[Solved] Hard drive not detected by DOS install CD

[Schop]

Hello,

First of all, I'm new to DOS, MS-DOS 6.22a in my case.

I have made an install CD though the (auto launching) setup fails. Pressing a key brings me to the A: prompt and it appears that A: is the only drive, no C: or whatever.
My hard drive is 160 gigabytes with four primary partitions: 20GB windows XP, 100GB, 25GB and finally a 1GB FAT.
I figured this last partition meets the requirements for DOS so it would work but apparently it doesn't.

Since I'm fairly unfamiliar with any DOS environment I do not know what information is usefull so my question is simple: Can anyone post what information is needed from me to troubleshoot this and, hopefully, explain my problem to me.

Thanks,

Schop.

[llmeyer1000]

It's been a long time since DOS6.22, but ... first, is the partition FAT(16) or Fat32. DOS won't be able to see a FAT32 partition.

Is the drive formatted? It may be that the partition is OK, but unformatted.

Also, it may be that you need to put your DOS partition at the beginning of the drive in order to be bootable. (DOS had more limitations than newer OP systems, as you know) but I'm not sure that the location at the end of the physical drive would prevent DOS from seeing the drive.

[Schop]

I have verified that the partition is formatted as what windows calls just FAT, indeed not FAT32. Guess that'll be FAT16 then. I do think using the first partition makes it a lot easier but DOS really should be able to see others as well, maybe the MBR is written in some DOS unreadable way..? just thinking out loud. Or probably my disk requires a driver that's not on my bootdisk yet?

I'll try some driver in the meantime.

[Schop]

(Bump) It is unfortunately not a driver problem.. :S

[llmeyer1000]

Sorry, I've been busy and I couldn't find any of my old PartitionMagic manuals. Plus, Google did not cooperate very well when I searched for information on DOS partition limitations, but I finally found a manual online. The following information is found on pages 38 & 39 of PartitionMagic 8.0 User Guide:

Creating Bootable Partitions:

Before creating a partition where you plan to install an operating system (a bootable
partition), you should understand the following information.

With the exception of DOS 6.22 (or earlier), partitions beyond 8 GB are visible to the current operating system. For more information, see “Understanding the BIOS 1,024 Cylinder (8 GB) Limit” and “Understanding the 2 GB Boot Code Boundary” in Help.

PartitionMagic 8.0 User Guide

I don't currently have PartitionMagic installed, so I couldn't look at the Help, as suggested, but I believe this means that DOS 6.22 or earlier cannot see beyond 8GB & in order to be a bootable partition, the partition must reside within the first 2GB of the physical drive, so ... my memory was close, but ... not completely accurate.

Also, it may be that you need to put your DOS partition at the beginning of the drive in order to be bootable. (DOS had more limitations than newer OP systems, as you know) but I'm not sure that the location at the end of the physical drive would prevent DOS from seeing the drive.

If you want to boot DOS 6.22 on your HD, you will need to a tool such as PartitionMagic to resize and move your existing partitions, so that the FAT partition is at the beginning of the drive.

I have this suggestion:
As an alternative, why not install DOS 6.22, or Windows 98SE DOS on a jump drive and boot with it when you want to run DOS. I have a couple of bootable jump drives with Windows 98SE DOS for that purpose. Is there any reason in particular that you need DOS 6.22? Windows 98SE DOS is very similar to DOS 6.22 as far as functionality, but has much higher limitations. IE: It has a Boot Boundary of 8 GB & can see either FAT or FAT32 partitions anywhere on very large HD drives. The Edit.com program is way better and able to handle much larger files. A bootable jump drive will save you a lot of trouble and get you pretty close to where you want to be! Also, go with 98SE DOS, if you can. 

[Schop]

Thank you for the investigation, llmeyer.
The problem then indeed lies with the partition being at the end of the drive. Judging from what you wrote I guess Partition Magic can actually physically move partitions on the disk?
I have Windows installed so that might give some trouble as well when moving its partition and using the first one for DOS. That is my main concern now: can I move my system partition without breaking Windows? If not I'll indeed try another medium for DOS, or just wait a month or so when I (hope to) get a second HDD.

Also, the reason I am trying to install DOS 6.22 is that fooling around with different OSes is a bit of a hobby. Linux also had a try but it just worked as it should, not much fun 
And second, I like old-school original software, my ultimate goal is to run the original version of Tetras in a native and as old as possible environment. The most reasonably possible is then DOS 6.22, the latest version of like.. "the original DOS" Not the later ones extracted from Windows 9x.

Again, thanks for your post.

[llmeyer1000]

Yes, PartitionMagic can move partitions, without losing data, but I still suggest learning how to setup a bootable jump drive as a safe simple solution to your needs.

[Schop]

I will

USB booting isn't quite hard at all these days an I'll give it a go for the time being.
Until I have my second HDD it will do just fine i guess. Nothing i do will require anything near the maximum data transfer or storage capacity of my 1Gig jumpdrive