Does MS-DOS 6.22 require FAT-16?
Alvaro Fernandez
from a floppy, it doesn't recognize the existence of the hard drive C: at
all. Is this because C: is FAT-32, or for some other reason?
Alvaro Fernandez
William Allen
> My PC runs Win 98; the HD uses FAT-32. I notice that when I boot MS-DOS 6.22
> from a floppy, it doesn't recognize the existence of the hard drive C: at
> all. Is this because C: is FAT-32, or for some other reason?
Yes, MS-DOS 6.22 can't recognise FAT32 configured drives.
Windows 98 is supplied with MS-DOS 7.1 which is installed
automatically, and is in many ways superior to MS-DOS 6.22
(see below for details).
=====General notes on MS-DOS version 7.x
All the components of MS-DOS version 7.x are supplied
on the standard Windows 95 or 98 OS CD-ROM. It's installed
automatically with Windows 95 or 98, or the components can
be extracted from the CAB files with EXTRACT.EXE (provided
on the OS CD-ROMs)
MS-DOS 7 can also be installed as a standalone real-mode
operating system, or a Windows 95 or 98 installation can
be reconfigured as a multi-tasking MS-DOS 7 operating system
(by using the COMMAND.COM command processor as the
GUI shell instead of Windows Explorer).
MS-DOS 7 returns a Windows version with the VER command
but is often known by the MS-DOS 7.x number because it returns
version 7.x when interrogated by INT 21 Function 33 subFunction 6
as follows:
Windows 95 (original 1995 flavour) = 7.0
Windows 95 OSR2 = 7.1
Windows 98 (including SE version) = 7.1
In many ways MS-DOS 7.x is superior to earlier MS-DOS
versions, and has extra features. Most notable is probably
the Return-code shell, invoked with:
command /z /k
In this shell, ERRORLEVEL changes are displayed on
screen, including intermediate ERRORLEVEL changes
during pipe operations, which are not otherwise easy
to view. Very useful for documenting and studying the
ERRORLEVELs of commands.
MS-DOS 7 also allows the expansion of environment
variables in immediate mode (=when typed at the prompt)
and allows environment variables to be write-protected
(by setting them with lowercase names).
Also useful is the addition of the START command,
which enables ERRORLEVELs to be returned from
GUI processes (this needs the START /w switch).
There are also improvements to XCOPY, better "string"
handling and better operation of the FOR IN DO statement.
MS-DOS 7 also permits immediate mode command lines
up to 255 characters and internal (process-to-process)
command lines up to 1024 characters. See command.com /?
help for details of this feature.
Some Windows 95/98 GUI programs, such as REGEDIT.EXE,
have an extended real-mode stub designed to work with MS-DOS 7.
ScanDisk (module=Scandskw.exe) returns ERRORLEVELs
through START designed for use from Batch files.
The Resource Kit for Windows 98 (also usable with Windows 95)
includes many MS-DOS 7 Batch utilities which are downloadable
free of charge from the Microsoft FTP site. Most Batch utilities are here:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Services/TechNet/samples/ps/win98/reskit/scrpting/
and click on the name of the required Tool.
Note 1 - Batch file Utilities Full Documentation
Full documentation, usage instructions, and syntax examples
for Batch usage of all the above Batch tools:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Services/TechNet/samples/ps/win98/reskit/help/win98rk.chm
This is a fully indexed and searchable compiled help file.
Although each utility responds to the usual /? for brief help,
this main file has huge detail. When you have the file, look in
the Contents section under "Scripting Tools".
--
(pp) William Allen
Alvaro Fernandez
news:amcer7$4lfea$1...@ID-55970.news.dfncis.de...
> Yes, MS-DOS 6.22 can't recognise FAT32 configured drives.
>
> Windows 98 is supplied with MS-DOS 7.1 which is installed
> automatically, and is in many ways superior to MS-DOS 6.22
> (see below for details).
