Question about DOS

[CNCRob]

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone knows if you change a hard drive from one computer to another with DOS installed; will it work correctly on the other computer. I tried it last night and it seemed to work ok and my CNC software seemed to load alright, but will it cause any problems down the road. I have always herd that windows will not work if you install it on one computer then try to take the hard drive and put it in another computer, because of driver issues, etc. Is DOS the same way? Thanks in
advance - Robbie

[Rekd]

I think you have it backwards. Windows can autodetect the hardware, DOS cannot. I have successfully done both, but I believe windows will be much easier and more reliable. The biggest problem doing this with DOS may be with your CD/ROM, Video Card, and Sound Card.

[fyffe555]

The question is will a DOS system installed and running a harddrive on one PC work reliably on another PC by transfering the drive? If so the answer's yes. You're also correct, Windows will not do so readily.

Is there any long term issue? No, if DOS starts and runs reliably from the get go now it will do so until you change something.

DOS has inbuilt 'drivers' only for the basic PC configuration, i386 support, prt1, serial, kybd, mouse. Been that way since the 1980. If your application only uses those basics it will run immediately. For other peripherals you need to add hardware specific drivers, like cd drives, UDMA support, fat32, usb etc. Without additional drivers DOS will run fine supporting only the basics and ignore any other devices. If your dos system doesn't use hardware specific drivers then it will work on any pc with the basics. If you have peripheral differences between the PC such as a CD drive driver loaded in config.sys / autoexec.bat then you might have to change the driver if the cd drives are different.

[diarmaid]

I think your a little bit confused. DOS is on all computers. Before windows 3.1 or whatever was the first ever Windows came along DOS was always used as the old basic binary based operating system. (I remember our first IBM PS1 - Windows what?!)When you start up your computer and the black screen with all the generic text comes up automatically before Windows loads, that is DOS. DOS is the basis for your computer to run. Windows although nowadays technically an 'operating system', is just still a program that runs above a DOS screen. You can reach your 'DOS Prompt' from within Windows, or boot up your computer and run it directly from DOS without Windows/Linux etc by typing in the old DOS commands "dir C: " for example shows a list of files/folders on the C: . "cd xxxx" (If I remember correctly) changes the directory displayed to C:\xxxx\. DOS is actually hardwired/embedded into the hard drive and ROM. DOS cannot be gone, if it is then you need a new hard drive. If you are able to run a program from DOS and you simply unplug your hard drive and plug it into another computer (While turned off of course), then once the hard drive is compatible with the new computers other hardware your program will run fine. The problems may arise if your programs needs to use RAM or sound cards or a LAN card or even windows etc that are not installed onto your new machine correctly in the relevant files and using DOS drivers.

[diarmaid]

Originally Posted by fyffe555 If you have peripheral differences between the PC such as a CD drive driver loaded in config.sys / autoexec.bat then you might have to change the driver if the cd drives are different.

I miss config.sys and autoexec.bat. Haven't had to look at or change them for years now because Windows does it all automatically. Its amazing how much we forget when we dont have to do it for a few short years. I dont think I could efficiently run my computer from the DOS prompt anymore (Ignoring the advanced software requirements etc)

[Al_The_Man]

There used to be a site (maybe still is somewere) that you can download a copy of DOS 7.1 with alot of add on programs and bells & whistles, even its own Flash Screen.
I got a copy while it was still going.
Some of the features listed:

There are many enhancements, new features and bugfixes in MS-DOS 7.10 since MS-DOS 6.x. For example:

* FAT32 and FAT32X drives support (*very* important nowadays)
* Extended FAT16 (a.k.a. FAT16X, type 0E, usually being the primary partition) drives support
* Large hard disk and LBA ExtendedX (Int 13x) partition (type 0F) support (*very* important nowadays)
* Long File Names (LFN) support
* Full Y2K (Year 2000) compliant and supports 4-digit years (e.g. DIR /4)
* Large memory (>64MB) and XXMS 3.0 support
* Euro sign support (Code Page 850, Right Alt+5)
* The protection that keeps the stability of DOS
* Efficient use of UMB memory (The DOS kernel and COMMAND.COM are loaded high automatically)
* Extended commands in CONFIG.SYS to use UMB memory, such as FILESHIGH, BUFFERSHIGH
* Environments variables can be used in the DOS command line directly, e.g. ECHO %PATH%
* The maximum length for path variable is expanded
* Some new commands added, such as ACCDATE, LOGO(in CONFIG.SYS)
* Volume LOCK/UNLOCK feature added to protect data and LFN on the (hard) disks
* EDIT can be used to edit both text and binary files and multiple files
* REN can rename a directory as well as files
* The locations of DOS system files (especially IO.SYS) are much more flexible
* Dual-boot with older versions of MS-DOS (e.g. DOS 6.x) feature added
* Animated startup logo support by using a custom LOGO.SYS file
* You can decide whether to execute a command using Enter/ESC key now while using the step-by-step feature
* Support for loading Win9x GUI (including all versions from Win95/95A to Win98SE GUI) on top added
* Many undocumented but useful options and switches added, such as COMMAND /Z
* Updated and newer versions of DOS commands and tools included, such as MORE, MSCDEX, MSD
* And many more...
End of Quote:
Al.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by diarmaid I think your a little bit confused. DOS is on all computers.

Not on XP or any version of NT.

[diarmaid]

Originally Posted by ger21 Not on XP or any version of NT.

OMG Your right! I just looked for my Dos Prompt. That shows how long it is since I needed to use it! So what do we call the operating level that the boot up screen is on if not in DOS?

[fyffe555]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Man There used to be a site (maybe still is somewere) that you can download a copy of DOS 7.1 Al.

Yup, there's a few free sites and versions out there with similar features;

FreeDOS.org
DR-DOS 7.1
Caldera OpenDos 7.10

You can find PC-Dos (IBM) v7/2000 for free download if you look.

PTS Dos and MS-DOS 6.22 are still retail.

All good stuff for an old fart like me who started with CP/M, the QDOS before Microsoft bought it and sold it to IBM as PC-DOS v1 and retained the rights as MS-DOS. Then there was DOS-VSE which ran on mainframes but that's another story...

[fyffe555]

Originally Posted by diarmaid OMG Your right! I just looked for my Dos Prompt. That shows how long it is since I needed to use it! So what do we call the operating level that the boot up screen is on if not in DOS?

BIOS

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by fyffe555 All good stuff for an old fart like me who started with CP/M, the QDOS before Microsoft bought it and sold it to IBM as PC-DOS v1 and retained the rights as MS-DOS. Then there was DOS-VSE which ran on mainframes but that's another story...

Also DR-DOS which was giving MS a run for its money, before windows came along and squashed it.
There was also Z-DOS used by Heathkit/Zenith that surpassed MS in the Graphics area (which wasn't hard to do).
Al.

[john_s]

Originally Posted by diarmaid OMG Your right! I just looked for my Dos Prompt. That shows how long it is since I needed to use it!

You can get a command ("DOS") prompt up in XP if you start --> run and type "cmd".

It's still the easiest way to do some things

John.