Installing Win 3.1 And Dos

[Joeberg]

Hello,

I had bought this computer, which specifications are as follows : 170meg HDD, 33MHz 486 Processor, and 12 MEgs of RAM. When I boot this computer, The only responce from it is "Missing An Operating System." I have A full version of Win 3.1, and when trying to install, A HDD error is presented to me. If anyone can help, it would be very appreciated
Thanks.

[GaryRouth]

Well, to tell you the truth, I was hoping another tech with a better memory would answer this one. . . since it's been a good long while since I've seen Windows 3.1 . . .

Where did you buy this PC? Did they mention whether or not DOS was already installed (If so, something is a bit wrong: since you should have seen a C: prompt instead of "Missing an Operating System"

By golly I can't remember if the Win 3.1 floppy disks have the DOS install on the first few disks or not. On my old 486 I had a separate set of disks for DOS. You see, DOS has to be installed first, since Windows 3.1 runs "on top" of that. Look around in your 3.1 disks, and see if Disk 1 is bootable. If not, see if you got a set of DOS install disks with the others when you bought your pc.

I imagine you'll have more questions, I'll check back a bit later - maybe a DOS/3.1 tech will come by and help too

. . . Gary

[juppy]

Hi Joeberg,
Gary is right. The DOS was on a separate set of disks from Windows 3.1 and (as far as I know) had to be loaded first. I'm thinking like Gary here; I don't believe DOS was "integrated" into the Windows operating system yet so you have to load a working version of DOS, then load Win3.1. I still actually have my original backups from when I had 3.1 and there are four floppies for the DOS backup and six for Win3.1. I'm not sure how they would've loaded Windows on the hard drive without having DOS there already. Seems like it would probably need it somehow....maybe not. Anyway, yes you should have to install a version of DOS in order for Windows3.1 to work.

[HAL9000]

Yes.. you need DOS loaded first, then Win3.11. What exactly is the error that you're getting.

[DougL]

Hi Joeberg

You need the three floppy discs of DOS version 6.2. Load those first and then it should take win3.1

Doug

[Joeberg]

Hello Everyone and THankyou for your help
See I have DOS 6.22 On 1 floppy, and when trying to install Dos, where you should type in the destiniation of the files, an error comes up that Dos is unable to install and performs a very basic installation on th a diskette (So i need the Dos Diskette every time to achieve a C:/ Propmt) And naturally Win 3.1 does need dos to install..... after you boot with the dos floppy,( the one i created) it asks you for the date and time, then an A:/ Prompt. At the A:/ Prompt, If you type C:/, it'll naturally become C:/> however any command on the C:/ prompt will result in "Invalid Media Type Reading Drive C:/, Abort,Fail,Retry......
If anyone can help me with the problem it would be greatly appreciated and Thankyou To everyone who already has.....

[HAL9000]

Sounds like you don't have a partition created on your hard drive and that it needs to be formatted. Boot from your DOS disk and type in FDISK to create a partition.

[GaryRouth]

. . . and to add a little spice to Hal's suggestion, when you run fdisk, and create a Primary DOS partition (you can use this for both DOS and Windows 3.1), you can re-install the DOS 6.2 to the hard drive before you install Windows 3.1 - that way you won't have to boot from the floppy all the time.

Sounds like fun, I haven't had a 3.1 machine in a long time . . .

. . . Gary

[Parangles]

What on earth are you trying to do ? No illegal chemicals came closer to destroying my sanity than 3.1. Don't mess with it !
The machine sounds state of the art. 8 Mb RAM was like 256 now.
12 was definately bordering on excessive.

[glc]

Dos 6.x came on a set of 3 floppy disks. You need all 3 to do an install. The hard drive has to be partitioned and formatted first, you can do this from the Dos install disk #1 by hitting F3 (if my memory serves me right) instead of proceeding with a setup, and running FDISK from the A prompt - take care of the partition, then boot again, same procedure, and run FORMAT C: from the A prompt. Then you can boot one more time and do the setup. Once DOS is setup, you can start installing Win 3.1 by putting its disk #1 in, changing to an A prompt, and typing SETUP.

With this all said, the specs on that machine do lend themselves very nicely to an installation of Win 95 original if you have a CD drive. My first Win 95 machine was a 486SX33 with 8 megs ram.

[Iman74]

I have to ask the one thing nobody asked yet. Why did you buy this relic?

[Doobie]

I'm more interested on where you bought 3.1, I have been looking for it for the longest time, for my 486.

[HAL9000]

LOL... I can still buy Win3.11 NEW from one of my suppliers

[glc]

Doobie: Dig around and see if you can find a WinNT 3.51 Server CD somewhere - it has a full install of Win for Workgroups 3.11 on there in a clients directory somewhere. Installs real nice and fast off CD instead of messing with 7 floppies.

[Doobie]

Originally posted by glc Doobie: Dig around and see if you can find a WinNT 3.51 Server CD somewhere - it has a full install of Win for Workgroups 3.11 on there in a clients directory somewhere. Installs real nice and fast off CD instead of messing with 7 floppies.

Thanks... Will Look...

[Joeberg]

Hello Everyone and Thankyou for all your help!

I had done everything everyone had told me (thanks ALOT everyone) and formatted C:/ and then installed DOS and then 3.1.The machine is running great. Again thank you everyone as with out anyone's help i would still be stuck here with an old laptop collecting dust on my computer desk :^)