martin@cat.uucp (Thomas Martin) (09/07/90)
I have a problem installing OS/2 Vs. 1.2 (the IBM Version on 3.5"HD disks) on a Alps 386/16Mhz (no SX), 4MB RAM, ALPS BIOS dated 06/02/89, equipped with an Expert800 VGA board and a Seagate 4096. When inserting the install disk and booting, the system responds after approx. 3 seconds with the error message: "A disk read error occured. Insert a system d isk and restart the system." The same set of disks works without any problem o n our PS/2 Mod. 70. and Mod. 80. My investigation results so far are: Regardless, whether the OS/2 disks contain system files or not, this error message is always displayed. E.g. when insert ing Disk 5 (without any system) and rebooting the computer, the above mentioned error message occurs. I tried copying the disks to disks wh ich were formatted by the Alps386 and diskcopied them without any results. Rega rdless whether the disks where copied and/or formatted on the original PS/2 or the Alps386, all disks compared OK and always worked properly on the PS/2 and c aused this error message on the Alps386. The 3.5" disk drive is correctly set up as drive A: and identified as an 1.44MB drive to the BIOS. And so far I never had any problems concerning this disk dr ive. Even using it as a boot drive for DOS works fine. DOS boots without any pr oblems. The next step I tried was checking the boot sector of the OS/2 install disk, which disguised that the error message is part of the boot sector and no BIOS e rror message. So the drive seems to work fine. Then I tried booting from the In stall disk on a Toshiba 1200XE with 1MB RAM. Again, an error message occured bu t this time concerning not enough memory (again this message is a boot sector based error message). Furthermore, I tried installing OS/2 1.0 and 1.1 but both attempts failed causi ng exactly the same error message like 1.2. Finally, I just copied the OS/2 system files to a blank disk and booted. The re sult was a "Non-system disk" error message on the Alps386 though the PS/2 boote d without any problems from this disk. :-( The only cause for this problem I see now is, that while booting, OS/2 checks s ome BIOS routines and either does not find the proper routine to access the disk drive (meaning the error message does mean what is says) or OS/2 (the IBM Version!) looks out for some PS/2-special parts of the BIOS and this error message simply means that the (IBM)OS/2 Version would not be allowed to run on (not) 100%-compatible PC's. The question now is whether anybody ever encountered the same problem, whether it can be solved patching the disks or whether the only way is to find a new (a nd more compatible) BIOS. I would appreciate any help and hints how to solve this problem because I can n ot believe that OS/2 will only run on 'original' PS/2 or AT models. Thanks in advance, Thomas Martin --- Thomas Martin (martin@cat.uucp) C.A.T. Kommunikations-System, Frankfurt
prk@planet.bt.co.uk (Peter Knight) (09/12/90)
I have seen a similar problem attempting to install OS/2 v1.1 on non-IBM machines from IBM disks. I think there are differences in the hardware between IBM machines and compatibles, not just the BIOS. I do not know of any solution, except to go out and buy a non-IBM version (does your H/W manufacturer or his dealer sell OS/2 for this machine?) and try and load that. Peter Knight BT Research #include <std.disclaimer>
seifert@sun1.ruf.uni-freiburg.de (Ulrich Seifert) (09/13/90)
martin@cat.uucp (Thomas Martin) writes: >I have a problem installing OS/2 Vs. 1.2 (the IBM Version on 3.5"HD disks) on >a Alps 386/16Mhz (no SX), 4MB RAM, ALPS BIOS dated 06/02/89, >equipped with an Expert800 VGA board and a Seagate 4096. > >When inserting the install disk and booting, the system responds after approx >3 seconds with the error message: "A disk read error occured. Insert a system >disk and restart the system." The same set of disks works without any >problem on our PS/2 Mod. 70. and Mod. 80. > >My investigation results so far are: Regardless, whether the OS/2 disks >contain system files or not, this error message is always displayed. E.g. >when inserting Disk 5 (without any system) and rebooting the computer, >the above mentioned error message occurs. I tried copying the disks to disks >which were formatted by the Alps386 and diskcopied them without any results. >Regardless whether the disks where copied and/or formatted on the original >PS/2 or the Alps386, all disks compared OK and always worked properly on the >PS/2 and caused this error message on the Alps386. > >The 3.5" disk drive is correctly set up as drive A: and identified as an >1.44MB drive to the BIOS. And so far I never had any problems concerning >this disk drive. Even using it as a boot drive for DOS works fine. DOS boots > >The next step I tried was checking the boot sector of the OS/2 install disk, >which disguised that the error message is part of the boot sector and no BIOS >error message. So the drive seems to work fine. Then I tried booting from the >Install disk on a Toshiba 1200XE with 1MB RAM. Again, an error message >occured but this time concerning not enough memory (again this message is a >boot sector based error message). > >Furthermore, I tried installing OS/2 1.0 and 1.1 but both attempts failed >causing exactly the same error message like 1.2. > >Finally, I just copied the OS/2 system files to a blank disk and booted. The >result was a "Non-system disk" error message on the Alps386 though the PS/2 >booted without any problems from this disk. :-( > >The only cause for this problem I see now is, that while booting, OS/2 checks >some BIOS routines and either does not find the proper routine to access the >disk drive (meaning the error message does mean what is says) or OS/2 (the >IBM Version!) looks out for some PS/2-special parts of the BIOS and this >error message simply means that the (IBM)OS/2 Version would not be allowed to >run on (not) 100%-compatible PC's. > >The question now is whether anybody ever encountered the same problem, >whether it can be solved patching the disks or whether the only way is to >find a new (and more compatible) BIOS. > >I would appreciate any help and hints how to solve this problem because I can >not believe that OS/2 will only run on 'original' PS/2 or AT models. Unfortunately cannot come up with a solution but we had the same problem. I did more or less the same checks but gave up after discovering that the error message (german in our case) is part of the boot sector. Since I new that OS/2 was running on that machine we took a screwdriver (I guess there is no way avoiding to have one if someone attempts to do software development) took the drive to a different machine (also a clone which we knew to boot the disks) installed OS/2 1.1 EE over there and finally put the drive back into the computer where it belongs. We didn't have the time to find out more about that problem. My guess is that the boot sector on the installation disk is really looking for something specific. Anyway, on this PC (Siemens 286) OS/2 is doing just fine after being installed. I agree that it is no solution to solve the problem in the way we did but maybe it gives somebody an idea of what is going on. Ulf