Not seeing A drive in DOS

I'm looking at a 133 with wiped hard drive, no OS.

I plan to install DOS 6.22, then run Aida DOS to see what I have.

I put in the Dos boot disk #1, get the message NDTLR is missing. Never see
the A prompt.

I went into BIOS, it does read A, then C.

It is IMO seeing the A drive to give that error message, if I remove the
floppy, I just see "no OS".

How to see the A prompt to install DOS?

ms

"ms" wrote in message
...

I'm looking at a 133 with wiped hard drive, no OS.
I plan to install DOS 6.22, then run Aida DOS to see what I have.

I put in the Dos boot disk #1, get the message NDTLR is missing. Never see
the A prompt.
I went into BIOS, it does read A, then C.

It is IMO seeing the A drive to give that error message, if I remove the
floppy, I just see "no OS".
How to see the A prompt to install DOS?

If your DOS boot disk #1 is bootable (as it ought
to be) you should see an A prompt. Since you
got a DOS error message (NDTLR missing) it
looks as if the AUTOEXEC.BAT routine then
hung the system. (It is not supposed to do
this, but your 15-year-old floppy may have got
corrupted.)

Swift test.
1. From another PC, download from www.bootdisk.com
the DOS 6.22 boot disk file and execute it (to make a
startup floppy.)
2 If this includes AUTOEXEC.BAT
2a You can check that the floppy is bootable
by renaming that file AUTOEXEC.BAK and
booting. You ought to get an A prompt but
no other activity.
2b. You can check disk contents to be sure
everything called by AUTOEXEC.BAT and
CONFIG.SYS is available on the floppy.
2c. The disk ought to include SYS.COM.
You can use this to boot DOS 6.22 boot
onto the PC hard drive by:
A:SYS.COM C.
3. If the contents of your new bootdisk look
much the same as the DOS boot disk #1
that failed earlier, it may simply replace the
DOS boot disk #1 and allow you to run
SETUP to instal DOS 6.22 on the PC.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

snip.

I put in the Dos boot disk #1, get the message NDTLR is missing. Never see
the A prompt.

I went into BIOS, it does read A, then C.

It is IMO seeing the A drive to give that error message, if I remove the
floppy, I just see "no OS".

How to see the A prompt to install DOS?



You dos boot disk is defective
(it was formatted on an NT machine)

make a new bootdisk

you can get a new one from www.bootdisk.com

just click on the exe and put a floppy in the drive

"philo" wrote in
:

snip.

I put in the Dos boot disk #1, get the message NDTLR is missing.
Never see the A prompt.

I went into BIOS, it does read A, then C.

It is IMO seeing the A drive to give that error message, if I remove
the floppy, I just see "no OS".

How to see the A prompt to install DOS?



You dos boot disk is defective
(it was formatted on an NT machine)

make a new bootdisk

you can get a new one from www.bootdisk.com

just click on the exe and put a floppy in the drive



I don't follow your answer. It was a DOS install disk, not a windows boot
disk. The disk checks out fine in another machine. And my DOS disk was
certainly not formatted in an NT machine.

I can't even see the A drive, that's the problem.

ms

"ms" wrote in message
...

I don't follow your answer. It was a DOS install disk, not a windows boot
disk. The disk checks out fine in another machine. And my DOS disk was
certainly not formatted in an NT machine.
I can't even see the A drive, that's the problem.

If two disks known to boot DOS fail in this PC
it suggests the floppy drive is defective and
must be replaced. This should cost less than
$20 and is easy: just observe how the existing
drive was connected (which wires and oriented
how) and connect the new one identically.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

As mentioned by other posters, the floppy was created or modified
by an NT style system. You can create a DOS 6.22 boot disk at
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm . If you want to try to
restore the problem floppy, just type "sys b:" at the A:\ prompt.
When you are prompted for "Drive B:", insert the problem floppy.
You may have to remove and reinsert the floppies several times
before the system is fully transferred.

Ben

"ms" wrote in message ...
I'm looking at a 133 with wiped hard drive, no OS.

I plan to install DOS 6.22, then run Aida DOS to see what I have.

I put in the Dos boot disk #1, get the message NDTLR is missing. Never see
the A prompt.

