DOS 3.3 Boot Disk Needed

[Tempest]

I need a DOS 3.3 boot disk on a 5.25" floppy for my PCjr. I need it so I can edit a bad config.sys file on my other one. Can someone help?

 

Tempest

[+Mitch]

Looks like you can download one from here. Probably need a modern computer with a 5 1/4 disk drive though.

 

Mitch

[Tempest]

Looks like you can download one from here. Probably need a modern computer with a 5 1/4 disk drive though.

 

Mitch

Yeah that's my problem, I have no PC with a 5 1/4 floppy. If i can get a working boot disk then I can use a 3.5" drive with my PCjr, but I need that DOS boot disk first.

 

Tempest

[Christophero Sly]

LOL. I thought this was going to be about the Apple II.

[+Mitch]

I think I still have a 5 1/4 DOS 3 disk around, probably have the original one as well. I doubt they work anymore though.

 

Mitch

[Tempest]

I think I still have a 5 1/4 DOS 3 disk around, probably have the original one as well. I doubt they work anymore though.

 

Mitch

I'll pay for shipping if you want to get rid of them. I'm willing to try them out and see.

 

Tempest

[+Mitch]

I think I still have a 5 1/4 DOS 3 disk around, probably have the original one as well. I doubt they work anymore though.

 

Mitch

I'll pay for shipping if you want to get rid of them. I'm willing to try them out and see.

 

Tempest

 

Hmmm, I'll let you borrow it to make a copy, but I can't promise that it works.

Now that I think about it, I believe I still have some old PCs in my parents garage that have 5 1/4 drives. Assuming my Dad hasn't tossed them I will try to remember to go and check this weekend.

 

Mitch

[HollowPoint123]

I need a DOS 3.3 boot disk on a 5.25" floppy for my PCjr. I need it so I can edit a bad config.sys file on my other one. Can someone help?

 

Tempest

 

Any dos boot disc will do if all you need to do is edit the config.sys file and not sys c: the drive. You could use a dos6.22 one as long as it had qbasic.exe and edit.exe (edit uses the qbasic exe start up) on it as well. (a friend of mine once changed the Command.com line that stopped my pc from booting (Dos 4.01) - I had to go off to collage to get a dos 3.3 disk to edlin the config.sys back to what it should have been.

 

I know it's a 5 1/4 but what capacity will it take 360KB or 1.2MB.

 

My old PC (dos 6.22 Win3.1) in the loft has a 5 1/4 inch drive on it and I have plenty of discs I can ship one over to you. I've also got MS-Dos 5 upgrade on 5 1/4 if you wanted it. Would be better than 3.3.

 

Just let me know. You can PM me with your details if you want.

Edited September 19, 2010 by HollowPoint123

[Tempest]

Shipping from the UK would probably be expensive wouldn't it? Even for a tiny thing like a disk.

 

Tempest

[+Gemintronic]

Another gotcha is sometimes high-density (1.2meg) disk drives sometimes don't format 360k disks so that 360k drives read them properly. I'm not sure if the PCjr was 360k or high-density though..

[Tempest]

Another gotcha is sometimes high-density (1.2meg) disk drives sometimes don't format 360k disks so that 360k drives read them properly. I'm not sure if the PCjr was 360k or high-density though..

I believe it was a 720K drive.

 

Tempest

[Herbarius]

In newer DOS versions there was a hotkey to skip config.sys and autoexec.bat entirely, I believe it was F5, but maybe it was F8, not completely sure. You just had to time it so you press it at the correct moment (just when "Starting MS-DOS..." appears).

 

Maybe that feature was already there in 3.3? Then you wouldn't need a boot disk at all.

[NE146]

Sorry.. I only got MS-DOS 6.0 and 6.22. I suppose those won't work eh.

[Tempest]

Sorry.. I only got MS-DOS 6.0 and 6.22. I suppose those won't work eh.

They need to be patched to run on a PCjr and I have no idea how you do that.

 

Tempest

[desiv]

OK, went through some old floppies I have and found some MSDOS floppies, but I have no idea what version.

 

They are originals.

But all they say is

"Microsoft MS-DOS"

© 1981-1988.

 

So, it could be 3.3 or it could be 4 I suppose:

1987 MS-DOS 3.3 was released April, 1987.

1988 MS-DOS 4.0 was released July, 1988.

1988 MS-DOS 4.01 was released November, 1988.

 

I'm guessing they are MSDOS 4???

 

Now that I do some more checking, I'm thinking these are 4.01 because of:

In 1988, Microsoft released MS-DOS version 4.01, featuring the first built-in DOS Shell.

