• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

How to run software with two 360k floppy disks

B

Brandon Y.

New Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2014
Messages
1
Hi everyone,

I recently get a vintage IBM clone with 8088 CPU, 256K RAM and two 5 1/4'' 360K DSDD Floppy Drives, but it do not contain a hard drive. It can boots to DOS 3.1. I found some softwares and programs from the internet (like auto cad, lotus 123 etc.). I want to run these softwares on my computer. Here's a problem, most of these software exceed 360k, which means I cannot run them on a single floppy. Is it possible to store program files into two floppy disks and run?

Thank you guys!
 
Welcome to these forums.

Brandon Y. said:
Here's a problem, most of these software exceed 360k, which means I cannot run them on a single floppy. Is it possible to store program files into two floppy disks and run?
Click to expand...
My understanding is that the programmer needs to code that kind of functionality into their program.
 
The software for that configuration (2 floppies, no hard disk) usually fits a diskette or two. When it fits two disks, usually one of them is a boot disk with a minimal dos set (I mean: command.com and boot files) plus the program. If your software can't be saved on a floppy or two, there's really nothing you can do...

More: I don't believe autocad will run with a 256k ram machine. About Lotus 123, if you can find a light version, try an old version of Microsoft Multiplan, quite similar.

You can find a lot of abandoned software for that era on vetusware.com

cheers,
Giovi
 
Not all software is meant to be run from a floppy, but a lot will do.

Check if your software comes with a "program" disk and try to load it from there. If you can only find an installer, then it won't run off a floppy.

Eventually some software works if first installed to a HDD, then the essential files are copied back to a floppy.
 
Consider that the original 5150 first came with a single 160K single-sided floppy. You could do useful work with it.

That's a 25 millionth of the storage on your modern PC with a 4TB disk drive. Heaven knows how much p0rn will fit on that Yottabyte drive of 30 years from now...
 
To add to what the others have said: Much software you will find on "abandonware" sites was dumped into a single hard drive directory, which makes it extremely difficult to get running on diskette (it's a bit like trying to unscramble eggs). Your best bet is to find software online that has had its disk content separation preserved (ie. in the archive you'll see disk1\, disk2\, etc. directories which should make things obvious), or to acquire actual vintage software still on its original diskettes.

Requests to explicitly copy software is prohibited by the rules of this forum, but there is nothing preventing you from posting a "want to buy" or similar messages in the "for sale" section.

While most business and game programs written for your class of hardware will run in a dual-floppy configuration, your 256KB RAM limits what you can run. Lotus 1-2-3 version 2 and under should run; Autocad will not. (Additionally, Autocad may have required a math coprocessor.) If you post a list of what you want to try running, we can inform you if it is even worth trying before you go through the effort of copying it onto disks.

If your clone allows, a memory upgrade is highly recommended. Read past forum threads for an hour or two to see how others have done so, so that you can ask intelligent questions if you need help.

Welcome to the hobby!
 
If your machine has the needed RAM, it is possible to
write a loader that knows how to do it, as long as the
programs are straight *.com files.
Dwight
 
Lotus 1-2-3 2.01 and WordStar 6.0 will run from a single 360K disk (each), albeit not with all of the options installed. I don't know about WordPerfect 5.1.

Microsoft has Word 5.5 for DOS available as a free download, if you want to try it:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?15238-MS-Word-5-5-for-DOS-for-FREE-(legally)

Windows 1.0x was designed to be run from two 360K disks -- although aside from the mere curiosity of seeing it run on a floppy-only 8088 system, there's not much you can actually do with it. :)
 
Why not try and find the IBM suite of programs that were specifically designed to run on the early pc's with low memory and stuff? Writing Assistant, Filing Assistant and the like, very spartan programs, but they did work great.
 
IBM Writing Assistant was a reworked version of SPC's PFS:Write application. They may be easier to find under the SPC name. IBM's version was designed to friendlier with TopView. SPC's version was faster from what I remember.
 
I have the original version of PFS Professional Write and it does run from two floppies. Actually, you only need disk two when you call the spell checker.
 
The original PFS:Write (no "Professional") was always my favorite go-to program for a floppy-only PC; it had a functional spell checker, abiet with a pretty small vocabulary, on the same disk. The one proviso is it had really irritating copy protection that *would* let you install it onto a hard disk (preferably do this from a clone of the original disk, you only got a limited number of installs) but wouldn't let you move it to a differently formatted floppy, which made it awkward to use on *single* floppy machines; in particular it would have been handy to be able to move it onto a 720k disk for single-floppy laptops.
 
Professional Write is very flexible in that regard. It lets you move it anywhere you want and any number of times, too. I've used it on dozens and dozens of machines through the years (about 25 years) and it's never complained about anything. :) I just ran it on this machine via DOSBox.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top