General Computer Advice

Not necessarily. If it's OEM, that usually goes for about $70. This guy may have a bunch of office leftovers they threw out, and he's selling them lower because there's little to no overhead. I've seen that plenty often.

Well, I got Windows 3.1 on 3.5 inch floppies, but it won't install because apparently I shouldn't have let DOS take up my entire HD. Anyone know a way to set this up so it works properly? It's easy enough to run the setup for DOS again and just partition it like it asks during the setup anyway. The version I have is MS-DOS 5.0.

I did in 1993.

You need DOS as Windows 3.1 is just an app that runs on DOS. Windows 95 was a breakthrough for MS as it was the OS and didn't require DOS running underneath (although there's debate on how different it really was).

I've got a 2007 Dell I'll sell you cheap. It comes pre-installed with XP.

I already had one. XP would be too advanced for Star Trek: Borg, as it's 32-bit.

Does the game need windows 3.1 to run or just DOS? Most games from that era didn't actually run using windows.

Here's another option. DOSbox. Let's you run 16 bit software in an emulator on 32 bit machines.

Windows 10 allows you to run programs in compatibility mode (back to windows 95 anyway). Windows 7 probably does too.

Here's more.

It needs a 16-bit OS. I'm actually trying to get Windows 95, but since the two copies I got of it off of eBay are brand specific, I'm just going with an upgrade disk. So I need Windows 3.1 for that.

I've tried running Star Trek: Borg on an emulator, but it won't run.

Have you looked into usin MAME?

Nope. Not really interested at this point, though. I have the machine and the software, so all I need is to figure out how to get it to install properly.

ummmm. Windows 95 was 32 bit. It had 16 bit components left over from DOS and 3.1. which in turn were left over from the 8088, 8086, and 80286 processor days (70s, 80s). By the late 80s we were on 32 bit 80386 and 80486 processors. Operating systems were 32 bit but were backwardly compatible with 16 bit software. Windows 95 occupied an awkward time and game writers may have used 16 bit software that ran on it and nothing else...

DOS 5.0 supports up to 2GB hard drives. How big a drive is on the machine?

An HP Pavilion 4443 ran an AMD K6-2 processor (competitive with a Pentium II circa 1998/99). It may not be compatible with the older versions of DOS and 3.1. It looks like it came with a 3.2GB HDD so that could also be the problem with DOS 5.0 (2GB max). I don't know if DOS 5.0 works with partitions. You'd need software compatible with the hardware and OS. The list goes on and on.

Your HP 4443 is too new, you need an older machine. Just a guess though...

DOS is working just fine as far as I can tell. The original HD is gone, and there's a 4 GB compact flash serving that role now. Setup for Windows 3.1 is working up until you tell it to do the standard installation, at which point it says it doesn't have enough space on the HD and asks if you want to install it on a different one.

DOS 5.0 can't handle a 4GB drive. DOS and Windows 3.1 shouldn't be more than a few hundred KB. The drive isn't compatible with the OS.

DOS 6.22 and several key utilities easily fit on a single 1.44 MB floppy. You don't even need a 10 MB hard drive to get DOS + Win 3.11 up and running.
Steve2^4 is right -- DOS can't handle drives over 2 GB. You'll need to partition the drive down and reformat the drive to the FAT format. Can't recall if it's FAT 16 or 32 though. I'd probably make the partitions 512 MB each.

Oh my god, this takes me back to the days of my Zenith 286. ♥

I had a senior moment saying 3.1 would be a few hundred KB, a few thousand KB would be more accurate. I forget how many 1.44MB diskettes Windows 3.1 came on but it wasn't more than a handful.

I'm having traumatic flashbacks to my first PC. I agonized over specs and finally purchased a Micron Pentium PCI with a 60Mhz cpu, 1GB HD, and 8MB RAM. It cost a couple grand in 1995 (3 grand in today's dollars). It came with DOS and win3.1 with with a free upgrade to win95 when it released. The 1GB drive filled up pretty fast even then (forget why) so it was compressed giving 2GB storage but slowing things down. I got clever and bought a larger drive (10GB?) but the PC's hardware couldn't handle it so buying a PCI disc controller card for the new drive was necessary. Reinstalling Win95 was the same chore the Cap'n is going through having to go through DOS and 3.1 in order to run the Win95 upgrade. Took a day. Yes, AOL was my portal to the world through a 28.8modem. Those were not the good old days.

Windows 3.1 comes on 6 diskettes, incidentally. And actually I messed something up on the 4 GB CF card when I tried to partition it to where I can no longer get into DOS to wipe it or install DOS on the new partition. So I just went ahead and ordered a 2 GB CF card and hopefully won't have this issue on that one. Hopefully.

You might have the problem that the firmware on the drive lacks the necessary code to work with DOS.

I had MS-DOS 5, and used Norton Commander as my file browser, but needed something with more power. I remember installing Windows 3.0 (5.25" floppy disks) on my 286, and marveling at the capabilities. To celebrate, I then bought Commander Keen 5: Goodbye Galaxy.

You must have been a child prodigy. What were you, like 2?

I was 12. It was 1992. I made a deal with my aunt's neighbor (at the time), who said that if I could help him paint his house, he'd give me his 286 (he had just bought a 486 and was looking to get rid of the older system). It came with MS-DOS 5, a copy of Norton Commander, and Windows 3.0. He didn't like Windows, so he never installed it. I, on the other hand, couldn't wait to try out this "new" GUI interface.

It was working.

Bought keen through steam.

Okay, I got a 2 GB Compact Flash card now to stand in for a traditional HD. Just like the first time I formatted the last one, MS-DOS is asking if I want to allocate all of the HD to it, or only some of it. Keep in mind that my goal here is to install Windows 3.1 (eventually upgrading to Windows 95), and also to be able to install and play DOS games. One thing I noticed is that once I wiped and reinstalled MS-DOS on the 4GB CF disk, is that it never asked me again about disk allocation after that first time, so I probably won't get another shot at allocating only part of the HD if that's what I need to do.

It should be able to address all 2GB without any partitions.

So I got a Unisys Cwd4002 mini 486 DeskTop PC for giggles and grins. I'd like to install a Sound Blaster sound card on it and am wonder what type to look for that would work with Windows 3.1.

Soundblaster Pro 2. That's what I had in my 386. I used Windows 3.1 at the time.

Unisys made a pc? It's pretty cool.

This guy stuck a sound card in his (I didn't pay attention to what).

Yeah, that video is the reason I got it, actually. The one he stuck in it was rather expensive on eBay, though - would have cost more than the computer did.

Do you happen to remember what the model number was?

CT1600 was the model number I had.

Does anyone know if it would be possible to install a copy of Windows 95 onto the CF card I'm using as the HD of my legacy build using the slot reader on my Windows 7 machine?