i downloaded starflight 1+2 the second one works great but I cant't seem to get the first one to work I get please insert disk and pres enter or some sort of blah blah. what do i need to do to have it run? I am using windows 7 but not sure why one would work and the other wouldn't

Try running the program as administrator. If that works, then open properties for the icon, click on the "Advanced" button for the "shortcut" tab, and tick the box for "run as administrator".

The original Starflight was from the era of 5.25 disks. You absolutely HAD to make a copy of the original to create a games disk, then you copied that copy to backup your play disk. Hard drives were very expensive, and "no one would ever fill one of those 30 Meg monsters!" But I digress. Worst case, uninstall and reinstall the game. Then copy the play directory. Best case this post has a bunch of good ideas. If you are using GoG Galaxy, you can use the Reset and Restart option in the menu.

i had to reset.bat and then STARFLT.COM worked.
it looks like the setup menu item should run the reset.bat also