Upgrade Dilemma

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2 total messages Started by Bill Nelson Tue, 29 Sep 1992 15:31

#661

Author: Bill Nelson
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 15:31

52 lines
2910 bytes

I don't know if this is the correct place to post this, but here it goes:

Last night I tried upgrading my IMS 286 machine (Phoenix BIOS 3.x, and DOS
3.3) with a rip roaring 40 meg HD partitioned into 2 separate drives (due
to DOS 3.3) to DOS 5.0. Of course, as in anything I do with my machine I
had problems.

First, after backing up my drive(s) I tried to simply upgrade to DOS 5.0
from DOS 3.3. I got an error which stated that I had an incompatabile
hard drive please refer to section 2.4 on disk 3 (for 3.5" floppies).

Section 2.4 said:

If you are using DOS 3.x on a system that has a Disk Manager
partition greater than 512MB, contact Ontrack Computer Systems
to get an upgraded version of Disk Manager and instructions for
making the partition compatabile with MS-DOS 5.0. Otherwise,
do the following:
1. Back up your current DMDRVR.BIN and XBIOS.OVL device
drivers.
2. Replace the DMDRVR.BIN and XBIOS.OVL files by using
the EXPAND command to expand and copy the DMDRVR.BI_
and XBIOS.OV_ files from Disk 6 for 5.25" disks or
from Disk 3 of 3.5" disks.
3. Type the following:
setup /u

(I don't have an XBIOS.OVL device, but I did back up the DMDRVR.BIN).

I did this, and still had the same problem. So I figured, Why not simply
format the harddisk and start from scratch? I deleted the primary DOS
partition, created a new primary DOS partition using the maximum size
possible (which I assumed was the entire 40 meg disk) and formatted the
disk.

I installed DOS 4.01 onto the vacated disk and tried to upgrade to DOS
5.0 (all I have is the upgrade to 5.0). I still got the same problem.
(Same error message!)

I figured, that I could reload all my applications software (from DOS
3.3 days) and then upgrade to 5.0 when I got my problems figured out.
But to add insult to injury, I found that there wasn't enough space on my
HD to reinstall my software. I assume that all of the HD wasn't formatted
as I had assumed in the beginning.

HELP!!!!!!!!

Re: Upgrade Dilemma

#676

Author: Jen Kilmer
Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1992 06:02

32 lines
1722 bytes

In article <1992Sep29.153118.24425@pdn.paradyne.com> nelson@paradyne.com (Bill Nelson) writes:
>I don't know if this is the correct place to post this, but here it goes:
>
>          3.  Type the following:
>                   setup /u

If running setup /u, there is no way you should get the "see section
2.4" message. /U disables the partitioning check that would refer
you to section 2.4

Fdisk can erase the partitions it recognizes - the last 4 - but DM
might have another partition (it allows up to 15). Try setup /u, if
you loose a partition uninstall, setup /f, and install DOS manually
(boot, dir c:\dos [to confirm correct access of drive], sys a: c:,
del c:\dos [I assume here you have a backup of your old DOS if you
might need it later] copy a: c:\dos, insert next disk, <F3>, insert
next disk, <F3>, etc).

>HD to reinstall my software.  I assume that all of the HD wasn't formatted
>as I had assumed in the beginning.

If you run fdisk and choose option 4, how big does it see your partition 
as? (Since it's DOS 4, it will tell you in MB, not cylinders :-)

It may be your system's ROM BIOS cannot properly use your entire disk.
That's one of the purposes of disk manager (and the DMDRVR.BIN driver).
FDisk & DOS will only use the system's ROM BIOS.  You may need to repartition
with DM.....

-jen
I certainly do not speak for microsoft.....

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