[vox-tech] floppy madness

Leo Rainer vox-tech@lists.lugod.org
Wed, 28 Apr 2004 09:08:36 -0700


Some larger hard drives (IBM deskstars at least) have a jumper to reduce 
their capacity so that they can be used with an older BIOS. If you can live 
with less than 64GB then this may be an easier solution.

Regards...

         ...leo

At 07:05 AM 4/28/04, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I made a bootable CD using the "DOS" that comes with Windows 95.  It's
>the kind of DOS that says "Starting Windows 95" at boot time.
>
>I tried to run the executable that should upgrade the BIOS, but got the
>message:
>
>    A:\> bios_6bx.exe
>    This program must be run under Win32.
>
>Can someone tell me precisely what Windows 95 is?  I was under the
>impression that the DOS that comes with Win95 *is* actually win32.  It's
>the win32 kernel without graphics support.  At least that was my
>understanding.  Can someone explain what the relation is between Windows
>95 and the "DOS" that comes with it?
>
>
>It looks like I'll have to use Ryan's idea of finding a Windows hard
>drive to swap into this computer.  Bleah.  This computer has dual
>processors.  I hope that's not a problem....
>
>Pete
>
>
>
>On Tue 27 Apr 04, 10:43 PM, Mark K. Kim <lugod@cbreak.org> said:
> > Try burning the floppy image onto the CD, then boot off of the CD:
> >
> >    http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/floppy_image_on_cd.htm
> >
> > You can make a floppy image with a simple `cp /dev/fd0 ./floppy.img` under
> > Linux.
> >
> > You should be able to eject the CD after DOS boots off of it if you need
> > the CD drive.
> >
> > -Mark
> >
> >
> > On Tue, 27 Apr 2004, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> >
> > > I bought an 80GB drive for an old dual PII motherboard (Gigabit
> > > GA-6BXD).  Ultimate goal is to move a previous Linux installation which
> > > is currently on a failing drive onto the new drive.
> > >
> > > BIOS can't detect the new drive at all.  It hangs on autodetection.
> > >
> > > Googling revealed that I need to update the BIOS of the motherboard to
> > > recognize drives greater than 64GB.
> > >
> > >
> > > I have win95 on a floppy.  Goal is to boot win95 and run the executable
> > > that upgrades BIOS.
> > >
> > > The trouble is, BIOS won't boot off the floppy.  It doesn't even
> > > recognize the floppy drive at boot.
> > >
> > >    * I moved the floppy to another, newer, computer and it booted off
> > >      the win95 floppy just fine.
> > >
> > >    * Cabling is good.  Switching the ribbon around, the drive light
> > >      doesn't go off, which means I had it right the first time.
> > >
> > >    * I set BIOS to boot off of "A" first.
> > >
> > >    * BIOS floppy autodetect is set to "enabled".
> > >
> > >    * It appears that the computer doesn't even *attempt* to read the
> > >      floppy at boot.
> > >
> > >    * When I boot Linux, I can mount the floppy with no problems.  I just
> > >      can't boot off it.
> > >
> > >    * In Linux, I used dd to copy and create a new win95 floppy, just in
> > >      case the problem is that the drive couldn't read the floppy made by
> > >      another drive.  Didn't work.  But considering the computer doens't
> > >      even make the attempt to read the floppy, I'm not surprised.
> > >
> > > I'm ready to get a new, smaller, drive.  Before I do, any suggestions on
> > > what could be preventing booting off the win95 floppy?
> > >
> > > Pete
> > >
> > > PS- Gigabyte sucks.  Their motherboards are decent, but their website
> > > crashes galeon and causes havoc and chaos with Opera.  Completely
> > > non-functional.
>
>--
>Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.  -- Albert Einstein
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