Manual MS-DOS Installation When SETUP.EXE Fails (117245)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22
This article was previously published under Q117245

SUMMARY

If a regular or manual installation of MS-DOS fails because SETUP.EXE does not run correctly, you may be able to use a batch file called EXPALL.BAT to perform a successful manual installation. EXPALL.BAT is discussed on pages 553-554 of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 "User's Guide." This file was originally designed to perform a network installation of Windows 3.0. In the steps below, it has been adapted to perform an installation of MS-DOS to the C:\DOS subdirectory.

MORE INFORMATION

  1. Boot your machine with Disk 1 (Setup) of the MS-DOS disk set you are upgrading to by inserting the disk in drive A and pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL. When the message "Starting MS-DOS ..." appears on the screen, press the F5 key to bypass MS-DOS Setup.

    IMPORTANT: If your Disk 1 fits in drive B only, you must first install MS-DOS to a floppy disk in drive A (use the command B:\SETUP /F). Then boot with the floppy disk created in drive A and follow the above instructions. If SETUP /F does not run, you must obtain a copy of MS-DOS that is the same media type as your boot disk drive and then perform step 1.
  2. Transfer the MS-DOS system files to the hard disk drive with the following command: 
          a:sys c:
  3. Make sure Disk 1 is no longer in drive A. Reboot your machine from the hard disk drive, and press F5 when the message "Starting MS-DOS ..." appears on the screen to ensure no unnecessary drivers are loaded.
  4. Create the directory C:\DOS.
NOTE: We do not recommended that you copy files from the disk created with the SETUP /F command to C:\DOS because all MS-DOS files are not present on that disk.

  1. Copy EXPAND.EXE from the MS-DOS Disk 1 (Setup) to the C:\DOS directory.
  2. Change to the C:\DOS directory on the hard disk, and create EXPALL.BAT with COMMAND.COM by typing the following lines (be sure to press ENTER after each line):

    COPY CON EXPALL.BAT
    %1
    FOR %%i IN (*.*) DO C:\DOS\EXPAND %%i C:\DOS\%%i
    C:
    CTRL + Z

  3. Run EXPALL.BAT with the source disk drive indicated (such as EXPALL A: or EXPALL B:). The command must be repeated for each disk you are installing.
  4. Rename the files expanded to the C:\DOS directory from their compressed names to their decompressed filenames.

    1. First rename the following files:

      rename dblspace.in_ dblspace.inf
      rename memmaker.in_ memmaker.inf

    2. Perform the following commands to rename the remaining files: 
            rename *.38_ *.386
      rename *.bi_ *.bin
      rename *.co_ *.com
      rename *.cp_ *.cpi
      rename *.dl_ *.dll
      rename *.ex_ *.exe
      rename *.ov_ *.ovl
      rename *.sy_ *.sys
      rename *.tx_ *.txt
      rename *.gr_ *.grp
      rename *.hl_ *.hlp
      rename *.ls_ *.lst
      rename *.pr_ *.pro
  5. Copy the files WINA20.386 and DBLSPACE.BIN (or DRVSPACE.BIN in MS-DOS 6.22) to the root directory, and set the attributes of DBLSPACE.BIN or DRVSPACE.BIN to Hidden, System, and Read-Only by using the ATTRIB command as follows: 
          c:\dos\attrib c:\???space.bin +r +s +h
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:11/21/1999
Keywords:KB117245
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.