====================================================================== Microsoft(R) Product Support Services Application Note (Text File) PD0744: GENERAL INSTALLATION QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ====================================================================== Revision Date: 4/93 No Disk Included The following information applies to Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Upgrade. -------------------------------------------------------------------- | INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT AND ANY SOFTWARE THAT MAY | | ACCOMPANY THIS DOCUMENT (collectively referred to as an | | Application Note) IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY | | KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO | | THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A | | PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The user assumes the entire risk as to the | | accuracy and the use of this Application Note. This Application | | Note may be copied and distributed subject to the following | | conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and | | all pages must be included; 2) If software is included, all files | | on the disk(s) must be copied without modification [the MS-DOS(R) | | utility DISKCOPY is appropriate for this purpose]; 3) All | | components of this Application Note must be distributed together; | | and 4) This Application Note may not be distributed for profit. | | | | Copyright 1993 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. | | Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Windows | | is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. | | Digital Research is a registered trademark of Digital Research, | | Inc. | | IBM and PS/1 are registered trademarks of International Business | | Machines Corporation. | | Stacker is a registered trademark of STAC Electronics. | | SuperStor is a trademark of AddStor, Inc. | | Tandy is a registered trademark of Tandy Corporation. | -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Q. When I run the Setup program for the MS-DOS 6 Upgrade, my video display is unreadable; either the instruction lines are truncated or the screen text is unreadable. How can I correct this problem? A. If you are currently running a version of MS-DOS earlier than 6.0 and your monitor is not displaying the setup screens properly, use the following steps: 1. If you have not already done so, quit Setup by pressing the F3 function key twice. 2. Insert Setup Disk 1 in drive A or drive B. At the MS-DOS command prompt, type the following command and then press ENTER drive:\setup /i where "drive" is the letter of the drive containing Setup Disk 1. The /i switch disables automatic hardware detection. Since display problems can be caused by incorrect hardware settings, make sure you enter the correct display type when Setup prompts you for it. If the setup screens still display incorrectly, you may need to manually install MS-DOS 6. For instructions on how to do this, refer to pages 196-197 in the "Microsoft MS-DOS 6 User's Guide." 2. Q. Setup repeatedly prompts me to insert the same disk or indicates that my Uninstall disk is not the correct disk. How should I troubleshoot this problem? A. Your computer may contain memory-resident or disk-caching programs that prevent Setup from correctly reading the floppy disk. Remove or remark out any memory-resident programs that are started from the AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS file, restart the computer, and then run Setup again. If the problem persists, you may be able to successfully install MS-DOS by using the following steps: 1. Create a temporary directory on your hard disk. To do this, type the following at the MS-DOS command prompt and then press ENTER md drive:\directory where "drive" is the disk drive on which you are creating the temporary directory, and "directory" is the name of that directory. For example, to create a temporary directory named TEMP on drive C, type the following at the MS-DOS command prompt and then press ENTER: md c:\temp 2. Use the COPY command to copy all files from the MS-DOS 6 Upgrade disks to the temporary directory. To do this, insert Setup Disk 1 in drive A or drive B. At the MS-DOS command prompt, type the following command and then press ENTER copy drive:\*.* destination where "drive" is the floppy disk drive containing Setup Disk 1 and "destination" is the drive location and directory name of the temporary directory. For example, if Setup Disk 1 is in drive A and you are copying to the TEMP directory on drive C, type the following command: copy a:\*.* c:\temp Repeat this step for each MS-DOS 6 Upgrade disk. 3. Run the Setup program for the MS-DOS 6 Upgrade from the temporary directory. 3. Q. Can I install the MS-DOS 6 Upgrade on my IBM(R) PS/1(R) computer? A. You can upgrade to MS-DOS 6 if you have an IBM PS/1; however, if your IBM PS/1 is configured to boot from read-only memory (ROM), you must first change your system configuration so that it can boot from your hard disk (usually drive C). To do this, use the procedure in the section titled "Your computer is an IBM PS/1, and you cannot start MS-DOS" on pages 203-204 in the "Microsoft MS-DOS 6 User's Guide." 4. Q. Can I install the MS-DOS 6 Upgrade on my Tandy(R) computer? A. You can upgrade to MS-DOS 6 if you have a Tandy computer; however, if you have one of the Tandy computers listed below, it is possible that your computer uses ROMDOS, which must be disabled before you can install the MS-DOS 6 Upgrade. Methods for disabling ROMDOS vary depending on the model of Tandy computer you have. For instructions on disabling ROMDOS, contact Tandy Technical Support. 