China DOS Union

This is my first time making a boot disk, and there are many things I don't understand. Please teach me.
First I made a boot disk with XP, then I downloaded the CD-ROM driver apicd214 from this site. After running it I got a lot of files. I only copied VIDE-CDD.SYS into the boot disk, then added DEVICEHIGH=VIDE-CDD.SYS to config.sys. Next I booted with this disk, and the screen showed CD-ROM dirve #0 found on 170h port master
devece, but when I type d: after the prompt it says Invalid drive specification. What's going on? My hard disk only has drive C:, so the CD-ROM should be D:. Where did I go wrong?

It needs parameters... just find any boot disk and have a look...
Also, in autoexec you need mscdex.exe for the corresponding setup.

It should be that MCDEX was not loaded

Then how should it be loaded? Could you help me write the configuration, and then I'll add it to autoexec and config. My requirement is very simple, as long as it can see the CD-ROM drive. Thanks.

For example:
DEVICEHIGH=VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:IDE-CD
MSCDEX /D:IDE-CD /S /K

Take a closer look at the boot disks made by our moderators!

I have the same problem as the OP. No matter how I rewrite those two files, it still won't work, and it never finds the CD-ROM drive. Please help me, everyone.
I want to make a boot floppy containing SMARTDRV.EXE、HIMEM.SYS、FORMAT.COM、GHOST.EXE(0.97M), and of course it also needs MOUSE.COM, VIDE-CDD.SYS, and MSCDEX.EXE. (If there isn't enough space, FORMAT.COM can be left out)

CONFIG.SYS：

device=a:\himem.sys /testmemff
device=a:\emm386.exe noems
devicehigh=a:\vide-cdd.sys /d:mscd001
dos=high,umb,auto
files=30
buffers=30
stacks=9,256
lastdrive=Z

AUTOEXEC.BAT:

set EXPAND=YES
SET DIRCMD=/O:N
set comspec=a:\command.com
path=a:\;c:\
lh a:\mouse.com
lh a:\mscdex.exe /d:mscd001
lh a:\smartdrv

The above was written according to your requirements. This is only the most basic configuration. If you want a better configuration, please refer to the boot disks by the moderators.

Many thanks, moderator, it worked! Looks like I'll have to come here often from now on and learn some DOS.
Also, unfortunately, there wasn't space to copy in EMM386.EXE. Will that have much impact? Thanks again!

The following is quoted from QEYU's post on 2003-7-3 19:24:37:
Also, unfortunately, there wasn't space to copy in EMM386.EXE. Will that have much impact? Thanks again!

How could there be no space to copy in EMM386? Just take a look at my Super MS-DOS 7.10 boot disk and you'll know:
http://newdos.yginfo.net/dosware/mdos71bd.zip

The following is quoted from Wengier's post on 2003-7-3 19:30:15:

The following is quoted from QEYU's post on 2003-7-3 19:24:37:
 Also, unfortunately, there wasn't space to copy in EMM386.EXE. Will that have much impact? Thanks again!

How could there be no space to copy in EMM386? Just take a look at my Super MS-DOS 7.10 boot disk and you'll know:
http://newdos.yginfo.net/dosware/mdos71bd.zip

Sorry to trouble you, moderator, but please take a look for me. Some things were copied from your Super MS-DOS 7.10 boot disk, and the three main files are 8.00. Please see how I can adjust it a bit.

I don't think there's really anything to adjust. Without EMM386 you just lose some UMB space. As long as you aren't running software under DOS that needs around 590K of memory, the memory left after loading your device drivers will definitely be enough.

The following is quoted from nre's post on 2003-7-3 20:27:13:
I don't think there's really anything to adjust. Without EMM386 you just lose some UMB space. As long as you aren't running software under DOS that needs around 590K of memory, the memory left after loading your device drivers will definitely be enough.

Thanks!

The boot disk that comes with WIN98 doesn't have EMM386.EXE either. If you're only using it as a simple maintenance or installation boot disk, then EMM386 doesn't seem all that important. But if you want it to do more, EMM386 becomes indispensable (or some other expanded memory manager).
Without EMM386, HIMEM.SYS can't do all that much either.
If space is insufficient, you can make the commonly used tools into an archive (in fact, you only need to make GHOST into a CAB archive), then extract it into a virtual RAM disk at boot time. All the boot disks by the moderators on this forum are made this way.

The following is quoted from yiyesong's post on 2003-7-3 21:16:50:
WIN98's built-in boot disk does not have EMM386.EXE. If you are only using it as a simple maintenance or installation boot disk, EMM386 does not seem all that important. But if you want it to play a bigger role, EMM386 is indispensable (or some other extended memory manager).
If there is no EMM386, HIMEM.SYS also cannot do much.
If there is not enough space, you can make the commonly used tools into an archive (in fact, you only need to make GHOST into a CAB archive), and then extract it into the virtual RAM disk when booting. All the moderators' boot disks on this forum are made this way.

I have a different view. I remember from books I read before that HIMEM。SYS manages extended memory, making it possible for DOS to access extended memory above 1M. EMM386 manages the 384K UMB between 640K and 1M, and HMA. When necessary, EMM386 can simulate that 384K UMB for use as expanded memory. In terms of function, EMM386 and HIMEM do not really overlap, nor do they have any master-subordinate relationship. Whether there is EMM386 or not has no effect on HIMEM, so there would not be any such thing as “if there is no EMM386, HIMEM.SYS also cannot do much”