# Can I install MS-DOS 6.xx from CD?



## wigginton

Does anyone know if and *how* I can install dos from a CD? My laptop doesn't have a floppy drive. I've just formatted and don't want start the windows XP installation if I can get DOS on there first.


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## DaveBurnett

Yes you can, but you need to prepare it on another machine.
Download and create the 6.22 boot floppy with CD support from http://www.bootdisk.com
Dos 6.22 comes on 3 floppies. Create a bootable CD using the downloaded 6.22 boot floppy as the boot floppy source and the files from all three floppies as the data. 
Then you can boot from this CD, change the drive letter to the CD and reun the install from there.
You can even add the contents of the 9 Windows 3.11 floppies in a sub-folder and install that from there as well.


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## wigginton

Thanks Dave -much appreciated.


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## joepayne

Dave, I don't want to bust your bubble but your reply won't and doesn't work. The same error that has plagued all others that came before you has reared it's ugly head. By following your instructions, after booting to the cd (which will work), you get a message to "Insert Setup Disk #1". I have searched for a couple of years for a solution to this and can't find one. Someone wrote that the setup.exe file is written to look at a floppy drive and will not install from any other drive. I am nowhere near your expertise but I know this answer won't work. I tried it myself. If you can figure this one out you will prove you are a genius and we will worship you as the tech god. Have a good one Dave. Joe


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## Dan Penny

"... the setup.exe file is written to look at a floppy drive and will not install from any other drive..."

Actually the setup looks for the disk ID files on each disk. Inside that disk ID file it says something like "DISK 1", "DISK 2, & "DISK 3", with the spaces between the word and numbers. This is why the files have to be kept in their respective "installation groups". The appropriate disk ID has to be with it's group of files. This is why you can't just dump all the "raw" source files into one directory. The disk ID file has the same name across all three disks, and would be overwritten.

On the first disk there's an information file which correlates the different files with those three ID's. If this was edited to look for all files in one location........... Or, keep the seperate groups in different folders on the CD, and when it asks for "DISK 2 of the set", point it/redirect it (the install) to the location where it will find that disk ID file for that group.


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## joepayne

I appreciate your response. I do not claim to be an expert and that is why I am here in this forum. I like to learn new things. Since posting my first post on this subject I have been lucky enough to find what I think is the install cd I have heard about but was never able to find. It came with a bootdisk image file to start the installation and all the rest of what is needed to do the install from the cd. I made the boot floppy and have now created a boot image to use on the cd. if all goes well the cd should boot and go right into the setup program. I looked at the directories and files and noticed that all the DOS files have already been expanded so I guess that they are just copied to the DOS folder. I will be trying it shortly and will let you know if it works and how well it works. If this is the elusive cd I have been looking for for over two years I believe it will work. I will let you know. Thanks again for your response. It is always nice to learn something new from someone who explains and doesn't ridicule.


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## joepayne

I tested the DOS 6.22 install CD and it worked perfectly. Now all that is left to do is edit the autoexec.bat and config.sys files to have the install include CD -ROM drivers and it should be as good as it gets. When the install CD boots the computer the CD-ROM drivers are loaded to access the cd for the install but when you reboot after the install in completed there are no drivers loaded for the cd's. Minor problem. Also the install doesn't create a partition or format. You must have an existing partition and it must be formatted before the installation will run. I will probably still work on a different installation cd that will run like the floppies do. Don't know if I can do it but I'm gonna try. Joe


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## Dan Penny

Glad you got it going. ;>)


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## JohnWill

Many applications, and I think the original MS-DOS install, would look for subfolders named DISK1, DISK2, etc.


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## joepayne

Back in the DOS days I remember copying all the files from a multi-disk install program to one directory and installing from the hard drive. I also remember that each of these disks would have a label file (not the disk label but a file with the same name) that would read something like disk1 or disk2 but I can't remember if the files had an extension on them or not. Does anybody remember what I am talking about or am I crazy? I remember that if you didn't have that disk files in the directory, setup would stop because it couldn't find the next disk in the set. Hope I haven't confused everybody. Thanks. Joe


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## Frank4d

Yes the three disks are labeled as posted above and install stops if they are not. Most files have extensions that end with "_".