 

And there is a floppy that says "MSDOS Shell".

 

So, is 4.01 too new?

 

desiv

p.s. I have no method of testing these disks, and they were given to me, so if they are disks full of EGA pics of Samantha Fox, that wasn't me..

 

p.p.s. I found out that that pile of disks has all 9 of the 10 disks for Kings Quest. D'oh!! :-( Maybe disk 10 is around somewhere..

Edited September 20, 2010 by desiv

[Tempest]

The PCjr could do DOS 4, that would work.

 

Tempest

[desiv]

Sounds good. Just let me know where to send em and I'll mail em out...

 

desiv

[HollowPoint123]

Shipping from the UK would probably be expensive wouldn't it? Even for a tiny thing like a disk.

 

Tempest

 

 

Less that £5 via airmail according to the PostOffice.co.uk web site.

[HollowPoint123]

Another gotcha is sometimes high-density (1.2meg) disk drives sometimes don't format 360k disks so that 360k drives read them properly. I'm not sure if the PCjr was 360k or high-density though..

 

 

Will do if you use C:\format a: /f:360

 

5 1/4 drives can't detect the density of the disk when formatting so a ssume that all discs are 1.2MB. Using the /f switch will tell it to format to 360KB.

 

OK starter question for 5 points. If a label has fallen off a 5 1/4 floppy, how can you tell what density it is without sticking it into a drive?

Edited September 21, 2010 by HollowPoint123

[82atari5200]

Another gotcha is sometimes high-density (1.2meg) disk drives sometimes don't format 360k disks so that 360k drives read them properly. I'm not sure if the PCjr was 360k or high-density though..

 

 

Will do if you use C:\format a: /f:360

 

5 1/4 drives can't detect the density of the disk when formatting so a ssume that all discs are 1.2MB. Using the /f switch will tell it to format to 360KB.

 

OK starter question for 5 points. If a label has fallen off a 5 1/4 floppy, how can you tell what density it is without sticking it into a drive?

The reinforced hub ring is missing on high density. I still have plenty of 5 1/4 drives lying around. I use them with my 286 setup. I have some low density 5 1/4 drives too. And too many floppies....way too many floppies.

[HollowPoint123]

Another gotcha is sometimes high-density (1.2meg) disk drives sometimes don't format 360k disks so that 360k drives read them properly. I'm not sure if the PCjr was 360k or high-density though..

 

 

Will do if you use C:\format a: /f:360

 

5 1/4 drives can't detect the density of the disk when formatting so a ssume that all discs are 1.2MB. Using the /f switch will tell it to format to 360KB.

 

OK starter question for 5 points. If a label has fallen off a 5 1/4 floppy, how can you tell what density it is without sticking it into a drive?

The reinforced hub ring is missing on high density. I still have plenty of 5 1/4 drives lying around. I use them with my 286 setup. I have some low density 5 1/4 drives too. And too many floppies....way too many floppies.

 

Well done correct answer. Now for a bonus of 1 why was the hub ring there in the first place?

 

I'm trying to colloect 3 1/2 flops (without paying for them) - I've been given an old Win95 Tosh laptop that has never had it's recovery disks created. Sice it doesn't have a burner (I've got it's cd drive that fits into the same bay as the floppy) the disk creation prog wants to use floppies - 42 of them.

[Herbarius]

reinforced hub ring

What is that anyway?

[The Usotsuki]

Well, this is a PCjr, right? So DOS 4 or later isn't gonna work as the BIOS only reports 128K RAM. (A couple popular config.sys drivers worked around this.)

 

I have some disk images, but no way to convert them for you. If you just need the image though, I can provide that.

[Silntdoogood]

Sorry.. I only got MS-DOS 6.0 and 6.22. I suppose those won't work eh.

 

I have those and a boxed 3 disk "Dos 6.0 Upgrade Kit!".

It kind of puzzled me, from what I've seen, an environment that is running less than DOS 6 usually can't support 6. There must have been a use at some point.

[The Usotsuki]

Sorry.. I only got MS-DOS 6.0 and 6.22. I suppose those won't work eh.

 

I have those and a boxed 3 disk "Dos 6.0 Upgrade Kit!".

It kind of puzzled me, from what I've seen, an environment that is running less than DOS 6 usually can't support 6. There must have been a use at some point.

 

A system running 4.x or 5.0 can probably support 6.

 

I ran 6.0 on an XT with 256K RAM. It's probably the minimum you can get it to boot with.