Booting.

petergrobertson · 09-12-2007, 10:41 PM

I have a laptop. It has Centrino Duo and Phoenix BIOS. I connected a hama USB floppy drive. I tried to boot from a discette with MS-DOS 3 and Windows 1. It boots, but it is a black screen with a blinking underline at top-left. The discette drive keeps making "reading sound" until I reboot.

I can boot other discettes and the DOS/Windows discette is bootable in Virtual PC.
What is going on here?

I also have some other problem with this computer, please see:
Many operating systems on same hard disc

PC eye · 09-12-2007, 11:49 PM

Booting a dos disk with a usb type floppy drive won't generally work since no usb drivers are loaded yet by the OS installed on the hard drive. Plus that old of dos version might present some big problems with usb in general. Most systems(laptop or desktop) boot from internal drives like a swapout floppy for portables. The unit is looking for the ide or sata type boot device there seeing the constant search in progress.

petergrobertson · 09-13-2007, 12:01 AM

Is it no way to make it work with USB? Maybe BIOS upgrade?

I thought the operating system did not care so much about what it was loaded on as long as the BIOS could do it.
I have installed and booted FreeDOS on a USB flash drive (on other computers, have not tried this one) FreeDOS does not actually supports USB either, but the BIOS did.

PC eye · 09-13-2007, 01:41 AM

FreeDos and MS Dos 3 are still two different things altogether there. Newer boards will see improved usb support by seeing that enabled through the newer bios versions on newer boards out. Your initial question however was on Dos 3 not the much newer far more usb friendly FreeDos.

Old dos isn't good for the newer hardware like usb that came out later. For dos the internal floppy for booting a 3 1/2" disk would be needed. In those days it wasn't 3 1/2" either but 5 1/4" flat style floppies that looked like a flat disk in an envelope not a hard plastic covering with a locking tab seen. To really get into the old dos and older versions of Windows you would need a desktop there since a laptop is simply geared for the newer versions of Windows and of course Linux where you can boot from a cd-r.

09-12-2007, 10:41 PM	#1 (permalink)
petergrobertson New Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 4	Booting. I have a laptop. It has Centrino Duo and Phoenix BIOS. I connected a hama USB floppy drive. I tried to boot from a discette with MS-DOS 3 and Windows 1. It boots, but it is a black screen with a blinking underline at top-left. The discette drive keeps making "reading sound" until I reboot. I can boot other discettes and the DOS/Windows discette is bootable in Virtual PC. What is going on here? I also have some other problem with this computer, please see: Many operating systems on same hard disc

09-12-2007, 11:49 PM	#2 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 19,699	Booting a dos disk with a usb type floppy drive won't generally work since no usb drivers are loaded yet by the OS installed on the hard drive. Plus that old of dos version might present some big problems with usb in general. Most systems(laptop or desktop) boot from internal drives like a swapout floppy for portables. The unit is looking for the ide or sata type boot device there seeing the constant search in progress. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

09-13-2007, 01:41 AM	#4 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 19,699	FreeDos and MS Dos 3 are still two different things altogether there. Newer boards will see improved usb support by seeing that enabled through the newer bios versions on newer boards out. Your initial question however was on Dos 3 not the much newer far more usb friendly FreeDos. Old dos isn't good for the newer hardware like usb that came out later. For dos the internal floppy for booting a 3 1/2" disk would be needed. In those days it wasn't 3 1/2" either but 5 1/4" flat style floppies that looked like a flat disk in an envelope not a hard plastic covering with a locking tab seen. To really get into the old dos and older versions of Windows you would need a desktop there since a laptop is simply geared for the newer versions of Windows and of course Linux where you can boot from a cd-r. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

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09-13-2007, 12:01 AM	#3 (permalink)
petergrobertson New Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 4	Is it no way to make it work with USB? Maybe BIOS upgrade? I thought the operating system did not care so much about what it was loaded on as long as the BIOS could do it. I have installed and booted FreeDOS on a USB flash drive (on other computers, have not tried this one) FreeDOS does not actually supports USB either, but the BIOS did.