Hi!
I need help.
I recently got a computer with win98, but I decided that I would put dos and win98. So, I fdisk-ed the 6GB like this:

1-500MB partition for DOS
2-1500MB partition for w98
3-the remaining 4GB for data, and such

I got out my dos install disk set, which didn't work, so I did format /u c:, and then I did sys c:, and installed dos manually (using expand.exe). When I want to reboot, the hard disk status light comes on during memory check, then BIOS checks for the floppy, but the computer freezes and the disk gives no sign of life. Can someone help? By the way, the computer does NOT display "invalid system disk, replace blabla" nor "OS not present".

If you set the drive up as FAT32 (Win98 large disk support) DOS622 won't recognize it.

What OS did you use to 'sys' the hard drive?

Not real sure how you're installing both DOS622 & Win98 - are you using a boot manager, or are you planning on working from boot floppies?

If you install DOS 6.22 or earlier then Windoze will overwrite some files, the only way around this is to use a Boot Manager.

Therefore you have two choices first as I mentioned is to install a Boot Manager, second is to use say DRDOS 7.03 or Free DOS 7 on Drive C:

If you want to use DOS for occasional use you could work from a Boot Floppy.

To solve problems of FAT16 and FAT32 conflicts, format your disk as FAT16 max partition size of 2GB, or use Free DOS 8 Beta which will allow you to use FAT32 on the whole drive

see www.mwpms.uklinux.net

I used linux's fdisk to partition the disk, and I chose the
DOS 16bit >32MB
type. I haven't installed w98 yet, so there is only dos6.22 on my computer. I have a dos 6.22 boot disk, from which I did sys c:

but I noticed something strange: The harddrive status light in front of the computer stays on from the moment it's on, and never turns off (as it should normally, when it's idle). Could it be a hardware problem?

Linux fdisk... ok, that seems like an odd choice - but what do I know?

Hard drive light on typically is due to the IDE cable being reversed - doesn't seem that likely if you were able to work with the drive.
Sometimes this is caused by the CD drive - if you access the drive it might stop (dir/w or whatever)

OK - Win98 is basically just another version of DOS with a highly integrated GUI (Windows) - if you install it you'll overwrite your 622 boot sector on C:

"DOS 16bit >32MB" - ok, I'll assume that means a FAT16 partition without the (very old) 32Mb limit.

Might be time to start over - I don't think that you can accomplish what you're trying to do in this manner.

I still think that a boot manager would be the best choice, the other alternative is to use NT4 (OK) or W2K (you are on min spec and it would be slllooowwww) they do not overwrite DOS and install boot manager, though with NT4 you will need to re-initialise the DOS partition from within NT4.

I used linux fdisk because it lets me put more than 1 primary partition, and because I can choose which file system.
I didn't know w98 overwrot c:'s boot sector... Could I put instead w98 on c: and dos6.22 on d:? In that case, what kind of bootmanager do you suggest?

I don't believe that either one would let you install on anything other than C: (without a boot manager, anyways).

You could install '98 and have a separate 'DOS' directory and boot to 622 from a floppy - not the greatest, but it would work.

System Commander is pretty good, but it's a commercial product. Quite a few freeware ones - check the web.

I've never heard of anyone using Linux to setup a disk for MS-DOS systems - I don't know, but I suspect that this may be the source of the problem.

Or not ; )