D8B Floppy Needed OS 3 or 5

[Kevin A]

I cannot load the Mackie software to my floppy drive computer is saying I need more space on the floppy. Can someone (anyone) sell and or send me a floppy with version 3 or version 5, please?

[Old School]

Hi,
I can help you. The reason your computer says there is not enough space on the floppy is that once you extract the zipped file, you cannot just copy the resulting diskimage.exe files onto your floppies. You have to double click on the file for disk image 1 and another extraction window will pop up. Check the box that says Writing on floppy and check format and click ok, then the computer will prompt you to insert your floppy. Repeat for the other two images and you should be good. One other thing, some have reported problems doing this on windows 10 or 11, so use an older system if you have one. Good luck and let us know if you have any problems.

Have a blessed day,
Mike

[Old School]

Hi again,
Something I forgot to tell you. After you make these disks, there is a folder called tools.ini (i think, working from memory here) under the system folder on the first disk. Open this folder and underneath the last line you see, type "format: on" ( without the quotation marks). This way, when the disks are inserted, the option to format the new hard drive will appear. You will want to do this because it creates a boot patch where the Mackie OS will be placed. If you don't do this when istalling a new hard drive you will get the error "volume not boot patched". You don't want to format if you have files on an existing install and simply want to refresh the OS.

Have a blessed day,
Mike

[Kevin A]

Mike, I downloaded the OS file. I had to unzip the files to the floppy as per computer instructions and the error message came on that the disc was full and could not install the entire program. I have tried but I keep getting the same issue. Can you walk me through this over the phone? (214) 730-9675 I can tell you what I am seeing and maybe we can resolve it that way because the instructions are not compatible with my laptop and this is the only laptop I have. Please help. Thanks.

[Y-my-R]

Just reiterating what Mike said with different words, in case this makes it clearer:

When downloading the OS floppy installers, they come as .zip files. So, compressed archives with something in them, that need to be extracted first.
So, you need to extract the zip files on a different computer first.

Then, after you extracted the zip files, you should see a few .exe file. You STILL do NOT copy those .exe files to a floppy disc - that's not how it works, they'd be too large and give the error that you keep seeing when trying to do that.

What you need to do, instead, is to use a Windows computer with a floppy drive and an empty floppy in the drive. Then, you double-click one of those .exe files on your Windows computer's harddrive.

This should bring up Mackie's own "extract/write-to-floppy" application. So, you make sure it's set to extract to the floppy disk in your floppy drive and click OK... the app does it's thing and creates a BOOTABLE first floopy disk (copying the .exe straight to the floppy isn't making it bootable), and 2 more with extra data that the D8B will ask for during installation.

Also, what Mike said above, is that AFTER you successfully created those floppy disks, you need to put the first one in the windows computer again, find the file called "tools.ini" and edit it.
If there's no line that says that, yet, add a new line to the end that says "format:on" (I think there should NOT be a space in there, but if this doesn't work, try with a space, as in Mike's version).

Make sure that the tools.ini file is saved with that exact name (not something like tools.ini.rtf or something - that won't work) to the floppy disk with that extra line (format:on).

Then put that disk in your D8B and power on. From there, do the installation per the "standard" instructions (or on-screen prompts).

I hope this helps! Best of luck!

[Old School]

Hi,
Yes, what Y-my-R said, don't extract the zipped files to the floppy, extract them to your desktop or documents folder and then double click on each one and use the widow that pops up to write them to floppy. I also made some screen shots of the alterations you have to make to the first disk.

contents of disk 1.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 1490 times

Contents of system folder.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 1490 times

[Old School]

Hi,
For some reason it won't let me post the last screenshot showing the modification to Tools.ini, it keeps saying "extension not allowed" (maybe it thinks I'm trying to hack the site?) and Y-my-R might be correct about the space, I don't remember exactly.

[Old School]

Here it is,

tools modification.png (Array KiB) Viewed 1488 times

[Kevin A]

I changed the battery and when I try to boot the system I still get the 43 error code. I downloaded the discs but the system will not process them. I tried booting up the system holding the F1 key and it still goes to the 43 error message. How can I resolve this issue?

[Y-my-R]

Error 43 is the most common error people see, and just means that the rack computer and the console aren’t talking to each other. And there can be A LOT of reasons for that.

Could be cables, could be the OS installation, or BIOS settings, etc. etc.

You started this thread, saying that you can’t create installation floppies. What happened to that part? Were you able to create installation floppies?

How does that related to the “I exchanged the battery, but I still get Error 43” post? Was Error 43 how it started, and now you are trying random things to see if it fixes it?

To successfully troubleshoot issues like this, I’d recommend to go by the “process of elimination.”

This means, that you try one suggestion at the time (and to it’s conclusion… not aborting half way), and if that doesn’t work, you know that this wasn’t the issue, and you move on to the next possible issue.

From your earlier post, it sounds like your first approach to fix this issue, was to reinstall the operating system via new floppies. Did that finish? Did the OS install?

What happens when you try to boot? How far does it get? What do you see?

Basically, random tidbits about your problem, will make it really difficult to troubleshoot it, if we’re not going about this in a systematic way. So, please give an update what steps you tried so far, and what the result of that were.

…since you already mentioned it, though: Did you go in the BIOS after replacing the battery, and put all the settings back to where they need to be? Depending on if you have the older type or the newer type of motherboard, the settings are different (see the Database). But if you only replace the battery without fixing the settings in the BIOS afterwards, that might already be your reason for the Error 43 (but there’s many other possible reasons). That is, if you didn’t leave the hard drive in some sort of half-completed state, as it sounds like from your earlier post.

Basically, the more clear and accurate information you provide, the easier it is to help you. With the information provided so far, we’re just shooting in the dark…