[REQUEST] MS-DOS replace HDD mirror image not working?

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

I got a MS-DOS with an IDE hard drive that is going bad.

Spoiler: Original drive that is dying.

and this is the IDE drive I got to replace it

Spoiler: New IDE drive

I took both drives out
plugged them into a USB to IDE adapter into my Win10 x64 workbench PC.
Ran MiniTool PartitionWizard (free edition)
Used the "copy disk" tool.
For my copy options I picked "copy partitions without resize"

and tried twice,
Once with "Align partitions to 1 MB." checked
and once without it checked.

Kept the "Use GUID Partition Table for the target disk" unchecked. (the box was not checked)

and then once the copy was complete, I put the new drive into the computer and booted and got this screen:

Spoiler: New drive screen

and it would never go any further. It'd just sit there, waited 5 minutes to be sure...

So I took the drive out and tried with the "Align partitions to 1 MB." unchecked

and got the EXACT same result.

So I put the original drive back in and booted up, and everything went just fine.

Spoiler: How it's supposed to look

sits on this screen for about 8ish seconds with the "starting MS-DOS..." and then all that below starts puking onto the screen. It needs to end up like this. This is the goal.

So the original drive is still perfectly fine. but it is screaming LOUD, so it is time to replace.

I didn't get into the repair game until Windows 7 was mainstream #I'mOnly23

I need some old-timer help please!

This is for a close friends business, so I'm not charging out the wazoo or pushing them to upgrade POS systems... I want to just replace the drive if possible.

 

[red12049]

use a boot floppy to partition and format new hard drive. Try to use the same version of DOS as on old drive. Copy all data from old to new hard drive. Restart computer.

Rick

 

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

use a boot floppy

I do not have whatever that is... :/

 

[JoelM]

Wow. The fact that you don't know what that is makes me feel old...
Also seeing LANtastic. Those were the days.

You need to break out your floppy drives.

 

[Sky-Knight]

What are you using to image? I've had very good luck with Clonezilla and that old stuff

 

[JoelM]

My first hard drive, once I upgraded to a hard drive in my computer, was 10MB. I no longer had to boot off my 5.25 floppy.

 

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

What are you using to image? I've had very good luck with Clonezilla and that old stuff

Minitool partition wizard free edition.
It works great when I've used it multiple times with Win7 & Win10... But this is a whole different thing.

Cheeky sod.

You might need to track down a copy of the installer for whatever version of MS-DOS you have on this dinosaur,

...I didn't know there are different versions of MS-DOS...

are you certain there is no way to just clone the disk?

I almost envy you - it looks like a fun project.

You can have the project. Come by anytime!

I thought it'd be a easy clone-n-go service.

 

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

Now option "B" is "Run full backup" (last image)

I got a few empty floppys sitting in a box a customer donated... Could I run backup onto some floppys than put in that WD drive I have and the run boot from the floppys and install? Or does it not work like that?

 

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

Oh, will take a look as soon as I can. The biggest problem is they are open more days, and longer days than I am (open before me, after me, and more days than I am....) So it's hard to get time with the computer. I may be able to look at it tomorrow.

Will update once I try that ^

 

[backwoodsman]

Wow, there's a blast from the past. Don't know when I last saw a Phoenix BIOS, or LANtastic.

Back in the stone age you had to tell the BIOS the cylinders/heads/sectors of the drive. That's why those specs are conveniently located on the old drive's label. Most IDE drives should translate whatever the BIOS is looking for, but if the MS-DOS format was done with different geometry parms, it may not boot. That's probably what you're running into.

If you punch the new drive's geometry into the BIOS, you might get lucky and it'll boot. If it doesn't, then probably the only solution is to use MS-DOS to partition and format the new disk, then copy everything to it. The old drive probably has what you need to do that, if you press X to exit to DOS.

 

[Mick]

Wow! However this turns out, I just love this thread. I'm starting to feel really knowledgeable (at last) !!

