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"Invalid drive specification" when running a DOS bootdisk

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Erkan2

Technical User
Jul 19, 2006
1
SE
First of all, this was the most suitable forum I could find, even though I'm not entirely sure if it is related to Windows, or to a hardware problem. Sorry if posting this here causes any problems. Secondly, I'm not a programmer or anything, so bear with me please.

Alright, I'll just explain the entire situation.

The last couple of years really, I have had periods when I have had an extreme urge to play really old games (like Syndicate, Civilization, Lotus 2, and so on). Sadly, these games won't run on my Windows XP OS, and I have actually gone as far as trying to format some of my old computers and install windows 95 or 98 on them, but without result.


Now, yesterday I found a page where you downloaded an .exe file, which made a floppy into a bootdisk with mouse drivers and sound drivers and stuff, all you would need to play old games on a computer with Windows XP. Full of hope, I create a bootdisk, reboot my computer, and watch the bootdisk take over. Suddenly, it says "Invalid drive specification", and the progress stops, after going through some progresses and just finishing installing the mouse driver.

Then I think to myself, in good old fashion DOS feeling, "Well, maybe the games will run anyway when I start it, despite this error message". I try to change from A: (floppy) to C: (hard drive), and get the same message. I try to change to D: (CD) as well just to try it, and the same message appears.

Sad and low, I reboot my computer and return to Windows XP. My conclusion at this time was that the bootdisk I had gotten was flawed, but I decided to try to create a "normal" DOS bootdisk through Windows as well. When I reboot and come to DOS with the help of this floppy, and try to reach C:, I still get the same answer! Same goes for D:.


This made me happy at the time, since I thought to myself that there probably wasn't any problem with the bootdisk I had gotten from the homepage, but only some small problem I needed to fix on my computer instead.


Well, after a day of searching on the web for how to fix this problem, I still haven't got any answers. Has anyone got any idea what the problem could be?

So close, but oh, so far away...
 
Are these SATA or SCSI drives that DOS might not be able to access?
 
Bcastner hit on what I first thought of as well. DOS cannot access NTFS without some sort of driver (like SysInternals' NtfsDos).
 
Have you tried this?

"DOSBox also emulates CPU:286/386 realmode/protected mode, Directory FileSystem/XMS/EMS, Tandy/Hercules/CGA/EGA/VGA/VESA graphics, a SoundBlaster/Gravis Ultra Sound card for excellent sound compatibility with older games..."

"You can "re-live" the good old days with the help of DOSBox, it can run plenty of the old classics that don't run on your new computer!"

DOSBox is totally free of charge and OpenSource.



Does XP support 16 bit DOS programs?
thread779-760343
 
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