Questions tagged [ms-dos]
MS-DOS, the Microsoft Disk Operating System, its OEM-branded versions, and x86 DOS clones in general.
295
questions
10
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why might I get "drive not ready" when formatting a floppy?
I have a 3.5" floppy drive in an IBM XT 286 (5162). I can boot DOS from the floppy just fine but when I try to run FORMAT, it always says that the disk drive is not ready.
Specifically:
A:\>...
- 2,584
14
votes
7
answers
6k
views
Transfer files to DOS over serial cable from Linux?
I have a modern Linux computer and a 286 computer running DOS. I would like to transfer files from the Linux computer to the DOS computer over a null modem serial cable. I know you can use INTERLINK....
- 2,584
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Custom keyboard layout in DOS?
Is it possible to customize the keyboard layout in DOS? I use a custom keyboard layout on modern computers and I am wondering if I can do the same on old.
- 2,584
11
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Invert LCD screen in DOS 5.0
Would like to run "black on white" software on a DOS machine with an LCD screen, so am wondering if there are any TSR tools, or similar, for inverting the screen. I believe it is grey scale VGA, not ...
- 1,943
4
votes
3
answers
1k
views
What to do about "Invalid media type"
I have an old PC with a HDD that was using Double Space. Since I do not need the extra space, and want to minimise the system use of RAM, I attempted to re-format the drive normally.
After typing ...
- 1,943
8
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Which MS-/PC-DOS version was the first to allow multiple partitions to be used?
For IBM PC-DOS/Microsoft MS-DOS, which version was the first version to actually allow using more than one partition for data storage? How about using multiple primary partitions vs one primary plus ...
- 5,166
19
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Do you need to allocate memory before you use it in MS-DOS?
In modern operating systems (for example: Windows), you can't access a memory location before you allocate that memory location to your program (or else a segmentation fault will occur).
I am ...
- 191
23
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Slash versus backslash as directory separator – what/who caused this rift?
MS-DOS and derived systems use backslash \ for path separator and slash / for command parameters. Unix and a number of other systems used slash / for paths and backslash \ for escaping special ...
- 6,735
3
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Educational DOS game involving teddy bears
I remember when I was very young (mid-to-late 90s) playing a probably educational DOS game that was like a whole bunch of minigames. At least one of the minigames (perhaps all of them) was teddy-bear-...
- 1,702
14
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Why would a CD-ROM in an MS-DOS 6.22 system not allow file access?
I have an OS/2 Warp CD that I am wanting to use as the installation media on an IBM PC 350 Pentium system. I have already installed MS-DOS 6.22 and the IBMIDECD.SYS driver for the CD-ROM drive on the ...
- 59.1k
21
votes
2
answers
8k
views
What is the best way to obtain old versions of MS-DOS and Windows?
I'm wondering what the best way obtain old versions of Windows would be, specifically:
DOS
Windows 95
Windows 98/SE
Windows 2000/ME
Windows XP Professional
Windows 7 Professional
Microsoft Office for ...
- 527
39
votes
2
answers
6k
views
How did Windows ME "cripple" DOS?
Windows ME includes the ability to create a bootable DOS floppy. This floppy contains versions of COMMAND.COM and IO.SYS that are "crippled" to remove real mode. This is done with only one changed ...
- 18.1k
17
votes
3
answers
3k
views
How did DoubleDOS work?
Back in the MS-DOS days, there was a program DoubleDOS that you could run that would split your machine in half and multitask two separate DOS programs. While it didn't particularly work well for ...
- 15.1k
5
votes
1
answer
203
views
Insert a row, but only across some columns?
Yes, I still use Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.4 on my HP 200LX. Anybody know of a good way to do something like insert row (/wir), but only across a subset of columns? In other words, kind of like inserting ...
- 1,417
17
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What is the difference between DriveSpace and DoubleSpace?
DriveSpace is the successor to DoubleSpace. Both are DOS systems that mount a Compressed Volume File as a drive, allowing ordinary programs to interface with a compressed drive without an intermediate ...
- 18.1k
10
votes
4
answers
1k
views
How to alpha-sort MS-DOS 7.x directories
I maintain a Windows 98SE machine for lots of reasons (Star Commander, SIO-2-PC, ADTPro, 3.5" and 5.25" PC Floppies, RS-232 port, Zip, Jazz, CD-ROM, Ethernet, etc). It is a very useful box.
