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Messages - Tommy in Scotland

#1
Quote from: Andi on 2009.04.15, 14:44:55
One thing you can try is, download DFSee DOS boot disk, leave your harddisk in the system and boot from the DFSee floppy. Maybe DFSee shows you errors on startup about wrong CHS values or 'some bios can not boot' or something like that. Maybe this gives us a clue what's going wrong....

Thanks Andi, I'll give it a go next week when I have some time off work.
#2
I've tried a Windows 2000 hard drive in this (Celeron 400) PC now, and it booted perfectly. It originally came out of the Celeron 700. I made the clone of the OS/2 drive on the Celeron 700. Both machines have the same fsb speed. The Win2000 drive will boot on both PCs. The old OS/2 (source) drive also boots on both PCs, but the clone drive only boots on the 700(!?). The system is detecting something in the boot sector, otherwise it would say "Missing operating system" or "Invalid system disk". It just won't start OS/2, the white OS/2 block never appears. I'm also wondering if it could be an obscure motherboard fault. The CD ROM drive also will not boot, regardless of how I set it up in BIOS. Even if I set it as a first or second boot item, it never boots. I tried a Windows 95 CD and a Windows 2000 CD. It just bypassed the drive altogether. I swapped drives twice, and all three CD drives failed to boot. Perhaps there may be a link here... it might provide a clue as to why some drives will boot in this system and others won't.
#3
OK Ivan, I've done that. I still can't get it to boot. After post, the computer just goes to a flashing white dash in the top left corner of the screen. I cannot understand this... this drive booted perfectly in the Windows 98 PC, which is also a Celeron... just a different make and model of motherboard. I even transplanted the exact same Matrox G400 video card. There must be something else happening which is preventing it from booting. I've been through the BIOS settings and cannot find anything amiss.
#4
Oops! Yes Robert I put in the wrong floppy.  ::) But I'm still curious as to why the hard drive will not boot in this PC. The PC I made it on was also a Celeron with a 100MHz fsb. I am using the same video card. I cannot help thinking if it boots in one PC it should boot in the other.

OK since typing that, I have got the OS/2 Warp 3 Connect CD to load (using the correct floppies :-[) , and I have used it to access the hard drive via a command prompt. Unfortunately I don't know how to use cmd to tell the hard drive to boot, and if I did, how would I know what to fix? I tried typing chkdsk /fixmbr, but it said it "cannot accept the fixmbrc parameter". At least I can browse the hard drive's contents in text mode.

The CD is now sitting at the EASY Installation / ADVANCED Installation screen. As I don't want to overwrite my entire drive after spending so long setting it up, I have not gone past this point.
#5
Since submitting the above post I've put in the setup boot floppy just to see what it would do, and it says:

OS/2!! SYS01475
OS/2!! SYS02027
#6
I have been rebuilding various computers recently (OK I admit it was a Windows 98 PC... ahem...), and today I decided to put the OS/2 clone into the vacant 400MHz Celeron system, together with the correct Matrox G400 dual-head video card.

And guess what? It wouldn't boot! The system posted, then when the OS/2 block should have appeared in the top-left corner, there was nothing... except a flashing white cursor.

The system I made the clone on was a Celeron 700MHz system, and I used the same video card. I have checked the BIOS settings in the 400MHz computer and the hdd is detected as Pri.master and set as the second boot device after floppy. And yes I checked the floppy drive, which was empty!

I have tried rebooting several times, but it just goes to a flashing white cursor, no OS/2 block ever appears. Where may the system be going wrong, and how may I sort it most effectively?

I have the OS/2 installation floppies and CD ROM handy, but I thought I should ask before I do anything with them, just in case the problem does not require the installation media.
#7
Hardware / Re: Looking for a printer
2009.04.09, 10:51:55
Hi Pete, I'm happy to go ahead with the purchase. Is there a driver CD included?

If dealing is not allowed on this website I'll send you my E-mail address later today, I'm just off to work.  :D
#8
Hardware / Re: Looking for a printer
2009.04.04, 18:49:35
Hi Pete, that sounds interesting. Does it plug into a parallel port? Does it use 4 separate cartridges?
#9
Quote from: ivan on 2009.03.31, 15:28:24
Hi Tommy,

Sorry I missed the bit about increasing the partition size to one over 2GB.  I assumed when you said clone you meant just that, a partition the same size as the original.

