Nick Andre wrote to All on 10-01-1999

NA> Hi!
NA> 
NA> Can OS/2 v3 be _manually_ installed on a drive with less than 30
NA> meg free?
NA> 
NA> I do dumpster-diving, and rescue an unbelievable amount of PC/XT
NA> equipment,  monitors, hard drives, etc. I know OS/2 requires at
NA> least a 386 with 2 meg RAM (minus the WPS), but if OS/2 can work on
NA> lets say, an MFM/RLL drive, for a  workstation, that would be great!

I tried this a long time back and it seems to me that it took more
like 4 meg minimum.  A usable set of boot disks without the large disk
drivers and pared down to just enough for a command line session will
fit on two floppies, so 30 meg is more than ample disk space.  if you
are just playing, you could actually make a bootable setup several
ways.  The simplest would be to have another fully configured OS/2
machine available and use BOOTOS2 to create disks - you would still
have to do some editing of config.sys, but it should work.  Barring
that, (and to see if it's gonna work) boot from the install diskettes. 
When (if) you get to a screen where you can exit to a command line you
can get out of the install, format and run SYSINSTX on the drive, then
copy the necessary files for booting to the hard drive from the
floppies.  You'll need to do some creative manipilation of the
config.sys files but it can be done.  It's far easier to borrow a few
meg of ram and do a bare-bones install - I think that can be done with
that amount of disk space IF you're clever.

Not a beginners effort, however, since it requires some pretty
detailed knowlege to get it done.  2 meg won't cut it but 4 should. 
Just don't count on actually DOING anything with it, especially if you
want LAN connectivity.

Will Honea 
--- Maximus/2 2.02