Getting a legacy program to load on modern computer

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BP

I have a need to use an old CADD program that I have (I only need to use it
for a short time to convert some files to AutoCadd format). It is Generic
Cadd 6.0 from the middle ages (1994). It loads from 3.5" floppies and in DOS
(not a DOS window either). I have an old PII running W98SE on a 6GB HDD, so
I have a "real" DOS environment to load this thing in.
The problem is that when I go to load the prog it checks for hard drive
space and reports: "Generic Cadd 6 requires 550,000 bytes to load and you
only have 3,400,000,000 bytes available on your hard drive. Please delete
some files to make room...." . Obviously 3 billion Kbytes is an
impossibility to this dinosaur.
Anyone know of a trick I can use to get this thing to load?
 
Can you install to floppy. In real dos A: and B: are different floppies logically so Dos will prompt you for A and B disks if you only have 1 floppy drive.

a:\>install B:

<will read A: then prompt>

Insert Disk B:
B:\>
 
I have a need to use an old CADD program that I have (I only need to use it
for a short time to convert some files to AutoCadd format). It is Generic
Cadd 6.0 from the middle ages (1994). It loads from 3.5" floppies and in DOS
(not a DOS window either). I have an old PII running W98SE on a 6GB HDD, so
I have a "real" DOS environment to load this thing in.
The problem is that when I go to load the prog it checks for hard drive
space and reports: "Generic Cadd 6 requires 550,000 bytes to load and you
only have 3,400,000,000 bytes available on your hard drive. Please delete
some files to make room...." . Obviously 3 billion Kbytes is an
impossibility to this dinosaur.
Anyone know of a trick I can use to get this thing to load?
Click to expand...

I would just install an old hard drive. Have you got any lying around?
I always have a few 120 MB drives and also a P75 just for those
programs which cycle through all their instructions in a nanosecond
because they were designed for a 25 MHz computer.


---Atreju---
 
I have a need to use an old CADD program that I have (I only need to
use it for a short time to convert some files to AutoCadd format). It
is Generic Cadd 6.0 from the middle ages (1994). It loads from 3.5"
floppies and in DOS (not a DOS window either). I have an old PII
running W98SE on a 6GB HDD, so I have a "real" DOS environment to load
this thing in. The problem is that when I go to load the prog it
checks for hard drive space and reports: "Generic Cadd 6 requires
550,000 bytes to load and you only have 3,400,000,000 bytes available
on your hard drive. Please delete some files to make room...." .
Obviously 3 billion Kbytes is an impossibility to this dinosaur.
Anyone know of a trick I can use to get this thing to load?
Click to expand...

Create a ramdrive.
 
Ingeborg said:
Create a ramdrive.
Click to expand...

I've never used a ramdrive. Sounds like a good idea though. If I install it
into the ramdrive, how would I then get the prog onto the hard drive? Or
were you thinking that I would just use it long enough to do the conversions
and lose it when I shut the box off? It is a program that installs in DOS
but it runs in Windows.
 
I have a need to use an old CADD program that I have (I only need to use it
for a short time to convert some files to AutoCadd format). It is Generic
Cadd 6.0 from the middle ages (1994). It loads from 3.5" floppies and in DOS
(not a DOS window either). I have an old PII running W98SE on a 6GB HDD, so
I have a "real" DOS environment to load this thing in.
The problem is that when I go to load the prog it checks for hard drive
space and reports: "Generic Cadd 6 requires 550,000 bytes to load and you
only have 3,400,000,000 bytes available on your hard drive. Please delete
some files to make room...." . Obviously 3 billion Kbytes is an
impossibility to this dinosaur.
Anyone know of a trick I can use to get this thing to load?
Click to expand...


Are you installing to the default directory, c:\CADD6, or
whatever it wants?

I don't have a 6.0 to check but I just sucessfully installed
Generic CADD 5.0 on Windows 98SE (Ver 4.10.222). The
computer has 3G space on a 5G drive and it installed and
runs in c:\CADD5. It didn't say if it was checking HD size.

Tom Debski
 
I've never used a ramdrive. Sounds like a good idea though. If I
install it into the ramdrive, how would I then get the prog onto the
hard drive? Or were you thinking that I would just use it long enough
to do the conversions and lose it when I shut the box off? It is a
program that installs in DOS but it runs in Windows.
Click to expand...

Don't know exactly. I would create a ramdrive and install the program. Then
copy the program to harddisk. If it runs from harddisk, it's OK. When it
doesn't, remove ramdrive from config.sys and reboot. Use 'subst' to create
a drive with the same letter as the ramdrive had. Put the program in the
same folder as in which it was installed. When it runs, it's OK. If not,
you'll have to copy the program back to ramdrive each time you want to use
it.
 
Sparerep said:
Are you installing to the default directory, c:\CADD6, or
whatever it wants?

I don't have a 6.0 to check but I just sucessfully installed
Generic CADD 5.0 on Windows 98SE (Ver 4.10.222). The
computer has 3G space on a 5G drive and it installed and
runs in c:\CADD5. It didn't say if it was checking HD size.

Tom Debski
Click to expand...

Can't explain it. Maybe v5 is not v6. Maybe your computer's or OS's config
is different than mine.
 
Can't explain it. Maybe v5 is not v6. Maybe your computer's or OS's config
is different than mine.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't be the first time an older version of a program was less
fussy about its install environment than a newer version! In the days
of the dinosaurs, many programs didn't check the install environment
at all - they just crashed spectacularly if you didn't have what they
needed!!

Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher
 
BP said:
I have a need to use an old CADD program that I have (I only need to use it
for a short time to convert some files to AutoCadd format). It is Generic
Cadd 6.0 from the middle ages (1994). It loads from 3.5" floppies and in
DOS (not a DOS window either). I have an old PII running W98SE on a 6GB
HDD, so I have a "real" DOS environment to load this thing in.
The problem is that when I go to load the prog it checks for hard drive
space and reports: "Generic Cadd 6 requires 550,000 bytes to load and you
only have 3,400,000,000 bytes available on your hard drive. Please delete
some files to make room...." . Obviously 3 billion Kbytes is an
impossibility to this dinosaur.
Anyone know of a trick I can use to get this thing to load?
Click to expand...

You need to give it a smaller space. Either fill up the drive with something
or shrink the partition or create a small partition for it. or go find a
little hard drive. Or...sometimes it's just a matter of the program seeing
the "0,000,000" as the available space because it doesn't understand
anything larger. So if you add something to the drive so that the remaining
space is 3, 399,999.999, the program will actually see the "9,999,999" and
think there's sufficient space.
 
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