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## Dan Penny

"... disk ID file it says something like "DISK 1", "DISK 2, & "DISK 3", with the spaces between the word and numbers. ..."

Diskid.fil(???) or Label.fil(???) Wouldn't you know it, I just let all my old software go last week. I had the MSDOS 5, 6, & 6.22 install disks. Gave it all away.........


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## JohnWill

Well, since MS-DOS doesn't allow spaces in file names, I suggest DISK1, DISK2, DISK3, etc. That is my recollection of how the floppy content folders were named.


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## joepayne

Over the last two years I have tried to make DOS 6.22 install from a hd or cd. My attempts have not been successful. I do have a DOS 6.22 install cd but it is something someone else created. They wrote their own install program which, in essence, does not much more than copy the already expanded DOS file to a directory called DOS. Before this install will work you must already have partitioned and formatted your hd using fdisk or some other disk tool. In the current world of computer and operating systems, this task seems antiquated and maybe even silly. People will argue that I am wasting my time. I have invested a lot of time into my little project but I have learned a great deal by my experience and as Dan Penny says, "It's a good day when you learn something". I have given up more than once only to start trying again. Someday I will succeed either by finding a way to make the original DOS setup work or by writing my own install that will do the partition and format as the original did. Why? Because I want to. This is a good thread and I hope we can get more involved in this project.


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## JohnWill

"installation" of MS-DOS is really pretty simple.

You can boot from the bootable CD, then run the FDISK, FORMAT, and simply copy the files from the CD to the hard disk. SHAZAM, DOS is "installed".

I don't remember the actual install sequence for MS-DOS, but I do have sealed MS-DOS 6.2 "Operating System Plus Enhanced Tools" sitting on my shelf. It appears to have three 3.5" floppies in the shrink wrap. I can't remember when I got it, but it was a LONG time ago!

Perhaps I should do an install and see.


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## Dan Penny

I meant that the spaces are _within_ those file contents.

ie; Disk 1 as the single line contents.

These are disk.fil or label.fil. (As I stated, I'm guessing at these file names as I don't remember what they are. A dir/a of the (MSDOS) disks will show the proper file name. The same file name is on each disk, just with different contents.)

If the spaces aren't in the label contents, it won't work.


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## JohnWill

When I've done these kinds of operations (many years ago), I just copied everything from the first disk into the DISK1 folder, from the second disk into the DISK2 folder, etc. As far as the contents of the files themselves, I never spent any time worrying about that as a rule.


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## joepayne

John, your pretty much right that DOS 6.xx is easy to install but you can't just copy the files to the hard drive from the 3 disks because most of them are compressed and have to be expanded. Not a hard job if you know how to expand multiple files using a batch file or script.
Like I said in my earlier reply, this, to most people seems really dumb. It is just something that has challenged me for several years and I hate to give up on anything. I will probably continue to waste my time trying to figure this out until I die and maybe even after, if there are computers in the afterlife. Since I am a novice at programming I may never get it done, but I will try. My objective is to make Microsofts DOS load as I described earlier or write my own install program that will work like I want it to.
I have really appreciated all the comments from others. These forums are a great place to meet others and share knowledge. Thanks to all. Joe


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## DaveBurnett

You don't need a script to expand them, the expand command itself handles multiple files.

EDIT:

In the last hour, I've built a CD that uses the Windows 98 Floppy as the boot bit. 
I copied the three 6.22 floppies and expanded all the files to a DOS folder on the CD. 
I threw in the DOS based Partition Magic in a folder.
Also the Norton Disk Doctor ones and a few more useful utilities (like Volkov Commander - a Dos file Manager like thing.
And the Wfwg 3.11 setup files in a single folder (the DISK1 etc works on those)

I booted from the CD, ran Partion Manager to partition a disk and format it.
Changed to the DOS folder and ran SYS C: from there (after a reboot)
Copied the DOS folder to C and created a Config.sys and Autoexec.bat and rebooted from the disk. (I had to make a few small changes and reboot to get it perfect)

Then I copied the WFWG folder to C as well and installed it.

