freedos and CD appending - please help newbie

Try looking for help here if you are having problems with the Ultimate Boot CD.

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leegold
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:59 pm

freedos and CD appending - please help newbie

#1 Post by leegold » Fri Jul 22, 2005 8:23 pm

1. About half the time the time when a menu should pop up i get:
"Error file not found
[command script] [Line 54.2] [file main.scn]
/boot/menus>"

2. Freedos will not work and any utility that uses freedos hangs - w/this message:
"Bios reporting 0 sector/track assuming 63
corrupt or unparitioned drive 01
dos mem corrupt first_mcb_=0251"
lotsa #'s then:
"PANIC MCB chain corrupted
system halted"

Does this link help? There's technie talk about CD drivers here (?)
http://fd-doc.sourceforge.net/faq/cgi-b ... coming/247

This is an IBM thinkpad - my desktop's not having this problem.


3. The CD does not seem appendable - does this mean everytime I need to update my AV files I need to burn a new CD?



Thanks.

leegold
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:59 pm

Anyone out there?

#2 Post by leegold » Sun Jul 24, 2005 7:22 am

Anyone out there? Is there support?

I'll accept that freedos doesn't work well w/my laptop - OK?


At least answer my 3rd question? Is the CD appendable - seems as if it is not...

Thanks

bldrdash
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2005 10:04 am

freedos and CD appending - please help newbie

#3 Post by bldrdash » Sun Jul 24, 2005 8:21 am

>
>
> At least answer my 3rd question? Is the CD appendable - seems
> as if it is not...

Yes and no. In order to append to the CD it must be burned as a
multisession, but I believe some (many?) systems have trouble
booting from a multisession CD. I have not verified this, but
I believe I've read this relating to other bootable CD distributions.

Victor Chew
Posts: 1368
Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:59 pm
Contact:

freedos not booting, menu problem, basic CD append questions

#4 Post by Victor Chew » Tue Jul 26, 2005 12:40 am

If you have problems with FreeDOS, I think the best option is to add
your own DOS disk which does boot and mounts the CDROM drive. Then
simply go to the subdirectory on the CDROM drive containing the app you
want to launch (eg. x:\dosapps\aida16), and just type startup.bat to
launch the app.

The UBCD image is not multisession, so files cannot be appended. If you
plan to update your AV files often, I think the best bet is to use a
CDRW instead of CDR.

leegold
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:59 pm

Totally newbie simplest boot disk

#5 Post by leegold » Tue Jul 26, 2005 8:11 am

Hi,

I want to take you advice and customize with a simple DOS disk - my next questions are very newbie:

1. Other than:

command.com
io.sys
msdos.sys

What should be on the floppy? I have tried boot disks with too much on them which crash w/UBCD - so what needs to be there? eg. I don't suppose I should make ramd or worry about drivers - whats the point of doing that on a boot CD? So, what should I add to the basic three files?

2. You say to mount the CD? I assume you don't mean the unix mount command - in DOS stuff like this is abstracted away - all I do is (if cd is letter t) a>t: and I get the CD. So exactly what is the code to "mount" and where do I put this code? In a .bat on the floppy?

3. If I want a .exe program to be available to me on the floppy and also to to pipe other apps on the cd thru it - can I just put it on the floppy or do I put it with other apps on the CD?

Thanks

Victor Chew
Posts: 1368
Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:59 pm
Contact:

#6 Post by Victor Chew » Tue Jul 26, 2005 8:06 pm

You can create a basic bootable floppy disk using the command:

Code: Select all

format a: /s
Alternatively, if you are using Win2K/XP, you can right-click on the A drive icon, select "Format" and enable the option "Create an MS-DOS startup disk".

When I say "mount the CD", I mean loading the driver for the CD and assigning a drive letter. This one is a little tricky. You need to load the right CDROM driver in CONFIG.SYS, and run MSCDEX.EXE in AUTOEXEC.BAT to assign it a drive letter.

You can of course put any app you want on the floppy by copying the relevent files, but it will be heavily constrained by the disk space (up to 2.88MB).

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