Installing win3.11 on newer machine

I've just been given a set of windows 3.11 diskettes. Thought it would be fun to install in on my AMD XP2000+, MSI KT3 Ultra system.

Is this even possible?

Sure would be alot faster than on the 40Mhz machine I last used Win3.11 on. :D

As long as you have a partition of 2GB or less to install it on, then yes, it should work.

Microsoft KB: Maximum Partition Size Using FAT16 File System

Also keep in mind that you'll need to install DOS first, (preferably MS-DOS 5.00 through 6.22). Windows 1.01 through 3.nn run on top of DOS.

Thanks Vernon, gave this a try today.

First, when I run DOS setup it tells me the format isn't compatible with DOS 6.22.

So I exit setup and format directly from the A: prompt.

Now the error I get is:

"Setup cannot install MS-DOS 6.22 on your computer. An error was detected while formatting your primary hard disk partition."

This occurs after it has seemingly completed the format.

I'm trying to put it on partition 2 while hiding the 1st partition with BootMagic. The partition is just under 2G and is set as primary and active.

Any ideas would be appreciated. TIA

Sounds like the partition may have been created using FAT32 instead of FAT16. MS-DOS doesn't recognize FAT32. FAT32 was introduced with Windows 95 OSR2, (OEM Service Release 2), sometimes referred to as Windows 95B.

If your hard disk is larger than 512MB, when you run FDISK to create a partition with Windows 95B through Windows Me, you get the following prompt:

Code:

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Your computer has a disk larger than 512 MB. This version of Windows
includes improved support for large disks, resulting in more efficient
use of disk space on large drives, and allowing disks over 2 GB to be
formatted as a single drive.

IMPORTANT: If you enable large disk support and create any new drives on this
disk, you will not be able to access the new drive(s) using other operating
systems, including some versions of Windows 95 and Windows NT, as well as
earlier versions of Windows and MS-DOS. In addition, disk utilites that
were not designed explicitly for the FAT32 file system will not be able
to work with this disk. If you need to access this disk with other operating
systems or older disk utilities, do not enable large drive support.

Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)...........? [N]

---

If you answer "Y"es, FDISK will create the partition using FAT32. If you answer "N"o, FDISK will use FAT16.

Windows 95 OSR2.n, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows 2000, Windows Me and Windows XP are the only Microsoft operating systems that can access FAT32 volumes. MS-DOS, the original version of Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 do not recognize FAT32 partitions, and are unable to boot from a FAT32 volume. Also, FAT32 volumes cannot be accessed properly if the computer is started by using another operating system (for example, an original Windows 95 or MS-DOS boot disk).

Thanks Vernon, but I tried formatting FAT16 first with PartitionMagic, then with the DOS 6.22 setup disk. The DOS setup disk doesn't give the option of large disk support or of formatting FAT32.

I also d/l'ed DOS 6.20 and DOS 6.21 boot disks and tried formatting with each of those. Looking at the disk after each forrmat with Ranish Partition Manager showed FAT16 as the file system each time.

The DOS 6.22 setup disk gives the option of creating and formatting unallocated space. So I deleted the partition with PartitionMagic and ran DOS 6.22 setup again, letting it create the partition. Still no luck.

what size hard drive are you attempting it on if memory serves these early fdisk and format apps wont support todays large drives?

With the Dos disks you boot with disk 1 and format FAT16 pre install.

BTW there is a cheat but it will leave you without the DOS applications and that is to sys the drive then install Win 3x.

If you going to use it for web browsing IE5.01 was the last 16bit MS browser available or Opera 3.62 as an option.

104456, it's a 30G HDD but the partition I'm trying to install on is 2G. I also tried shrinking the partition down to 1G and finally to 500MB but no go.

Just a thought while i try to find info on MS Dos,perhaps you could try DR Dos ?

On a quick search I came up with several posts reffering to using DOS version 7.10 with W3x which seems to work.
follow the links

Quote:

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4.1 MS-DOS
MS-DOS is the most-used DOS and most compatible :) It's very stable, but it doesn't has as many features as some of the other DOSes. It's not developed any more and it's difficult to buy it (the only chance would be something like ebay...). MS-DOS 7.x is part of Windows 9x and Windows ME contains MS-DOS 8.0. The versions > 7.10 support FAT32 and partitions > 8 GB.

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Quote:

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Note that there is a bug in Win 3.x and WFW 3.x, which may cause Win3.x/WFW3.x to show the following message: "PageOverCommit value in SYSTEM.INI is too large. Decrease the value, or if not present, add a setting that is less than 4." when using 386 Enhanced Mode. This ONLY happens IF the memory of your system is MORE THAN 256MB, since Win3.x/WFW3.x has a problem using that much of memory(>256MB~1024MB) as the swap file. To get rid of this problem, just set the value of "PageOverCommit" in [386enh] of SYSTEM.INI to 3 or less, e.g. PageOverCommit=2.

[/url]

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http://newdos.yginfo.net/msdos71.htm#mwbd

Got it installed.

The problem was setup wouldn't recognize my second partition on my primary HDD as where it should install. Even though I had hidden the first partition with PartitionMagic.

It was trying to install on the 7.8MB leadin on my secondary drive.

So I created a 500MB primary partition at the start of my primary drive and installed there.

Edit: What a tiny OS, (30mb) I can Ghost it in less than 5 seconds. :D

Microsoft claims that Windows XP is the fastest-booting Windows ever. But on a 1.2GHz Celeron, from power-on to mouse pointer and full desktop, DR-DOS 7.04 and Windows 3.11 for Workgroups beats XP hands down. Even if I hibernate XP, WfW is still ready to use before I get to the login screen of XP.

Now, if only I could get Battlefield: 1942 to run under Windows 3.11-- I'd be set :)

For more fun:
ftp.microsoft.com/peropsys/windows/public/tcpip has the software you need to use IE and other TCP/IP applications with Windows 3.x... enjoy