6.22

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This image is either non-bootable, or it uses a boot or compression method not supported by Rufus.

Wolfenstein 3D (1992)

Rufus author here.

Back in the day, I used MS-DOS quite a bit until Windows took over, and I’ve still got some nostalgia for MS-DOS. I’ve been wanting to find a pdf of the 6.22 manual for a while now, but have so far been unsuccessful in finding one. So, I figured that maybe someone at Microsoft knew where I could find one. If this isn’t allowed for some reason (I’m guessing this forum doesn’t support questions about MS-DOS?), I’ll retract the question. Thanks for any help you can give me.

If you are having trouble with UnetBootIn (which is supposed to work with ISOs), you may want to use a floppy disk image instead. There is one available from the same site.

I’d come across that guide but disregarded it because it was creating a Windows 98 DOS bootable. I also wouldn’t have thought the version without FreeDOS support would have helped because I wasn’t selecting FreeDOS while creating the bootable USB. Regardless, I’ve just tried doing so, and it results in a different error: i.imgur.com/53aKC8b.jpg

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@DanielB Yes, I should have specified clearer that I was talking about computers in the Windows 98 era, when USB INT13h emulation can not be taken for granted.

Rogue (1985)

Is it at all possible that the ISO from AllBootDisks is faulty? If it’s not the ISO, then how else can I create a bootable flash drive for MS-DOS 6.22?

From the main Rufus page, I’ve tested versions:

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As explained here, Rufus does not embed any version of MS-DOS with the application, so it doesn’t matter what version of Rufus you use, you won’t magically get a specific version but the Windows Millennium DOS version that Windows provides (that is, up to Windows 8.1, since Windows 10 removed it altogether, so there’s no MS-DOS creation option in Rufus if running on Windows 10 or later).

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. which both produce the following error when selecting the ISO:

According to this link, it’s not possible at all to use Rufus to create a bootable USB for specific versions of MS-DOS.

3 Answers 3

Now, your expectation is that Rufus can create an MS-DOS bootable USB if you provide your own version (as an ISO, or something else). This is not the case. Rufus cannot be used to create an MS-DOS bootable USB drive except a Windows Millennium one, if you are running Windows 8.1 or earlier, and, because the demand for such a feature is exceedingly small (at this stage, I have to point out that the amount of people who have been able to claim that they have found a genuine flaw in FreeDOS that forces them to use MS-DOS currently stands at exactly zero, as most of the «issues» that people have with FreeDOS only have to do with a slightly different way to handle AUTOEXEC.BAT / CONFIG.SYS or menus, which is easily addressed and does not constitute a DOS incompatibility), I have no plans whatsoever to ever add that functionality as I have 100% confidence that FreeDOS can always be used in lieu of MS-DOS.

Microsoft Windows 3.1 (1992)

Around the time when Windows 98 was mainstream, bootable MS-DOS CDs and USB drives used a 1.44MB floppy disk image as the actual boot target. The CD/USB drive stores the floppy image either visibly on the file system or invisibly outside of a partition, and the computer would boot to a virtual A: drive. If access to the CD/USB drive is desired after boot, the appropriate driver must be present on the floppy image and loaded.

This version of Rufus only supports bootable ISOs based on ‘bootmgr/WinPE’ or ‘isolinux’. This ISO image doesn’t appear to use either.

The only way I would ever consider adding this feature is if the following conditions are met:

A family of Microsoft operating systems that run across personal computers, tablets, laptops, phones, internet of things devices, self-contained mixed reality headsets, large collaboration screens, and other devices.

@binki That is basically what I did when I needed to use DOS to install a BIOS patch. I had a USB Linux, and edited the boot menu to have an option that points to an MS-DOS floppy image. The disk emulation persists beyond merely booting—it would be useless if it didn’t, since a full bootup requires accessing files after the initial boot.

At least in some cases, booting from the floppy image requires features implemented in BIOS. (I remember trying to make a rescue disk on a state-of-the-art 32MB USB drive, and there being different instructions for BIOS that support USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, USB-HDD, etc.)

By contrast, UNetbootin seems to accept the ISO when creating the bootable USB, but booting into it causes the boot loop described here.

Short of these two conditions being met, I will respectfully request that you either use FreeDOS (which, again, I have yet to see fail compared to MS-DOS in terms of compatibility) or another utility than Rufus.

Nine Princes in Amber (1985)

Because most modern firmware (BIOS/UEFI) does in fact support INT13h access to USB mass storage, drivers are a non-issue. You wouldn’t use a floppy image, of course.

. all of which produce the following error when selecting the ISO:

If you don’t feel like hunting down period-appropriate documentation and tools, your best bet is probably a MS-DOS floppy image paired with a modern bootloader that supports memdisk features. syslinux / isolinux and GRUB4DOS comes to mind.

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IBM OS/2 1.0 (1987)

Ohio Scientific Challenger 1P (1978)

Microsoft Adventure (1981)

Microsoft Windows 3.0 (1990)

PC Magazine Utilities (1987)

Источники:

https://www.calculateme.com/length/meters/to-feet/6.22&rut=a455f40c252bc33f78b868098317cfe4efd2c96ecb9102bda19caacb1b7c5bcc
https://www.pcjs.org/software/pcx86/sys/dos/microsoft/6.22/&rut=635c00f6690024d225aadcc699ad4d6c5e9472b5dee0b8570ee35356f6c257fd
https://oldcomputermuseum.com/os/msdos_6.22.html&rut=6f73548374efcea804e2201cea4eabdb03243e1ca959284c66e23b1df6d7b73f
https://winworldpc.com/product/ms-dos/622&rut=480027a8954bf79625994784b9f008795356e302f1ce1cd143525cf46fb1fcbf
https://community.spiceworks.com/t/installing-ms-dos-6-22-when-traditional-methods-fail/1009163&rut=0147df97bce349bd6305ec64768b0067703fb51a2b06431872e4478c88136cdb
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1281952/looking-for-a-pdf-of-the-ms-dos-6-22-manual&rut=356152e2223f3bdddcd0cdbb590974a87e5b31fb071f310ab0b00bd760a65a2f
https://superuser.com/questions/1228065/how-do-i-create-a-bootable-flash-drive-running-ms-dos-6-22&rut=ab7a5b84074c12ac294cc01e22e92d02328f0844b64b61e9d0ea71d6e6ff42f6
https://www.legroom.net/howto/msdos&rut=0f72ffe3b984e132893dcdc9698ca127b83bd3da43d68bec26cd6a86edecf5e9
https://www.legroom.net/index.php/2013/08/11/how-install-and-configure-ms-dos-622-yes-really&rut=edbaf3207ef240afafa4e79fe43e762a2d6047799014abcd1d43e7ef80a984d5