I now have a working Windows 3.11


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## JohnWill

Shucks, Dave beat me to it. I was going to suggest expanding them all and building the folder(s) on the CD, then it's just a copy operation. 

See the previous post.


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## jhangeirakhtar

Hi everyone, I had to do something like this for ms-dos 6 about three years ago. It was part of a bigger installation cd, I have included the script if anyone is interested, but I didn't include the ms-dos files (for obvious reasons).

In retrospect i think there may be too many batch files and perhaps it could be done simpler. However this modular approached suited my needs.

Kind regards


JA


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## jhangeirakhtar

Hello again

If anyone knows how do the fdisk and disk partitioning from a script, I would be interested. I had do that them manually.


JA


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## TheOutcaste

check out http://www.computerhope.com/fdiskhlp.htm for fdisk. Format can run from a script as well.

HTH

Jerry


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## dcweats

Hello all. I have read all the post but, unless i missed it, havent read the final results. Can you install MS Dos 6.xx from CD? if so, how?
THanks
DCW


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## jhangeirakhtar

Hi all

Make ms-dos 6.22 boot disk
1) download the .exe from www.bootdisk.com
2) use wimimage to convert it to a .ima file

Make ms-dos 6.22 virtual machine
1) Using Vmware workstation, create a virtual machine with a 2GB IDE hard disk
2) Using either images or physical disk install ms-dos on the virtual machine.
3) Once installed, power off the virtual machine, mount the virtual hard disk and copy the contents onto your xp machine that has Nero Ultra installed. This will be the data part of the installation cd-rom. i.e. the R: drive.

Modify the ms-dos 6.22 boot disk
1) Use the .Ima file as floppy disk image in vmware workstation and power on the virtual machine.
2) Use fdisk to delete the dos partition on the virtual machines 2GB hard disk
3) from the A: prompt, edit install.bat like this:
format c: /u
sys c:
xcopy r:*.* c: /s
<end of edit>
save the install.bat file
Now install.bat should be modified.

Make the installation cd-rom
1) Use Nero, use the modified boot disk image as the boot image and the copied data as the compilation, burn an .iso image.

Test the installation cd-rom
1) Assuming a new virtual machine or the original with the hard disk without partitions, boot up wiht the .iso image of the cd-rom, at the A: prompt use fdisk to partition the disk and run install.bat. (I have not yet practised the scripting of fdisk and format)
2) Dismount the cd-rom, reset the virtual machine, hopefully if everything I did to get it going was as I've written then you should have a working ms-dos 6.22 virtual machine.

Hope that helps.


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## jhangeirakhtar

oops, sorry guys, the sys c: should come after the xcopy command. please accept my aplogies.


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## Zoid Bogner

ok i've been trying to install DOS onto this old computer i have cause i wanted to install X-com UFO defense on it for about 24 hours with no success.... first off i can't even get a CD to boot at all, i tried using winimage to make a .ima file of the DOS 6.22 bootdisk but it wont boot. I can boot with a floppy and format and partition my HD but thats as far as i can get.... total nub at any type of programming and this is the first time i've attempted reformatting, any advice / links would be much appreciated, thank you.


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## TheOutcaste

The ima file image is a virtual image file that is used with virtual machines. The file is "inserted" into the virtual floppy drive.

The whole point of this thread was to install DOS onto a system without a floppy by putting the files from the 3 setup disks onto a CD and booting with the CD.

Since you have a floppy, just boot with the first of the 3 MS-DOS setup disks, and it will start the install.

If you don't have the 3 setup disks, you'll need to purchase them someplace; the disks are common on auction sites. Just be sure you are getting the actual disks, and not just a manual, and that it is the FULL version, not an upgrade version.

If you don't have the disks, you may want to look into FreeDOS. As your system doesn't seem to boot from CD, be sure you read the How to Install info, as you'll need to download a floppy image to create a boot disk that will access the FreeDOS CD you'll create from the downloaded image file.

HTH

Jerry


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## monckywrench

Another way to make an install CD is to do a normal install, Ghost it, and put the ghost.exe file along with the ghost image file on a floppy emulation CD (that uses a floppy image with CD drivers to boot).

ide158.exe is a versatile DOS CD driver. Google for the many sources,


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