  I have done the sys c: and it was a success, I even tried tinkering with MSDos.sys file but after several fdisk /mbr, rebuilding mbr etc, I am still not able to boot from C: hard drive.

Any help is appreciated.

[patio]

Where is this copy of DOS from ? ?...sys C:\ has to be done prior to the install not after...The Win98 floppy ain't gettin you into the installed DOS...its simply gettin you to command off the floppy.

Start over...

[BC_Programmer]

MS-DOS 7.1 is a non-official (pirated) release of MS-DOS that is ripped out of Windows 98 OSR-B or Windows 98. The setup program lies and says it is under GNU GPL. It's not. It also gives a good impression that it is an official product.  Again- it's not.

Try to get a "real" version of MS-DOS and see if you have better luck.

[patio]

+ 1...

[modobo]

Ok guys, thanks for your response, I did not know that MSdos 7 was not genuine, I will go and try 6 or Freedos though I was hoping to keep it MS not knowing that its not all that glitters is gold.

[modobo]

Hello guys, I have installed Freedos and still cannot get a bootable hard drive, the message now is read error while reading drive.

Thanks

[patio]

Then the HDD is failing

[modobo]

Then the HDD is failing

Thanks Patio, by mentioning the HD, u remind me of info that I forgot to mention here which is, Im using an 8gig SSD and its brand new. Does it make any difference?  I dont have a spare dynamic drive I can try out to see if it does.

[modobo]

   Ok after 1 week of tinkering, I installed Dos 6.22, transferred the system files and wallah, I got a bootable hard disk.  One thing I discovered from all my experience which I think might be useful for some readers on here is that, most of the current Dos software out there that have been written in the last 5 to 10 years like Freedos, mbr utilities etc, are actually written with Linux. Not all Bios can read Linux. When u stick in a bootable floppy that is coded in Linux, it wont boot, u will see a few dots on the screen then it will hang.  I also noticed that if u used any of these so called Dos utilities that are code with Linux to fdisk or format ur drive on such a old computer, earlier fdisk will not be able to read such drive.   

[patio]

Not true at all if the boot stik is built proper...

[BC_Programmer]

most of the current Dos software out there that have been written in the last 5 to 10 years like Freedos, mbr utilities etc, are actually written with Linux. Not all Bios can read Linux. When u stick in a bootable floppy that is coded in Linux, it wont boot, u will see a few dots on the screen then it will hang.  I also noticed that if u used any of these so called Dos utilities that are code with Linux to fdisk or format ur drive on such a old computer, earlier fdisk will not be able to read such drive.   

What you are describing is when something is Linux, not whether something is "coded in" Linux. A lot of utilities are based on the Linux Kernel. (memtest for example). And Kernel version 3.8 dropped support for the 386; it has nothing to do with the "BIOS not reading Linux"- instead the kernel is hanging/crashing during the boot process itself.