1000HX 1000SL 1000SL2 1000TL 1000TL2 1000TL3 2500XL 2500XL2 5. Q. I am using the Stacker(R) disk-compression program. When I run MS-DOS 6 Setup, I receive the message "Your computer uses a disk-compression program and does not have enough free disk space to set up MS-DOS." How should I troubleshoot this problem? A. This error occurs if Stacker has allocated so much disk space on your primary MS-DOS partition for storing the Stacker volume file (SVF) that there is inadequate disk space to install MS- DOS 6. To work around this problem, you must increase the free space on your uncompressed drive. For instructions on increasing the size of the uncompressed drive, refer to page 186 in the "Microsoft MS-DOS 6 User's Guide," consult your Stacker documentation, or contact STAC Electronics Technical Support. 6. Q. I think that one of my MS-DOS 6 Upgrade disks is defective. What should I do? A. To determine if an original MS-DOS 6 Upgrade disk is defective, use the following steps: 1. Insert the disk that you suspect is defective in drive A or drive B. At the MS-DOS command prompt, type the following command and then press ENTER copy drive:\*.* nul where "drive" is the letter of the floppy disk drive containing the disk. This command forces MS-DOS to read all the files on the disk and copy them to the NUL device. When NUL is used as a device for testing purposes, files copied to it are discarded without being written to the disk. 2. If you receive an error message, such as "Data error reading" or "General failure reading," during the copy process, the disk is probably defective. To order a replacement disk, call Microsoft Consumer Sales at (800) 426- 9400. If you do not receive an error during the copy process, the disk is probably not defective. If you continue to encounter problems while installing the MS-DOS 6 Upgrade, refer to the "Diagnosing and Solving Problems" chapter in the "Microsoft MS-DOS 6 User's Guide." This chapter addresses a number of issues that can cause problems during Setup. 7. Q. I want to upgrade my Digital Research(R) DOS (DR DOS) installation to MS-DOS 6. How should I do this? A. You can upgrade from DR DOS to MS-DOS 6; however, before you run Setup, you should first review the following precautions and carry out those applicable to your system: - If you have any security features, including password protection, disable them. For more information, refer to page 187 in the "Microsoft MS-DOS 6 User's Guide." Warning: The MS-DOS 6 Upgrade Setup program cannot create an Uninstall disk if your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file is password protected. If any of your DR DOS system files or your DR DOS directory is password protected, use the DR DOS PASSWORD command to disable password protection before you install MS-DOS 6. - If you have the DELWATCH delete-protection program installed on your computer, you must disable DELWATCH and purge your deleted files before you install MS-DOS 6. For the procedure to do this, refer to pages 187-188 in the "Microsoft MS-DOS 6 User's Guide." - If your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file uses any conditional DR DOS commands (such as ? or GOTO), remove those commands and adjust the order of the remaining commands accordingly. - If your CONFIG.SYS file contains the DR DOS CHAIN command, remove it and adjust the other CONFIG.SYS commands accordingly. - If your computer uses disk compression, but drive C is not compressed, run Setup as described in the "Getting Started" chapter of the "Microsoft MS-DOS 6 User's Guide." When Setup displays the message "Your CONFIG.SYS file contains commands that are not valid MS-DOS commands," select the Modify Original Files option. - If your hard disk is compressed, carry out the procedure in the section of the README.TXT file titled "Setup detects that your computer uses DR DOS." - If Setup displays the message "Your computer uses a disk- compression program and does not have enough free disk space to set up MS-DOS," you must convert your DR DOS 6 SuperStor (TM) (SSTOR) compressed drive to an MS-DOS 6 DoubleSpace drive using the procedure below. This is necessary because the DR DOS 6 SuperStor utility does not provide the functionality for increasing the size of your uncompressed host drive. 1. Using the DR DOS BACKUP command, back up your program and data files. For more information on using the BACKUP command, refer to your DR DOS documentation. 2. Insert the MS-DOS 6 Setup Disk 1 in drive A or B and use the SETUP command with the /f switch. For example, if you insert Setup Disk 1 in drive A, type the following at the MS-DOS command prompt and then press ENTER: a:setup /f Important: After you type the above command and Setup prompts you to insert a disk to create the startup floppy disk, you MUST create that disk in drive A. Also, be sure that you choose to install on drive A. 3. Make sure that the startup disk you created in step 2 is in drive A and then restart your computer by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL. 4. Use the MS-DOS FORMAT command to reformat all your drives. When you format drive C, be sure to use the /s parameter to make the disk bootable. To do this, type the following command at the MS-DOS command prompt and then press ENTER: format c: /s 5. Use the MS-DOS 6 RESTORE command, which is located on the startup disk you created in step 2, to restore your program and data files. For example, to restore your files from drive A to drive C, type the following command at the MS-DOS command prompt and then press ENTER: restore a: c:\*.* /s Important: Do NOT restart your computer before proceeding to step 6. Note: If some of your files cannot be restored to your hard disk because you don't have enough disk space, you need to install the MS-DOS 6 Upgrade, run DoubleSpace to compress your hard disk, and then restore your files. After you finish restoring your files, continue with step 6. 6. To remove your DR DOS files, install the MS-DOS 6 Upgrade again. To do this, insert the MS-DOS 6 Setup Disk 1 in drive A, type "setup" (without the quotation marks), and follow the instructions on your screen.