I also ...
- 8,900
7
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Using the swap space of Windows 3.1 as a MS-DOS 6.22 temporary directory
I currently have a working installation of MS-DOS 6.22 with Windows 3.1. I can only use Windows or DOS individually so I don't see the point of having a swap-file for Windows taking up space that can'...
- 18.1k
6
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Are floppy disks used for MS-DOS setup still needed after you install the operating system?
I currently only have 11 disks available. One of the disks is a reserve, so I will not use it unless I have to. That brings us down to 10 disks.
Disk 0 - Blank, I will use this for the installation ...
- 63
6
votes
1
answer
899
views
I have installed MS-DOS 6.22 on Virtual Box, do I have an ISA bus or a PCI bus?
I have installed MS-DOS 6.22 (released in 1994) on Virtual Box, and I want to know if Virtual Box is emulating an ISA bus or a PCI bus. The settings for my virtual machine don't show any information ...
- 455
16
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Who decides what is the memory address that the CGA video buffer will be mapped to?
In DOS, the memory mapped IO base address for the CGA video buffer is 0xB8000. So when you write to 0xB8000, you are actually writing to a buffer in the CGA card itself and not to RAM.
What I want to ...
- 455
5
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Why the "jmp" instruction is not working?
I have written the following program in debug.exe:
1165:0100 mov ah, 09
1165:0102 mov dx, 107
1165:0105 int 21
1165:0107 db 'Hello World', 0A, 0D, '$'
1165:0115 jmp 1165:0100
However, when I ...
- 455
16
votes
1
answer
6k
views
How to write directly to video memory using "debug.exe" in MS-DOS?
The base address for the video memory in MS-DOS is 0xB8000. I am trying to write to this address using debug.exe, but I am getting an error:
1165:0103 mov [b8000],ax
^ Error
- 455
25
votes
12
answers
5k
views
Why did CP/M and MS-DOS use the BIOS instead of their own drivers to access hardware?
Modern versions of Windows (and other modern operating systems I suppose) have their own drivers to access hardware.
But as I have read, in the old days, if CP/M or MS-DOS wanted to access hardware, ...
- 1,817
34
votes
2
answers
5k
views
How did MS-DOS assign drive letters in the case of more than two floppy disk drives?
The IBM PC BIOS had provisions for up to four floppy disk drives, by virtue of returning the number of floppy disk drives in a two-bit field plus a none/some flag (allowing for reporting values of 0, ...
- 5,166
18
votes
5
answers
6k
views
What is most appropriate choice for DOS for a 1990 80386 PC?
I plan to install Windows 3.0 and PC/GEOS on top of DOS. Plus I will install numerous games from the 1984-1992 timeframe. Some of the later games will require >640K RAM and make use of an EMM driver.
...
- 59.1k
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Was it Microsoft that started the war between Application and OS vendors?
I think there is a long history of application vendors going to great lengths to complain or litigate against Operating System vendors to compete fairly. Specifically, I am talking about "fairness" ...
- 59.1k
33
votes
5
answers
12k
views
Is there a simple way to display ANSI art and animation files in a modern terminal window?
ANSI art and animations were prevalent on BBS systems in the late 80s and early 90s, and the ANSI art scene continues to thrive today. There are thousands of ANSI art files, with usual extension .ans, ...
- 59.1k
39
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Where and what was Haunt.bat? A game pre-loaded on a c1992 PC
This doesn't belong on the gaming SE, so I'm trying my luck here.
I'm looking for any info I can get on an old game that I simply known as "Haunt.bat".
Here is the back-story:
In the mid 90's a ...
- 573
15
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How do modern .bat files differ from old MS DOS .bat files?
I'm wondering how modern batch files (.bat) are different from MS-DOS .bat files?
There are some commands that feel more "modern" and don't seem like something you'd see in an older system. How do ...
- 536
3
votes
2
answers
336
views
IBM PS/2 Model 53 Not Powering On
I bought a PS/2 with the intent of robbing it's case for a restomod project, but since that is on the backburner right now I decided to see if it would work. When I flip the power switch, the PSU ...
