Allthough FREESCO is a single floppy router, it can also be installed on a HDD. This opens the possibility to install so called 3rd party add-on packages. The main online library site for these packages is FREESCOSoft. This chapter describes the steps to install FREESCO on a hard disk.

FREESCO runs on 'top' of a FAT or FAT32 file system ¹⁾.

Prepare the hard drive the usual way so it boots in MS-DOS or Win9x command prompt only mode. If you don't have access to MS-DOS or Win9x setup software, you can use FreeDOS.

The usual steps are:

1. hook up the disk with your PC and check if it's recognized by the BIOS
2. use FDISK to create a primary bootable partition on the disk
3. boot with a system floppy
4. format the partition with system files
5. boot with the new hard disk, you should see a C:\> prompt

The next step after preparing the harddisk with a bootable FAT/FAT32 system, is to boot the PC with your FREESCO floppy. Then login as root (default password is also root if you haven't changed it yet) and type the next command:

move2hdd

after succesfull completion of this process, remove the floppy from the drive and reboot the PC. At the C:\> prompt type:

router.bat setup

to boot FREESCO in setup mode, or:

router.bat

to boot FREESCO in normal mode.

After the move to HDD you'll notice FREESCO doesn't start automatically. This can be easily fixed by copying the file C:\ROUTER.BAT to C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT:

C:\> COPY ROUTER.BAT AUTOEXEC.BAT

However, sometimes it's desirable to stay in DOS mode (f.i. to run scandisk when you system has become Read Only due to power failure or a hardware reset without shutdown), so a much more elegant method is to install a so called BOOT menu.

Place the next code in CONFIG.SYS (Mind you, this is just an example, your situation may be different, i.e. the location of the DOS commands, so check this!)

[menu]
menuitem=FREESCO, Start Freesco Router on this computer.
menuitem=SCANDISK, Do a Scandisk and then start Freesco.
menuitem=DOS, DOS Shell.
menudefault=FREESCO,5
menucolor=7,0

[FREESCO]

[SCANDISK]
device=c:\dos\himem.sys /testmem:off
files=10
buffers=10
dos=high,umb
stacks=9,256

[DOS]
device=c:\dos\himem.sys /testmem:off
rem load CD-ROM driver
rem DEVICE=c:\dos\CDMKE.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:220
files=10
buffers=10
dos=high,umb
stacks=9,256
device=c:\dos\display.sys con=(ega,,1)

rem If you need to load a specific keyboard layout or country codes, do it here
rem country=002,850,c:\dos\country.sys
rem install=c:\dos\mode.com con cp prepare=((850) c:\dos\ega.cpi)
rem install=c:\dos\mode.com con cp select=850
rem install=c:\dos\keyb.com cf,,c:\dos\keybrd2.sys

[COMMON]

The next code goes in AUTOEXEC.BAT

@ECHO OFF
set EXPAND=YES
SET DIRCMD=/O:N
path=c:\dos

IF "%config%"=="FREESCO" GOTO FREESCO
IF "%config%"=="DOS" GOTO DOS
scandisk /AUTOFIX /NOSAVE /NOSUMMARY

:FREESCO
router.bat

:DOS
echo To start Freesco manually, type router and press ENTER.
echo.

This will show the boot menu 5 secs and defaults to FREESCO. If SCANDISK is choosen, it will perform a scandisk and then start router. DOS, well, is dos