Ah, I should point out, EASEUS DiskCopy clones a partition at a time, so my 545MB original drive was copied to the 4.3GB drive as a 545MB partition, and the same when copying to the 1.2GB drive. It appears there may be something at fault with the 4.3GB drive, as I made a clone of a WinNT4.0 hard drive on that same drive later on, and it also would not boot. But that no longer matters, I now have a booting clone which I can experiment with. The original can be kept safe, to avoid any unrecoverable disasters.

EASEUS DiskCopy never alters the partition in any way when copying, so your source partition will always be the same size on the copy. If you want to change the partition size, EASEUS also market a repartitioning utility. I have not tried that one yet.
#10
Hardware / Looking for a printer
2009.04.03, 11:54:50
I must buy a new printer. It must be able to print from OS/2 over a LAN (it will be set up on a Windows 2000 PC). What make and model would you recommend? Are the drivers easily obtained?
#11
Hi Robert and Ivan,
I am unsure as to why the Celeron PC would not boot to a CD. It was set in the BIOS to boot to CD first, then to hard drive second. I tried the CD drive as master, as slave, on Primary and Secondary controllers, and I even ripped out the drive and put another one in, but nothing made the PC boot. It did not matter what hard drive was in, or what type of bootable CD was in, I tried my bootable Easeus DiskCopy 2.3 CD, Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Windows 95 CDs, and no matter what I did the PC just said "Missing Operating System". I then put the hard drive into a fairly similar PC system with a 700MHz Celeron, and it booted to CD flawlessly. I finally got a working, booting clone of my OS/2 Warp3 Connect hard drive. I can now fiddle around with it without fear of losing everything as I have the original drive kept safe.

Once booted into OS/2, however, the CD drive does not show up under "Drives" or in the Win3.11 File Manager. So, any chance of loading software off the Hobbes CD is out, at least for the time being.
#12
Hi Ivan,
thanks for your reply. I might not get that done for a few days due to work, and also trying to sort a cloned Windows NT drive! But I'll get back to the OS/2 networking shortly. It is Warp 3 Connect, and it has a lot of Internet stuff in it, but being a 1995 OS it's all geared towards dial-up. I looked for TCP/IP setup but couldn't find it. I'll get onto it again shortly.

I'll also need to get the latest Fixpak for Warp 3 Connect in order to update the OS  in as many areas as possible, particularly it's inability to access a CD ROM drive.
#13
Networking / Installing TCP/IP in Warp 3
2009.03.31, 14:36:33
I have used the 3COM setup program to install my 3C509 card in my OS/2 Warp system. I would like to install TCP/IP so I may get file & print sharing to my Windows PCs, and also eventually access the Internet using Firefox via a proxy. The first question is where do I obtain a TCP/IP installation program for Warp 3 Connect? Can I share folders over my Windows Workgroup?
#14
Thanks everyone. I think RobertM has hit the nail on the head. This morning I started the whole process again, using a 1.2GB destination drive. Using EASEUS DiskCopy I did the same copy operation from the original 545MB OS/2 drive to the 1.2GB drive, and it successfully copied the bootable FAT partition. I have booted successfully into the new clone and have created a new 703MB HPFS partition in the remainder of the drive. It's great because I can experiment far more with OS/2 now, without fear of losing my data. If I corrupt it in any way I can remake it from the mould, so to speak.

I had to change computers as the 400MHz PC would not boot to a CD. For some bizarre reason, regardless of how I set the boot sequence in BIOS, the CD drive would not boot. I have never seen this happen before. I am now using a 700MHz machine for my OS/2 drive.
#15
Hi Ivan, my OS/2 drive is FAT, due to the fact I have DOS and Windows fw3.11 on it.

EASEUS DiskCopy 2.3 is a sector replication utility running from a bootable CD.

Where do I run SYSINSTX.COM? The drive does not boot at all... instead of the white OS/2 block in the top of the screen I just get a flashing white cursor. I suppose there is some boot activity taking place to allow this, otherwise the computer would say "Missing Operating System".