Dos and boot disk for Windows 3.11

[matt012]

I am working on an older computer, and I am wondering if someone can tell me a website where I can download for free a version of MS-Dos, and also if anyone can tell me where to download a boot disk for Windows 3.11 Thanks.

[pentachris]

Have you looked around here (http://www.bootdisk.com)?

[matt012]

yes I have. that's not what I need.

[PrntRhd]

What exactly do you need? Windows for Workgroups?

[matt012]

yes, Windows 3.11 boot disk. There are no boot disk files for Windows 3.11 on that site.

[PrntRhd]

matt,
you don't need a bootdisk to open Win 3.11, you only need to do DOS commands to make it go:
http://www.computing.net/windows31/wwwboard/forum/11419.html
You do still have working DOS on a DOS partition?
Here is a link to free DOS (no Windows):
http://www.freedos.org/

[Paul Komski]

I posted this earlier by mistake in the other duplicate thread (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?p=210062&posted=1#post210062).
Hope it still has some relevance and perhaps the other post could be closed or deleted.

Don't know about a free MSDOS but you could get FreeDOS or DrDOS (both of which are superior IMHO). I like them both but at the moment prefer DrDOS.

DrDOS floppies from http://www.drdos.net/download.htm I have found 7.02 stable and have used the 5-floppy set. The ReadMe on the ftp page should tell you what you need to know.

FreeDOS from http://www.freedos.org/freedos/files/ and I suggest you Download the Beta9 Service Release #1 distribution iso and make the bootable CD (if the pc has a new enough CD to boot from it of course). I'm not sure that the full floppy set is available.

Suggest you create a FAT16 partition at the start of the drive (even though the more "modern DOSes" support FAT32 and even LFNs). Then after DOS has been successfully installed onto it boot into DOS insert the first of the Win31/311 diskettes and run a:/setup (or is it install - the diskette should tell you in anycase).

where to download a boot disk for Windows 3.11

Not sure why you specifically need one though any DOS or Win9X/ME EBD should do the trick. Use them from bootdisk.com or use only a Win98 or WinME diskette from windows if you want one with CDROM support. You can also use the DOS installation diskettes/cds to create a boot diskette. The first of the floppy installation diskette-set is, of course, bootable.

PS - Run setup from the a:> prompt was correct. I can't install my own set of Win3.1 because of a corrupt gdi.ex_ (164kB file) on Disk#1. If you, or anyone could eMail me a copy of that baby I would be most gratified.

PPS - The simplest way to make the HDD partition itself bootable is to boot to say a win98 boot diskette and then run format C: /u/s which ensures the partition boot sectore is fresh and copies io.sys, msdos.sys snd command.com to the drive. There are no dos utilities on such a partition but your can run things from the command prompt.

[matt012]

Here is the whole story about the computer. It was frigged so to say and I suspect it had a virus. I formatted the hard drive, and started from scratch. I installed Windows 3.11 with no problems. It now asks for a system disk, or boot disk. If I use a dos boot disk, I can't get to my harddrive C:\, it doesn't detect it, but bios does. If however I use a Win95 boot disk that I have, I can get into C:\, but if I try to start Win 3.11 using the win command in the folder, it says that the MS-Dos that I used with the boot disk is not compatible with this version of windows. So tell me what to do??

[Paleo Pete]

OK...win 3.11 is basically a shell that runs on top of DOS. You have to install DOS then Windows on to pof it, while DOS is running, which is what Paul was getting at above. You'll need a DOS or win98 boot disk on floppy, format the drive as FAT 16, install DOS, reboot and make sure it runs right then install Win3.11 while running DOS.

insert the first of the Win31/311 diskettes and run a:/setup (or is it install

I'm pretty sure it's setup not install, windows has always been pretty consistent about that.

[Paul Komski]

The straightforward way is to install an appropriate version of DOS onto FAT16 first.

If you want to get really technical Win3.11 can be made to co-exist with the DOS on Win98 (and run on the same partition as Win98 but in a different system folder) using the patch 3XSTART.EXE (http://www.oldfiles.streamlinetrial.co.uk/powerload/win3x.htm) which alters (and restores if need be) the io.sys file in C: I have never tried running it on the floppy's io.sys and don't even know if it can be done - but trying to run windows from a floppy is to say the least unusual.

Suggest you go the simple route. Partition the drive first using fdisk but don't choose "Large Disk Support" at the start before rebooting it and running format C: or use a third party boot manager to do the partitioning and formatting in the same operation.

[matt012]

ok, i see what to do now. It makes sense. What version of Dos is best to go with? Will all of them be compatible with Win 3.11?

[matt012]

I downloaded DrDos and made the 5 disk set. I used the first disk and made a new partition on the hard drive. Then I restarted and it began to install DrDos, except that on the first file, setup2.exe, it is trying to copy to c:\, but it seems to be stuck and won't go any further. Any help please??

[matt012]

Nevermind about that last post, it just must have been a bad floppy. I created a new one and so far things are working.

[matt012]

Thanks for the help. Things are working right once again. The computer will run fine with Windows 3.11 until I find a copy of Windows 95 to put on it again.

[Paul Komski]

That's good.

Couple of tips:
(1) Consider copying all the win311 files to a folder in the C: drive. Then you can easily delete the Windows folder and reinstall win311 without inserting any floppies.

(2) If you ever have trouble getting to a command prompt at boot-time (notably because of bad memory management in autoexec.bat and config.sys) then boot up while depressing F5, which bypasses these configuration files and takes you straight to the C: prompt.

(3) Remember that you can always run setup from the C: prompt to customise DrDOS - this can be an easier way of editing the autoexec.bat and config.sys files than doing it in a text editor.