Is it possible to put the WFW install on 720k floppies?
Posted by Individual-Army-1688@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 14 comments
like the title says. I need to create WFW install disks, but only have 2DD floppies, not the HD floppies it is supposed to come on. Could I possibly image the files onto 720K diskettes if I split them up properly? Thanks.
Enough-Fondant-4232@reddit
I did 90% of my installs, back in the day, by copying all the floppies up to a Netware network drive and installing directly from there. After many hundreds of installs I can't remember if WFW came on 720K's or 1.44mb floppies? It seems like you could get it in either format. If you have enough hard drive space you could always copy all the floppies up to a hard drive subdirectory and install from that subdirectory.
After installing WFW and the Windows apps I would always zip the entire install to a single file. Then when it inevitably corrupts itself I could delete the install and unzip the fresh install. This saved my customers a lot of billing hours / money but I had VERY LOYAL customers... and the confidence there was no shortage of printing or backup problems to bill for.
Individual-Army-1688@reddit (OP)
is there a way to configure a netware drive on a modern computer that the older one will be able to see over the network?
Enough-Fondant-4232@reddit
Netware was the network OS of the time. ANY network share should allow you to install WFW from it. Since you are probably installing WFW on top of DOS you are going to need a network server that you can connect to from DOS.
orion3311@reddit
Better yet, use zip disks, OR, get you a laplink cable and use interlnk/intersvr.
IndigoAdkins@reddit
I do not have another computer of this era, just the one. Nor do I have a zip drive, zip disks, a laplink cable, etc. The question is pretty straightforward. Is it possible to create a set of install disks for the upgrade from win 3.1 to WFW on 720k instead of 1.44MB disks?
mega_ste@reddit
'Maybe' but Probably Not.
the installer will know which disks the files it needs are located on, and as 720 is literally smaller than 1.44, you CANNOT put the entire disk contents on a smaller disk. So you will have to copy some files to one disk, and the rest to another, but then the installer will fail as it will not be able to find a file that is assumes in on the disk it is currently reading. You -may- be able to then swap to the other disk and cross your fingers, but as an Old Person who used to look after computers of this era, I would be very very surprised if it works.
dst1980@reddit
You are likely to encounter another problem with 720K disks on a modern system. Many USB drives only understand 1.44M disks, and a motherboard with FDD header may also be limited to 1.44M drives.
If you can find an old 512MB or smaller CF card, a CF to IDE adapter would let you install the CF card as a second drive in the old system so you could format it there. You can then move the CF to a USB reader on your modern system and copy the contents of the install disks to the CF card. You can then install from the CF card and be on your way.
IndigoAdkins@reddit
A modern system is able to format and use a 720K disk by opening the terminal and using the command "format a: /f:720" or "format a: /t:80 /n:9"
dst1980@reddit
Only if the drive interface supports that. With 3.5" drives, it is more likely that it will work - the rotation speed matches and the data path is close enough that it is more reliable than HD/DD 5.25" disks. On the other hand, if the BIOS/adapter doesn't understand double stepping to read/write 720K disks, your format will step the head halfway across the media then stop.
JJDoes1tAll@reddit
If you have no other way to do it:
Copy as many files over to a single floppy as you can, then transfer them to somewhere like C:\WFWINST
Once you have all the files you need in your new directory, run the install/setup. It doesnt care if the files are on a floppy. It will install just fine. When (More like IF) it asks for DIsk 2, then just point it to the same directory.
It doesnt have to be installed from floppies.
IndigoAdkins@reddit
Thank you!
fondow@reddit
You need to create install disks, or you need to install WFW in a computer that only has a 720k floppy drive and no other way of transferring files?
Anyways, Windows 3.x is very flexible. What you could do on your modern computer, is to copy the content (or extract the images) of all the disks on a single folder, and then compress it on multiple 720k floppy disks.
You could also make your own 720k distribution by modifying the file setup.inf.
Look for:
[disks]
[disks]
1 =. ,"Disquette #1 Microsoft Windows 3.1",disk1
2 =. ,"Disquette #2 Microsoft Windows 3.1",disk2
3 =. ,"Disquette #3 Microsoft Windows 3.1",disk3
4 =. ,"Disquette #4 Microsoft Windows 3.1",disk4
5 =. ,"Disquette #5 Microsoft Windows 3.1",disk5
6 =. ,"Disquette #6 Microsoft Windows 3.1",disk6
Then add disk 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
All of the files named in setup.inf have a number before them: 2:WIN87EM.DLL
You need to change that number to make it fit the disk number.
Not a simple task, but not impossible.
IndigoAdkins@reddit
Thank you!
DominantDan24@reddit
I used to have WFW on a CD; you could do that. Get a basic cd unit and burn a WFW cd to load it.