smart office from the 80's

[jack]

I found a pack of 5 1/4 floppys that contains an old office suite.
it's called smart and includes
system disk
database manager
word processor
spreadsheet
dictionary
communications&time management
printer fonts
graphics drivers
tutorial disks for word, spread & data manager

I have an old dx2 66 and have a 5 1/4 floppy drive

wonder if any one knows if I can load this software on this machine

I think it was for an old IBM with a 20meg hd back in the 80's but forget what it was on now..know it was early 80's when I got it and put a yellow sticky on it to get the book useing smart. which never happened..it is a copy and not the original disks. they are philips mini flexible one side dd

any help would be appreciated regarding this software and what it will run on.

[digi]

I have just one piece of advice:
JAM IT IN!
Have you tried booting the system disk? Tried reading any of the disks from DOS? You won't know until you try.
(Note: if trying this destroys both your disks and your computer, it ain't my fault.)

[jack]

Thanks..in the process...the dx2 has a headlands vid card and a 400 meg hd with a fat partition....am installing the floppy drive and wondered about the fat partition..or partitions for this software..as you say try and see...on win with the floppy I am robbing the sys disk shows the following files

configur 4k file
install 46k app
ovfileo 97k file
printer.dsc 8k dsc file
psetup.def 16k def file
smart 95k app
smart.msg 10k msg file

have no idea if the harddrive requires anything to install
or how to initiate the install..

adding...the floppy is a 1.2 but the box has option for 360..the box accepts the floppy drive and posts no os found..the hd had win95..I deleted the partition ..when I stick the sys disk in the drive i get error non system disk replace and hit a key...
do I need to format the hd and with what
do I need a 360 floppy to read the software
stuck

[Terry Yager]

You should be able to read a DD disk ok in an HD drive. It's just formatting & writing that are a problem.

--T

[Micom 2000]

Are there no .exe or .com executables on the disk ? DOS won't work without one.

DR-Dos, Atari ST, and NextStep used .app extension executables but both STs and NEXTs used 3.5 " FDs.
That would leave only DR-Dos and possibly some other company developed an office suite for the GEMOS before Apple shut it down on IBM compatibles. ISTR that Amstad also used GEMOS but I believe they also used a 3.5 " floppy.

I take it the HD is formatted as FAT 16.

Lawrence

[jack]

Ok..yes the windows machine with the 5"floppy installed will read the floppys and I can see that the files are still on the floppys...

so I took the floppy drive out and put in the dx2-66 with 8meg ram...the bios allows for 1.2 and 360k 5 1/4 " floppy drives and gives no error as a 1.2 floppy drive...

when I boot the machine it ends with non system disk replace and hit key
when I insert the smart sys disk it gives sys disk error

the hard drive has been used for various things but had win95 on it
I deleted the partition
I tried createing a new partition but same..

think the hard drive needs a format but with what
need info on this software like what is it and how it was installed and on what...then can the dx2 be set up to use it

I listed the content viewed via win in a post above there is an install app and a smart app included..
yes fat16..is dr-dos still available..would it have format tools

i'm getting little from google regarding smart but maby its a early lotus smart suite or something, maby before windows so fat16 is likely a no no

thanks for any

[Terry Yager]

Try:

http://www.drdos.net/download.htm

--T

[jack]

Thanks...will look at that...think pcdos may be worth a look also..this sofware has a sys disk with install .app but no apparent tools so the drive had to be formatted by a dos and installed to a hd...there are a dozen floppies...the non sys disk error due to the fat16 or lack of compatible hd? Hmmm,,

[carlsson]

on win with the floppy I am robbing the sys disk shows the following files

configur 4k file
install 46k app

Maybe I'm trying to read in too much in your message, but it sounds like you're reading the disk from a Windows operating system, and the directory list says "app" or "Application" on the file type? Have you used DIR in MS-DOS or command box to check the actual file extention? To me it sounds like how newer Windows versions hide the file extentions on known types and gives its own explanation - "app" in this case should mean an .EXE file.

Well.. if you did perform a DIR and found INSTALL.APP, then I'm wrong.

[jack]

No I did not do a dir from dos just looked at the content to check if files were still on the disk and to see if the floppy would read the disk..

then I removed the floppy drive for the box I want to use hopefully for the package..it has only the 5 1/4 so ms dos is only available if I swap to 3.5

I was not interested in running the software under windows

I was interested to know what version of dos was being used for this office package so I could install it as it would have been.. maby to the hd but on a newer machine the dx2...as I do not have the machine it was once running on and forget what that was..

being 80's it is more for fun than function..if no one knows then I will have to try versions of dos until I find one that works..

it evidently does not like fat 16...was thinking pc dos and also will try the dr-dos offered as a possible