>
> =====General notes on MS-DOS version 7.x
>
> MS-DOS 7 can also be installed as a standalone real-mode
> operating system, or a Windows 95 or 98 installation can
> be reconfigured as a multi-tasking MS-DOS 7 operating system
> (by using the COMMAND.COM command processor as the
> GUI shell instead of Windows Explorer).
>
How would you do that? And how does MS-DOS 7 compare to Real/32 (the latest
incarnation of DR-DOS?)
Alvaro
Marcus Houlden
wrote the following to comp.os.msdos.misc:
> And how does MS-DOS 7 compare to Real/32 (the latest
> incarnation of DR-DOS?)
Real/32 has nothing to do with DR-DOS. It was originally called Multiuser
DOS and was written by a company called IMS Systems. It allows 8 separate
consoles using virtual dos machines, as well as separate users with
authentication, a TCP/IP stack and email between each user. It can also run
Win3.1, although it provides a separate command for this. IMS have since
gone into liquidation, although their website is still active.
mh.
--
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the war room!"
Alvaro Fernandez
"Marcus Houlden" <sp...@nukesoft.co.uk> wrote in message
news:slrnaojofa....@houlden.force9.co.uk...
DOS, which was basically DR-DOS, AFAIK.
Real/32 was purchased by one of its users (a large one, as I understand) to
guarantee a supply of their product. They don't seem to be going anywhere.
Alvaro
William Allen
...snip
> > or a Windows 95 or 98 installation can
> > be reconfigured as a multi-tasking MS-DOS 7 operating system
> > (by using the COMMAND.COM command processor as the
> > GUI shell instead of Windows Explorer).
>
> How would you do that?
======How to convert Windows 95/98 into a multi-tasking MS-DOS:
For those who dislike GUI-mode working, or simply make little or
no use of GUI facilities, Windows 95/98 can be configured to run as
an excellent multi-tasking MS-DOS by using COMMAND.COM as
the system shell instead of Explorer.exe
When used in this way, none of the usual Windows features:
desktop icons, taskbar, start button and so on, appear at all.
You just have a desktop of MS-DOS boxes (but otherwise it's blank).
All the additional features (Note 1) of MS-DOS 7+ remain fully usable.
A simple guide to do this is a follows:
===Pre-journey Preparations:
1) Copy c:\windows\system.ini to c:\ (to save a copy).
2) Edit c:\windows\system.ini like this:
replace this line in [boot] section of SYSTEM.INI:
shell=Explorer.exe
with this line:
shell=command.com
3) Reboot Windows, a blank desktop (not even taskbar nor start
button) appears (either in the normal colour RGB:0:128:128, or
any wallpaper you may have set) with _one_ DOS box initially,
and nothing else.
===Information needed on voyage:
1) To open another (separate) DOS box, type (at DOS prompt):
start command.com
2) If you accidentally close all DOS boxes, say by clicking in
corner X and closing them, or by typing at dos prompt: EXIT
the desktop goes completely blank. Don't do this in Windows 98,
but in Windows 95 you can recover - see Survival Kit.
You can run a Task Switcher (for exampel to Shut Down Windows
properly) by running the program: C:\WINDOWS\Taskman.exe.
With Task Switcher you can start other windows applications. To
Shut Down Windows properly, in Task Switcher: Press Ctrl-Esc,
then click File, Shutdown Windows (to see normal shutdown menu)
====Survival Kit (Windows 95 only):
1) Press Ctrl-Esc to bring up very simple Task Switcher/starter
2) In the Task Switcher menu bar, click File, Run application,
and then type:
command.com
in the dialogue line to recreate another DOS box instance
3) With task switcher you can start other windows applications
in a similar way from the Task Switcher command line.
4) Use task switcher (Ctrl-Esc) to shudown windows properly:
Press Ctrl-Esc, then click File, Shutdown Windows (to see
the normal shutdown menu)
====To return to normal GUI mode working:
Before shutting down Windows, type the command:
copy/y c:\system.ini c:\windows
to restore the original SYSTEM.INI
Note:
Some people set Read-only attribute on SYSTEM.INI and you may
need to use attrib to remove this before editing/restoring the file.
