Installation Question

Hi all!

I run several machines, all are multiboot with DOS 6.22 and Windows NT/2000/XP/2003. Most of them have no CD and no floppy. Currently I use the DOS-version of PowerQuestPartitionMagic 8 which is installed in the DOS partition. So the partitioning is independent from the (Windows-) OS and there is no installation of PartitionMagic in Windows necessary.

I would like to switch to Disk Director, but an installation like above is a precondition.

Looking to the rescue media, there seems to be a small Linux from where Disk Director is started. So some questions came up, where I could not find answers in the documentation or FAQ:

- Is there a real DOS-version of Disk Director available?

- Is it possible to start the Linux-version of Disk Director from DOS? (E.g. with loadlin or similar methods)

- Is it possible to include the mini-Linux from the rescue media into the standard Windows boot manager?

Any hints to make an installation on a partition, but not in Windows, are welcome!

regards
GuBoVi

 

GuBoVi:

There are actually two versions of Disk Director (DD) on the rescue media. The so-called "Full" version is Linux-based and the so-called "Safe" version is DOS-based. The full version supports USB, SATA drives, wired Ethernet, and other hardware provided that the included Linux drivers support your hardware. The safe version does not support Ethernet. USB devices are not supported either, unless your PC's BIOS has support for them at boot-time.

You might also be able to play around with the DOS-based "safe" version of the program and get it to run from your DOS partition, but I've never tried that. I don't think that a standard DOS version was used to construct the program (the startup file is named bootwiz.sys).

I currently have installed both versions to a small logical partition at the end of my laptop's hard disk so that I can run DD (and Acronis True Image) without needing to carry around a rescue CD. That sounds somewhat similar to what you would like to do. To do this you need to have a boot manager; I currently use GRUB but you could use the included OS Selector. You should probably also be able to copy the boot sector information and use the standard Windows boot manager but I've never tried that. I don't prefer to use Microsoft's boot manager because it doesn't hide and unhide partitions like other boot managers.

Here are a couple of links that describe some ways to do this:

1. Easy setup using TrueImage
2. Manual method

 

I have tried this with FreeDOS and the program ran. I think I tried DD and TI, but I know I tried one of them. The program seemed to run (I did not test estensively), but it crashed on exit because it couldn't restart the Acronis Menu (the Safe Mode versions normally drop directly back to the Acronis Menu without rebooting). This means you have to reboot the computer after you exit. But it's probably worth a try. Maybe the results would be different with MS DOS 6.22.

 

Thanks for the hints, I was able now to install Disk Director (safe version) in the desired way: within a small DOS installation on HD, callable from the DOS prompt.

It was quite easy: I created an USB rescue media, on this USB media some exe's appear. One of this exe's is the DOS version of Disk Director. That exe can be copied to the DOS partition.

Next question would be: Is it somwhow possible to start the full version in the same way? I know it is linux based, but I also know there are some methods to start linux from a DOS prompt (like loadlin)! Up to now my own tries in this case were unsuccessful.

regards
GuBoVi

 

GuBoVi,

If you haven't already read this thread, you might get some ideas from it. You probably just need to use the correct .DAT files with LoadLin.

I might try this later. Post back if you have any success.