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No DOS files on SD card even though I'm booting from it

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First post, by retropc999

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Hi,

I’ve installed an IDE-to-SD memory card adapter on my 386 PC.

Using a 1.44 MB floppy disk, I managed to install MS-DOS onto the SD card, so now the computer boots directly from the SD card.

Currently, the only files on the SD card are a file called command.com (I think) and a directory I created with some DOS games.

So, where are the rest of the MS-DOS files? I’d like to edit them so that my floppy drive works properly again. Before setting up MS-DOS on the SD card, I was able to read, write, and use floppy disks normally.

Right now, I can read the contents of a floppy disk, but whenever I try to copy files or use any other commands with the floppy, I get the error: “Sector not found reading drive A.” My CMOS battery is dead, and I’m waiting on a replacement.

Now that I think about it, when I said I “installed MS-DOS,” I actually meant that I just created an MS-DOS partition using fdisk. So, maybe I haven’t actually installed MS-DOS—only created a partition, which might explain why I only have command.com on the SD card.

I’m new to MS-DOS and would appreciate any help!

Thank you for your time!

Reply 1 of 5, by PD2JK

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Any chance you (or something) 'transferred the system' ? i.e.; when you do:

sys A: C:

...it copies command.com / io.sys / msdos.sys and makes the c:\ drive bootable.

You only see command.com by default. *.sys files are hidden because of Explorer setttings.

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Reply 2 of 5, by retropc999

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I haven’t done that yet, and now, because of the issue with the floppy drive, I’m not sure if it will work.

Reply 3 of 5, by Azarien

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The minimal DOS bootable disk has only command.com, io.sys and msdos.sys. The two .sys files are usually hidden, so that normal dir won't show them (try dir /ah ).

I don't think your problem with writing floppies is related to how your DOS partition is set up.

I haven’t done that yet, and now, because of the issue with the floppy drive, I’m not sure if it will work.

If you SD card boots then it already has the necessary DOS files, somehow.

Reply 4 of 5, by retropc999

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So, does an MS-DOS installation not necessarily include utilities like chkdsk? Do I need to copy or use them from a disk?

Reply 5 of 5, by Jo22

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retropc999 wrote on 2024-10-25, 11:33:

So, does an MS-DOS installation not necessarily include utilities like chkdsk? Do I need to copy or use them from a disk?

Yes, an installation does. If a set of DOS installation disks is being used (three 1,44 MB disks+one essentials disks with old utilities).

By contrast a bootable disk does merely have command.com, msdos.sys and io.sys.

That's because back in the early days PCs had not always hard disk yet.
Sometimes, there was just a single floppy drive installed. 5,25" 360KB or 3,5" 720KB.

In these days, users had used a working disk with a minimal DOS system.
The rest of spare space on disk was used for DOS applications.

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