(See Note 2)
--
William Allen
Note 1
For a brief list of additional features in MS-DOS 7+ compared
with earlier versions, see post
From: "William Allen"
Newsgroups: alt.msdos.batch
Subject: Batch and MS-DOS information in Windows 95/98
Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 10:11:51 -0000
Message-ID: <9rtrkg$100vi6$1...@ID-55970.news.dfncis.de>
Note 2:
If you set Read-only attribute in SYSTEM.INI you will not normally
be able resize the Windows Swap file from the normal SYSTEM
control panel applet (Performance Tab, Virtual Memory button) -
the change will not be implemented on reboot. Remove the
Read-only attribute to make any change to the Swap file.
Bernd Blaauw
MBR/bootsector.
The solution for a MSDOS 7.10 dos-partition is to install windows98, then
use SYS A: on a diskette to make it bootable.
also copy the SYS command to the diskette.
Next, you'll want to save the dos-utilities provided by Windows into a
separate directory, like C:\DOS
MD C:\DOS // creates dos directory
XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\*.* C:\DOS // copies allmost all tools to that DOS
directory
XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\*.SYS C:\DOS // copies himem.sys for example
XCOPY C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE C:\DOS // copies EMS-manager to C:\DOS
Next, you might want to save this C:\DOS directory and it's contents on
another partition, on a Linux partition for example.
Afterwards, boot from the diskette, type
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\FORMAT C: /S /U // empties windows98 partition,
transfers bootfiles
and then copy your C:\DOS directory back to this partition. That's about it.
Though illegal, I keep a complete backup of this C:\DOS directory on cdrom
in case I need to add a program to my bootdisk, and I don't want to install
win98 just to get that one utitily.
Hope this helps. Again, have some rescue disks!
"Alvaro Fernandez" <alv...@athena-eng.com> schreef in bericht
news:iJki9.19761$Gz4.139...@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com...
Matthias Paul
>> And how does MS-DOS 7 compare to Real/32 (the latest incarnation
>> of DR-DOS?)
>
> Real/32 has nothing to do with DR-DOS. It was originally called
> Multiuser DOS and was written by a company called IMS Systems.
Both products are definitely not the same, but they have quite
something in common. ;-)
Intelligent Micro Software's IMS REAL/32 (which is now owned
by ITERA, Ltd.) is a derivation of their former IMS Multiuser DOS.
The current version is REAL/32 7.93 and a new product REAL NG
(based on Linux) is just been launched. See http://www.imsltd.com
and http://www.realng.com.
Besides many OEMs, IMS has been one of the three Master VARs
of Novell DR Multiuser DOS 5.x back in 1992. The other two
have been Concurrent Controls, Inc. (http://www.conctrls.com),
which still sell their CCI Multiuser DOS 7.22 Gold, and
Datapac Australasia, which developed their Datapac Multiuser DOS
to become System Manager 7. The latter is no longer available,
and AFAIK owned by Citrix, now.
Novell DR Multiuser DOS was the successor of Digital Research's
legendary Concurrent DOS 86/XM/286/386 and Concurrent CP/M-86
multi-user multi-tasking products.
Now, where does the single-user DR-DOS fit in?
After early attempts to retrofit some limited PC DOS 1.0 emulation
back into Concurrent CP/M-86 since version 3.1, Digital Research
created DOS Plus 1.2 - 2.1, which you might know from various
systems like the Philips :Yes, Amstrad PC1512, or the Acorn BBC
Master 512 during 1985 - 1987. DOS Plus was based on Concurrent DOS
with BDOS levels 4.1 - 5.0. It was basically a Concurrent CP/M-86
kernel with some added DOS emulation, so it ran both, CP/M-86 and
PC DOS 2.11 programs. In 1988, Digital Research introduced another
single-user product named DR DOS 3.31, which was not based on
DOS Plus, but heavily borrowed from Concurrent DOS 6.0, hence
the internal BDOS version 6.0. This emulated a mixture between
Compaq MS-DOS 3.31 and IBM PC DOS and created a string of DR DOS
versions 3.32, 3.33, 3.34, 3.35, then DR DOS 3.40 and 3.41
(maybe 3.42??? - if it existed, this one has still to show up),
then DR DOS 5.0 and finally DR DOS 6.0.