- 31
8
votes
2
answers
893
views
Compaq Contura Aero 4/33C - moving data to CF/IDE disk - No operating system detected
I've got a Compaq Contura Aero 4/33 laptop with original DOS system installed. As the HDD is old and dying, I've decided to copy the drive to a CF card on a CF/IDE adapter.
After connecting the drive, ...
- 251
14
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Can I run Windows 98 and games from the same era on an AMD Duron CPU?
I have acquired an old motherboard with a socket 462 and a AMD Duron (I think its a "Spitfire" model 3).
The copyright on the CPU is from 1999 and it apparently doesn't require a dedicated CPU fan as ...
- 2,587
11
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Timing interrupts on MS-DOS
On the ZX Spectrum, you get an interrupt every frame. As I recall, the operating system uses this to periodically scan the keyboard and probably other things also, but you can have your own routine ...
- 36.1k
5
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Building a DOS/Win95/98 computer from scratch [closed]
I'd like to build a DOS/Win95/98 computer in order to play old PC games I have without emulation.
Here are a few games I'd like to run:
Teranova: Strike Force Centauri;
System Shock 1 and 2;
Half-...
- 2,587
21
votes
1
answer
918
views
Logo of a bow tie guy with a spoon
I was in the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley last week, and I saw this badge. I know I've seen that logo somewhere before, but I can't remember where! Does anyone know where it's from?
- 311
8
votes
1
answer
424
views
Configuring MIDI on an AWE 32 in DOS 6.22
I recently got hold of an old Pentium based machine (IBM 340) and started with a blank slate by formatting the disk. I also added a Soundblaster AWE32 which is a value model, specifically the CT3910.
...
- 2,024
12
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Bootable floppies lock up with floppy drive connected via USB adapter
I am currently trying to mount a 3.5'' floppy disk drive in a modern computer. What I did is that I bought a 34-pin floppy drive connector to external USB adapter so that I can connect it to my ...
- 2,587
11
votes
6
answers
962
views
VT52 emulation for MS-DOS?
I'm trying to run an old MS-DOS program that was written to use VT52 escape codes.
Some Microsoft knowledge base items (such as Q101875) refer to a 'third-party console driver' called VT52.SYS. I'm ...
- 6,460
15
votes
3
answers
7k
views
How can MS-DOS be installed on VirtualBox?
As part of the MSDN subscription I just got, I can download MS-DOS 6.22 (wow indeed).
I want to install it to a VirtualBox VM so I can try old games and viruses (due to viruses, I can't install it to ...
- 870
17
votes
2
answers
13k
views
Is WinWorldPC legal? [closed]
I'm sure a lot of us have come across WinWorldPC online. With the valuable resources that it has for obsolete systems, is it actually legal? For example, I could download almost any Windows system I ...
- 2,415
91
votes
3
answers
15k
views
How did Windows 3.1 implement multitasking?
Windows in its earliest days was simply a shell that ran on top of MS-DOS, which means that Windows 3.1 itself was actually just a standard MS-DOS application like any other.
Yet, MS-DOS is not a ...
- 2,867
28
votes
5
answers
7k
views
Why are Windows 95 installation disks not uniquely bound to a single product key?
I was installing the OEM version of Windows 95 on VirtualBox the other day for reminiscence sake, and for some reason I had two different product keys. I tested both of them to see which one mapped to ...
- 2,415
21
votes
6
answers
6k
views
How can I emulate MS-DOS on OS X?
I am looking for a emulator for MS-DOS for OS X to run old games on.
Are there any free emulators for MS-DOS that run on an Apple machine with OS X?
user448
33
votes
1
answer
3k
views
How does the command.com shell work with MS-DOS?
On my systems that are running MS-DOS, I change the default command.com to 4DOS for more features.
How was the shell system designed and how did it with the operating system in MS-DOS that it enabled ...
- 2,893
12
votes
1
answer
729
views
My Compaq Presario CDS 633 outputs color in Windows 3.1 but not in DOS. How can I get color in DOS?
My Compaq Presario CDS 633 outputs color in Windows 3.1, but not in DOS.
How can I get color in DOS?
I have tried the MODE setting, but it did not change anything. ANSI.SYS also has a LOADHIGH line ...
- 231