Document 1105
BOOTING WITH DR DOS

Initials:
	BPT
	10/31/91
	GENERAL

Keywords:
	BOOT
	INSTALL

Description:
        In order to install DR DOS you must make sure that you are
        booting from a floppy in drive A:. DR DOS will not install
        from drive B:. DR DOS comes on 3 1/2 inch low density
        floppies and 5 1/4 inch Hi-density floppies. If you need
        5 1/4 inch low-density disks (360K) send in the coupon that
        comes with your DR DOS.

        If the boot disk hangs while trying to load, usually it means
        there is an incompatible or faulty piece of hardware.

	One of the things it can be is simply an older floppy 
	drive that is out of alignment.  Sometimes the situation
	can be salvaged by formatting a floppy on the boot drive
	with the old DOS, then doing a diskcopy. The potential 
	problem is that the diskcopy may not be able to read the 
	boot disk either. If you can't make a backup then it may 
	be necessary to get a replacement disk set from Digital
	Research (in case there is an actual error with the disk,
	which does sometime happen) or see about getting the 
	drives aligned.

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	Another problem is where you can make valid Diskcopies 
	but all you get is the message "Loading...". Here the
	potential problem may be the computer's bios. DR DOS 
	must be able to direct the system to the area where DOS 
	Kernel files are located. Older bioses are not able to 
	perform this function. If your bios dates from around
	1987 or earlier you may need an update.

	********************************************************

	And finally, if you can read the disks but are unable to 
	format a disk or make a diskcopy DR DOS may think you 
	have a different type of floppy than you actually have.
	Another symptom of this is if you are making a floppy
	installation and DR DOS asks you for 5 1/4" floppies
	when you actually have 3 1/2" floppies. If this is an XT
        type computer (by which we mean it has no CMOS config-
	uration program) then you can place a DRIVPARM state-
	ment in your CONFIG.SYS. Refer to the DR DOS manual to
	see how to use this parameter. DRIVPARM uses no RAM. It
	merely updates the DR DOS drive tables with the type
	drive you specify. If your computer does have a CMOS 
	setup program then you need to correct the entries for
        your floppy drives in CMOS.