While Concurrent DOS still runs [C]CP/M-86 programs, DR DOS does
not, although all versions up to the 1991 issue of DR DOS 6.0
were still built around a modified CP/M kernel coated with a
DOS API and were co-developed alongside with the Concurrent DOS
and Multiuser DOS products. Then Novell abandoned the multi-user
product line and licensed it to the above mentioned Master VARs.
The much more profitable and widely known single-user product
line was continued and the next incarnation of DR DOS,
NetWare PalmDOS 1.0 (1992, BDOS 7.0) and the DR DOS 6.0
"business update 1993" (BDOS 7.1), now had genuine, no longer
only emulated internal DOS data structures.
Around the same time in 1992 - 1993, the Digital Research
Desktop Group in the European Development Centre (EDC) at
Novell developed two never released products, DR DOS "Panther"
(a version of the single-user DR DOS which had optionally
loadable multi-user and 32-bit 386 multithreading/multitasking
capabilities loosely modelled after the multitasking architecture
in the previous Multiuser DOS product line) and DR DOS "StarTrek"
(a team-up with Apple to run MacOS 7.1 on Intel platforms under
DR DOS and its new 386 multitasker).
While the multi-user security component was replaced by a single-
user security module plus Personal NetWare 1.0 (the successor of
NetWare Lite), and neither the ViewMAX/3 nor the "StarTrek" Mac
GUI were ever released as products, these two products formed
the guts of Novell DOS 7 when it was released in early 1994.
We all know the story how Caldera took over in 1996 and how
Novell DOS 7 became Caldera OpenDOS 7.01 in 1997, then
DR-OpenDOS 7.02, which further developed into the desktop
versions DR-DOS 7.02 - 7.03 and the LBA & FAT32 enabled
OEM DR-DOS versions 7.04 - 7.05 in 1998 - 1999, which are
now owned by Lineo, Inc.
So, in summary, both, REAL/32 and DR-DOS have the same roots
and where two derivations of Concurrent DOS tailored and
optimized for very different needs and markets, and they
are on independent development paths for more than a decade,
now. With the advent of the BDOS 7.0+ kernels, the kernels
are completely different now, but the utility set is basically
the same in both products.
As a rule of thumb you can say that DR-DOS is much more advanced
and up-to-date in terms of PC DOS compatibility and features,
which directly affect users, while Multiuser DOS and REAL/32
provide stronger real-time multitasking for heavy industry use.
Current issues of REAL/32 even support FAT32, but the name
reflects its 32-bit Protected Mode nature, not the FAT32
filessystem support.
DR-DOS' multitasker is optional and the system boots up as
a native 16-bit Real Mode DOS until the 32-bit Protected Mode
memory manager and VM multitasker (in EMM386) is loaded,
whereby it turns into a 16-bit/32-bit hybrid similar to
Windows 386 Enhanced Mode, while the multi-user product
line since Concurrent DOS 386 and Multiuser DOS was a native
32-bit Protected Mode operating system right from the start.
> It can also run Win3.1, although it provides a separate
> command for this.
Yep. DR-DOS can also run any version of Windows 1.xx - 3.xx
in any mode of operation. The internal DR-DOS 7.xx version
to run Windows 4.xx (as in Windows 95/98/SE) has not yet been
released, though.
> IMS have since gone into liquidation, although their website
> is still active.
They have been taken over by one of their major customers ITERA,
but as far as I have heard, they are continuing the operations
under the IMS label. According to them, both, REAL/32 7.93 and
the new REAL NG should be available for purchase now, but I have
to admit, that I have not seen REAL NG live at present.
Greetings,
Matthias
--
<mailto:Matthi...@post.rwth-aachen.de>; <mailto:mp...@drdos.org>
http://www.uni-bonn.de/~uzs180/mpdokeng.html; http://mpaul.drdos.org
"Programs are poems for computers."