Ms-dos with NTFS hdd help needed

[Xellos2099]

I need some help here. I need to flash firmware on some computer parts of mine and it can only be done under native ms-dos. I know ms dos won't work with NTFS hdd so I converted part of my hdd into FAT32 with partition wizard.

However. the ms-dos 6.22 iso that I download from internet still won't recognize the hard drive that I have. The computer in question is using IDE cd rom and an IDE Hard drive. Drive C is formated into NTFS and I just converted some gig of fat 32 into drive D.

I tried cd c: and cd d: but no avail. One of the main issue is that for this to work, I must have access to the hard drive under native ms-dos enviroment for me to execute the software for the flash to happen.

Any suggestion?

 

[theevilsharpie]

Unless the flash process involves your hard drive in some way, it would be easier to boot to DOS from a USB flash drive.

 

[Xellos2099]

Well, that computer in question doesn't seems to support usb boot. I just digged out an old floppy of mine and I am trying to install the ms-dos 6.2 from there to see if there would be improvement over the cd version. The flashing software is located on the hard drive, so yes, I guess in a sense, it invovle in hard drive in some way.

 

[chusteczka]

Maybe http://www.freedos.org/ will help.

 

[sonoma1993]

MS DOS 6.22 doesnt even support fat 32, only FAT16. checkout bootdisk.com, they have some bootdisk that you can download that are from windows 95, windows 98, windows me, and windows xp that should support fat32

 

[lxskllr]

I don't know exactly what you're doing, but you may be able to do it from a virtual machine running DOS.

 

[theevilsharpie]

I don't know exactly what you're doing, but you may be able to do it from a virtual machine running DOS.

He's trying to flash some sort of firmware on his PC.

Flashing physical firmware from within a virtual machine probably won't have the intended effect, but I'm still curious as to what would happen. I think the OP should do it for Science :hmm:

 

[Xellos2099]

Anyway, I finish installing install freedos from cd but not sure to do afterward. Do I just need to put in a ms dos cd next during the next boot to get myself into ms dos command environment?

 

[lxskllr]

FreeDos=MS DOS for all intents and purposes. It should be compatible for your needs. Boot to FreeDos, and flash your hardware.

 

[Xellos2099]

Do I need a freedos bootdisk?

 

[lxskllr]

If you installed FreeDos, you should be able to boot directly to that. You shouldn't need a boot disk.

 

[chusteczka]

Boot from the FreeDOS CD and this will bring you to an MS DOS command line that should give you the proper environment for flashing your hardware.

 

[theevilsharpie]

As a (serious) follow up to my post, if you're having this much trouble booting to DOS, you may want to rethink flashing your hardware. DOS is very unforgiving of mistakes.

 

[C1]

It is true. You have not supplied enough information about what it is that you're trying to accomplish. A WIN98 or ME startup disk (either on floppy or made to CDR/W using Nero) should work if flashing the MB (eg, BIOS ). However, dont expect DOS to see USB devices.