I've been trying to boot DOS from a CD on my custom rig for the past two days. FreeDOS does not proceed past "FreeDOS" with a blinking "_" cursor, and disks created with the .iso files on the site http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/iso.html display the message "Invalid System Disk" and advise the user to remove the disk and restart. I was able to get a bootable floppy diskette created with WinXP to boot. All of the CDs I tested work successfully on an old machine with an IDE CD drive, so the disks themselves are fine.
The SATA CD/DVD drive I am using is the TS-H653, and it is able to read and write CDs and DVDs as well as boot Vista and Ubuntu install disks. I think the problem might have something to do with my motherboard or BIOS settings and have - to the best of my knowledge - set the SATA port to which the drive is connected to Legacy IDE mode.
Potentially relevant specs:
- Gigabyte motherboard GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.1
- 4 GB DDRII RAM (just tested with Ubuntu's memtest)
- Intel ICH9 6 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 2922
- Intel Core 2 Quad processor (Q6600, 2.4GHz).
Potentially relevant BIOS settings:
- SATA RAID/AHCI Mode: [AHCI] (other options are [RAID] and [Disabled])
- Onboard SATA/IDE Device: [Enabled]
- Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode: [IDE] (other options are [AHCI] and [RAID/IDE])
- SATA Port 0-3 native mode: [Disabled] (When disabled, as it is now, those ports run in legacy IDE mode (my CD drive is in port 2))
Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.
The SATA CD/DVD drive I am using is the TS-H653, and it is able to read and write CDs and DVDs as well as boot Vista and Ubuntu install disks. I think the problem might have something to do with my motherboard or BIOS settings and have - to the best of my knowledge - set the SATA port to which the drive is connected to Legacy IDE mode.
Potentially relevant specs:
- Gigabyte motherboard GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.1
- 4 GB DDRII RAM (just tested with Ubuntu's memtest)
- Intel ICH9 6 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 2922
- Intel Core 2 Quad processor (Q6600, 2.4GHz).
Potentially relevant BIOS settings:
- SATA RAID/AHCI Mode: [AHCI] (other options are [RAID] and [Disabled])
- Onboard SATA/IDE Device: [Enabled]
- Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode: [IDE] (other options are [AHCI] and [RAID/IDE])
- SATA Port 0-3 native mode: [Disabled] (When disabled, as it is now, those ports run in legacy IDE mode (my CD drive is in port 2))
Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.