I went into BIOS, it does read A, then C.

It is IMO seeing the A drive to give that error message, if I remove the
floppy, I just see "no OS".

How to see the A prompt to install DOS?

ms

"philo" wrote in
:

snip.

I put in the Dos boot disk #1, get the message NDTLR is missing.
Never see the A prompt.

I went into BIOS, it does read A, then C.

It is IMO seeing the A drive to give that error message, if I remove
the floppy, I just see "no OS".

How to see the A prompt to install DOS?



You dos boot disk is defective
(it was formatted on an NT machine)

make a new bootdisk

you can get a new one from www.bootdisk.com

just click on the exe and put a floppy in the drive


Sorry, you were on the right track, please see my reply to Don.

ms

"Don Phillipson" wrote in
:

"ms" wrote in message
...

I'm looking at a 133 with wiped hard drive, no OS.
I plan to install DOS 6.22, then run Aida DOS to see what I have.

I put in the Dos boot disk #1, get the message NDTLR is missing.
Never see the A prompt.
I went into BIOS, it does read A, then C.

It is IMO seeing the A drive to give that error message, if I remove
the floppy, I just see "no OS".
How to see the A prompt to install DOS?

If your DOS boot disk #1 is bootable (as it ought
to be) you should see an A prompt. Since you
got a DOS error message (NDTLR missing) it
looks as if the AUTOEXEC.BAT routine then
hung the system. (It is not supposed to do
this, but your 15-year-old floppy may have got
corrupted.)

Swift test.
1. From another PC, download from www.bootdisk.com
the DOS 6.22 boot disk file and execute it (to make a
startup floppy.)
2 If this includes AUTOEXEC.BAT
2a You can check that the floppy is bootable
by renaming that file AUTOEXEC.BAK and
booting. You ought to get an A prompt but
no other activity.
2b. You can check disk contents to be sure
everything called by AUTOEXEC.BAT and
CONFIG.SYS is available on the floppy.
2c. The disk ought to include SYS.COM.
You can use this to boot DOS 6.22 boot
onto the PC hard drive by:
A:SYS.COM C.
3. If the contents of your new bootdisk look
much the same as the DOS boot disk #1
that failed earlier, it may simply replace the
DOS boot disk #1 and allow you to run
SETUP to instal DOS 6.22 on the PC.


Thanks, Don.

The dos bootdisk did get me to an A prompt, I then formatted.

I haven't yet gone though all above, but did this.

Started my dos 6.22 install, it started OK, then said "insert disk 1,
enter". disk 1 was in the drive, I kept getting that error message. So I
went back to my master 6.22 disks, recopied to my 3 floppies. Again
tried, same result. It does read from the A drive, but that error message
in dos setup??

Advice?

"Ben Myers" wrote in
:

As mentioned by other posters, the floppy was created or modified
by an NT style system. You can create a DOS 6.22 boot disk at
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm . If you want to try to
restore the problem floppy, just type "sys b:" at the A:\ prompt.
When you are prompted for "Drive B:", insert the problem floppy.
You may have to remove and reinsert the floppies several times
before the system is fully transferred.

Ben

"ms" wrote in message
...
I'm looking at a 133 with wiped hard drive, no OS.

I plan to install DOS 6.22, then run Aida DOS to see what I have.

I put in the Dos boot disk #1, get the message NDTLR is missing.
Never
see
the A prompt.

I went into BIOS, it does read A, then C.

It is IMO seeing the A drive to give that error message, if I remove
the
floppy, I just see "no OS".

How to see the A prompt to install DOS?

ms

Thanks, Ben, not sure if the above is the answer to my results in reply
to Don?

ms

The dos bootdisk did get me to an A prompt, I then formatted.

I haven't yet gone though all above, but did this.

Started my dos 6.22 install, it started OK, then said "insert disk 1,
enter". disk 1 was in the drive, I kept getting that error message. So I
went back to my master 6.22 disks, recopied to my 3 floppies. Again
tried, same result. It does read from the A drive, but that error message
in dos setup??



As I said the floppy must have been formatted on an NT machine (or of course
win2k or XP)

you will need to format the floppy on a dos or win3x/9x machine