Accessing C drive in DOS

[Guest 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

[Guest Bill Blanton]

Re: Accessing C drive in DOS

 

"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?

[Guest ms]

Re: Accessing C drive in DOS

 

"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

[Guest Don Phillipson]

Re: Accessing C drive in DOS

 

"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 http://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)

[Guest Jeff Richards]

Re: Accessing C drive in DOS

 

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

http://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

[Guest ms]

Re: Accessing C drive in DOS

 

"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

[Guest ms]

Re: Accessing C drive in DOS

 

"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

> http://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

[Guest ms]

Re: Accessing C drive in DOS

 

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

>> http://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

[Guest Bill Blanton]

Re: Accessing C drive in DOS

 

"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.

[Guest Bill Blanton]

Re: Accessing C drive in DOS

 

"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:

[Guest Jeff Richards]

Re: Accessing C drive in DOS

 

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

>>> http://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

[Guest ms]

Re: Accessing C drive in DOS

 

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