Making a DOS boot disc

jgibson · Post by **jgibson** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 6:46 am

totokan wrote:Thanks! but now, i have a (probably stupid) question:
How do i make sound work? when i tried it in windows, the sound worked, but when i started up the computer with it, it ran the game without sound.

It probably has something to do with the drivers. Drivers are programs that tell the computer how to use a device either installed in your computer or connected to it. Your sound card has one of these drivers installed within Windows. When you use a bootdisk, the computer reads the autoexec.bat and config.sys on the disk to see if there are any drivers it needs to load. Since you do not have the DOS based drivers on the disk, the computer doesn't know you have a sound card on your computer. Try going on line and getting the DOS based drivers for your sound card. If you don't know what kind of sound card you have, download a generic Sound Blaster driver. I have found that most sound cards will accept generic Sound Blaster drivers. If you get the wrong driver, don't worry, it won't damage your system or sound card, it simply won't work. When you download the driver, make sure you include it in your config.sys file. Hope this helps.

totokan · Post by **totokan** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:46 pm

how do i include in the config.sys file?

MM007 · Post by **MM007** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 1:13 pm

Type it in manually. and add the driver files....I'd like to find those files too...^^

goodie · Post by **goodie** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 3:05 pm

totokan wrote:how do i include in the config.sys file?

Add a line like this into the CONFIG.SYS

Code: Select all

DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS

That's assuming your file is named DRIVER.SYS, of course.

Then in AUTOEXEC.BAT, you'd probably need to add a line like this:

Code: Select all

SET BLASTER=DRIVER.SYS

Or something like that. You might also have to set the IRQ and stuff.

nos_slived · Post by **nos_slived** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 6:49 pm

MM007 wrote:Type it in manually. and add the driver files....I'd like to find those files too...^^

To find your sound driver and the sound IRQ, go to Start>>All Programs>>Accessories>>System Tools>>System Information and go to Components>>Sound Device. In the list it should have "IRQ Channel" and "Driver". For the IRQ list, go to Hardware Resources>>IRQs. What you have to do once you find it, is one thing that this all knowing beast doesn't know.

This works in XP, and probably works in 2000. I don't currently have access to 95/98/ME, so unless somebody posts the equivilent, you have to wait until next week. I might spend some time later trying to find the drivers in Linux, but I don't know if I will. Somebody might want to post an equivilent for that too.

BTW: Unless you can get DOS to access your harddrive, don't forget to copy the audio driver to your bootdisk.

BTW MM007: I got your email with the 2600 bootdisk, but there wasn't any attachments. I sent you a reply, but you haven't sent anything back yet.

nos_slived · Post by **nos_slived** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:48 pm

Sorry for the double post, but I couldn't find it in Linux. If you have Windows, you can log in on Windows and get it there.

MM007: Read the second BTW above.

MM007 · Post by **MM007** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:09 pm

Hmm....that's odd...I'll try again...

totokan · Post by **totokan** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:07 am

ok, so i know where my sound device's driver is. can i just use that in the bootdisk?

nos_slived · Post by **nos_slived** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:17 am

Copy it to the disk and do what Goodie said.

Post by **bicostp** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:31 am

http://easymamecab.mameworld.net/html/snddosdr.htm
^DOS SoundBlaster drivers

They've also got asstd. info and drivers.

Trv · Post by **Trv** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:13 am

I got the boot disk to work but without sound. When i put the sound driver on the disk, i get a message algon the lines of "Not enough memory"..... What am i doing wrong

Also, is it possible and if so how can i make a cd nes start-up disk?

Unidentified Assilant · Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:43 am

I'd like to try the SNES one, but some SNES games are too big for it to work properly, obviously a floppy disk, maybe I could make some SNES Boot CD's instead, surely I could fit tons and tons of SNES roms on!

Now someone can tell me... how do I make a boot cd?

Undisclosed · Post by **Undisclosed** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:55 pm

someone should really post a how-to on how to make one of these dos boot discs

HK-47 · Post by **HK-47** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 1:34 pm

Unidentified Assilant wrote:I'd like to try the SNES one, but some SNES games are too big for it to work properly, obviously a floppy disk, maybe I could make some SNES Boot CD's instead, surely I could fit tons and tons of SNES roms on!

Now someone can tell me... how do I make a boot cd?

*cough...*
http://www.google.ca/search?q=how+to+make+a+boot+cd

goodie · Post by **goodie** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 1:38 pm

Noob wrote:I got the boot disk to work but without sound. When i put the sound driver on the disk, i get a message algon the lines of "Not enough memory"..... What am i doing wrong

Also, is it possible and if so how can i make a cd nes start-up disk?

Your conventional memory must be full. Find the file HIMEM.SYS and copy it to your disk. Then add this line to the top of your CONFIG.SYS:

Code: Select all

DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS

Then in CONFIG.SYS, change all the rest of the lines that have DEVICE= to DEVICEHIGH=
I think that should fix it.

As for making a DOS boot CD, it's quite simple. First, make a DOS floppy. And set it up to load your sound, video, and cdrom drivers. Once you've done that, get a program that supports making bootable CDs (I believe Nero does). Start it up, and choose the option for making a bootable CD. It will ask for a floppy to get the boot image from. Choose the floppy you just made. Then it will ask for the rest of the files you want on the CD. Now select all the ROMs you want to put on it. Burn the CD. Set your BIOS to boot from CD if it isn't set already, and you're done.