Windows Old school DOS/Utilities CD...

I'm gonna create a bootable Ghost CD for my PC so I can backup/restore my HDD (I don't have a floppy drive so CD is the only option).

I got hold of some of those 8cm CD-r's (220Mb storage), but I'm wondering what else I could burn to it as Ghost only takes up around 1.5Mb.

I'm thinking I might put a DOS 6.22 install on there, with all the drivers (I have a real desire to play some DOS games (and create some Duke Nukem levels!!)) and make some sort of boot menu...that's all I can think of ATM...hmm, thinking about it, I'd need to create multiple menu's to allow different driver variations to be loaded (ie, XMS/EMS memory configuration, whether or not to load mouse drivers etc (due to the 640k restriction))

If anyone has any ideas of what I could also stick on the CD that'd be great. I'm gonna head over to driverguide and start finding generic CD/Mouse/VGA drivers (as I'm sure a few of my friends would want a copy of the CD...)

Ooh, DOS networking utilities...anyone know of any?

...and another thing...USB support? I'm pretty certain you can use serial mouse drivers with a USB mouse, but what about keyboard support (any drivers for this, or will I have to enable BIOS USB support?) - thing is, I want this disc to be as universal as possible so I can use it on multiple machines/configurations...I'm not sure that all PC's have BIOS USB options...

Cheers guys

 

Nearly all Mobo's i've used in the past 4 years have had an option for a USB-Keyboard - good luck making the disk, sounds like a great idea

 

I'll have a proper look into USB keyboard drivers, as I'm sure most of the folks I know wouldn't really want to mess around in the BIOS (like one guy, he's had his computer for about 3 years but has never (ever) entered the BIOS!!)

Well, so far, there's:

Ghost (1.5Mb)
DOS 6.2 (around 10Mb)

...
Still got about 208Mb to spare!

 

You can try looking at www.bootdisk.com to give you some ideas of utils to use.

 

Well, looks like I may have to think this through a bit more.

I really wanted to make the CD universal so others can use it, but I didn't think about DOS 6.22 HDD limitations (DOS is FAT16 right?) - need to find a modified DOS that supports FAT32 and NTFS...dang!

As far as drivers go, that's all sorted (I've got hold of generic CD-ROM, audio and mouse/keyboard drivers).

Hmmm, when running a PC with DOS 6.22 (FAT16) and Windows98 (FAT32) am I right in thinking that DOS formats the driv in FAT16 and then Windows98 is just installed onto the FAT16 drive (ie, FAT32 is not used)??
Looks like I'll have to read through ntfs.com and see if there's any way around it...

Any help would be great!?

 

Well, decided to go with DOS 7.10 in the end as there are ways to make it support USB devices and NTFS formatted drives (quickly read about this one, I know you can access NTFS in read only mode but hopefully the app I'm using will allow read/write access).

Just need a generic sound card driver (gonna experiment with an old SB Pro driver, see if I can get it working with non SB cards)

Gonna do a lot of testing over the weekend, make sure it all works ok, and try it out on a few different machines...if and when I get this finished, I'll upload a Nero image for anyone to test (and if you could report problems, or make suggestions that'd be great)...

 

so are all these utils etc going to be menu driven (as in select which util you want to run, or will they be sorted by catagory in folders)?

 

Basically, you'll get a standard boot menu where you can select various driver combinations (ie, DOS only, serial/ps2 mouse drivers, USB mouse/keyboard/storage drivers, EMS memory configuration etc etc) - when I've got it sorted I'll jot down a load of variations depending on what you want to run (for example, if you just want to run a game, it'd only load mouse drivers (usb or serial), sound drivers, CD-ROM drivers, and possibly NTFS support (all optional), as to not use too much base memory).

ATM, the only app I can think of is Ghost, which will be listed in the menu...

I still need to test whether or not you can actually run DOS 7.10 from a CD (are there any DOS files that get written to?) - if not, I'll configure it so it creates a RAMdrive, and copies all the drivers etc to it, then executes them...

This is really just a way for me to play DOS games, but I thought I might as well try and make it universal so others can use it (plus I really feel like doing an old skool project )

 

just thought you could add some other useful utils such as partition managers, fdisk, format (i know the last 2 come as part of dos) and others that people normally keep on floppies that they can never find.

Delpart is a good util to have or memtest could be handy to have. what about PKzip or a Hexeditor or a filemanager.

what about all the available manufacturer hard drive utilities:
seatools (seagate)
Maxtor / Quantum
Wetsern Digital
IBM
Samsung
Fujitsu

theres loads more of other utils at http://www.bootdisk.com/utility.htm

i just thought that you seem to have a great idea, but could end up making it the ultimate resource cd for the tech savvy PC user. as well as being ideal for old skool games such as doom or Duke nukem.

just some ideas.

 

Thanks for those...

Last night I found this thread on the OCuk forum...seems to be the ultimate list of utilities...think I'll download the image and use all the useful apps on my own CD

I also found a DOS acrobat reader...may also stick that on too

 

This sounds like it could end up being a really useful + fun cd. Don't suppose you could post the link of the OCuk thread?
Keep us posted.

 

Well, the boot cd is located @ www.ultimatebootcd.com

After doing a few tests, I don't think that DOS 7 will work very well with modern PC's...
The USB mouse driver works, but uses around 100k base memory, and is quite slow (if you move the mouse the full length of your mousemat, the cursor only seems to move about 10 - 15 pixels...).
Also, the NTFS drivers allow read access only - no use for anyone (like me) that formats all of their drives/partitions in NTFS.
And I don't think a universal DOS sound driver actually exists...I tried a few Creative DOS drivers, but none of them work with my NF7 onboard sound - they may work with PCI sound cards though...

ATM, it doesn't look very promising, but I'll read into it a bit more and see if I can find anyone that's done something similar.