 

[Markverhyden]

Yes, DOS has a 2gb disk size limit. What is the machine doing? I've probably got a few that are 2gb or less lying around. And yes, you should use clonezilla. DOS also does not do GUID, only MBR

 

[trevm999]

It looks like you also don't have a jumper on the new IDE drive, did you transfer the jumper to the same setting? - that's the extent of my old knowledge

 

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

Yes, DOS has a 2gb disk size limit. What is the machine doing? I've probably got a few that are 2gb or less lying around. And yes, you should use clonezilla. DOS also does not do GUID, only MBR

It's running a point-of-sale program for the dry-cleaners beside me, called "Control Cleaning System"

Once it becomes a reasonable hour, Im going to call the owner and see if he has any floppys laying around that may have DOS and such on it.

 

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

 

[Diggs]

Wow. The fact that you don't know what that is makes me feel old...
Also seeing LANtastic. Those were the days.

LANtastic! Sigh, my first networks were built on LANtastic. ....feeling old.......

@add - I've got a customer still running DOS because his farm program from the University needs DOS. I've asked him to urgently consider upgrading because his hardware is ancient (even by my standards) but I'm not so sure I want the job. I would virtualize DOS I think. All he needs is printed reports. Getting everything moved without him missing a beat worries me the most.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I repeat... Clonezilla...

New drive as master of secondary controller, primary drive as master of primary controller, optical as slave of secondary controller, boot to CD.

Cylinder limitations of the mainboard will be present, image source to destination disk, pull primary out of system and move secondary master to primary master, move secondary slave to secondary master.

Yes, I've done this before... I've done it for more OS/2 Warp than I care to imagine, because IDE 2.5" drives are commonly used in old phone system's for voicemail storage. This is how I reman those cards to get the PBX back online while a new one is sourced.

But the real solution is a new POS system, this one isn't supportable anymore. And that 2GB limit? Yeah... that wasn't he only one... I remember the 250mb limit, 500mb limit, 1gb limit, 2gb limit... I lived through all this crap.

Replace the system, it's over.

Though virtualization is an option too...

 

[johnrobert]

I was having problems doing a clone with Acronis when I swapped drives it was complaining about Quick books licencing
until I made an image then restored from that
Does not make any difference what data is on H/D DOS or anything
boot from an IDE computer

 

[Philippe]

The message "Starting MS-DOS..." from the 3rd picture indicate the BIOS is loading IO.SYS (a boot file from ms-dos).
Try to rename / move out of the way the files "config.sys" & "autoexec.bat" and see what it does on boot...

No boot -> hdd problem. Try a smaller partition (the smallest) or find a smaller drive

Edit: Maybe you can try to put both drives in the PC (slave & master) and see if you can access or partition (fdisk) and format the new one (format x: /s).

 

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

I repeat... Clonezilla...

New drive as master of secondary controller, primary drive as master of primary controller, optical as slave of secondary controller, boot to CD.

Cylinder limitations of the mainboard will be present, image source to destination disk, pull primary out of system and move secondary master to primary master, move secondary slave to secondary master.

Yes, I've done this before... I've done it for more OS/2 Warp than I care to imagine, because IDE 2.5" drives are commonly used in old phone system's for voicemail storage. This is how I reman those cards to get the PBX back online while a new one is sourced.

But the real solution is a new POS system, this one isn't supportable anymore. And that 2GB limit? Yeah... that wasn't he only one... I remember the 250mb limit, 500mb limit, 1gb limit, 2gb limit... I lived through all this crap.

Replace the system, it's over.

Though virtualization is an option too...

This is way above my head...

I'd need a step-by-step video or images...

I believe my generation gap is showing!

Doing a new desktop with Win10 and a MS-DOS 6.22 VM? will that work? I've done basic VM setups before, so its not all cold water. Not sure if DOS works like that?