i have a 486 that i want to install dos on the thing is during the post it comes up with this error FAILURE at fixed 0  I have another drive which I can try with it its a 4.3 quantum the orginal drive is in the machine I THINK there like 512mb so it should be okay for dos right?512 will not work properly in a 486.

Most chipsets won't even let you put that much in, and those that do can still only Cache the first 128MB or 256MB. In short- putting more then that amount will make it go slower (!).

you can get by with 1MB for pure DOS, but of course more is always better. You won't runn into many... If any, programs for DOS requiring more then 64MB.

Unless your actually talking about disk space, which would also be plenty. You should take to reading the manuals or googling some of these things, it's not hard to find the system requirements for DOS versions on the net, and to your advantage you will actually know what version your talking about.I do mean the drive size I dont think the make of that drive makes ram an I understand that,  I do I have a book that I'm using in my os class that has the specs just couldnt call it off.  The thing is the failure fixed 0 issue is the drive bad or something?  it has a cd drive attached to the same cable could that be it.  Someone said once that I could have a master on the slave part of an IDE cable.  Think it was patio.  could this cause this to generate that error?

MB=================================Slave========Master.

A hard drive should always be set to master when possible...So in other word try an change the cable so that its the master.  I think its jumpered like that or at least should be since this was the only drive in it.any thoughts on what I can do???............... > Quote from: squall_01 on February 11, 2009, 11:06:00 AM

an everything.