[arachne] Re: 32 bit dos info wanted
- From: "Udo Kuhnt" <048321887-0001@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arachne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:50:08 +0000
Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!
Hello Brian,
> Thanks to Udo for his comments in response to my enquiry about a viable
> 32 bit DOS that would run both old and new DOS software without
> complaint, and would address more than 8 mb of hard drive (not RAM, as I
> erroneously said via a slip of the finger and brain).
> Udo said that FreeDos 1.0 can address more than 8 mb of hard drive, but
> the freedos people said it could not address more than 8 mb of hard
> drive.
I do not know why the FreeDOS people say so; AFAIK FreeDOS has been
able to address more than 8 GB of hard disk space for several years now.
> Whatever more potent DOS I try, I want to be able to address up
> to at leas 20 or 30 mb of hard drive.
> I am planning on buying a used portable with 20 - 30 gb of hard drive
> space for the purpose of experimenting with running DOS and using hard
> drive space beyond 8 mb.
All modern DOSes support this feature.
> I am still a little confused as to what current and complete DOS would:
> A. Allow me to run, say all the software I now run on PCDOS 7-2000, and
> would also enable me to use space between 9 and 30 mb on the hard drive
> at least to store data and, prefera Ably to run programmes.
> I have a copy of DR32 v 0.03, DRDOS v 7.05(which contains a note that it
> is buggy) and DRDOS v 7.03.
Well, DR-DOS 7.05 is indeed buggy, and DR-32 is still in alpha stage;
what you would need would be the complete DR-DOS 7.03 distribution plus
the kernel files of Enhanced DR-DOS 7.01.07.
> I am looking for something bug free (as PCDOS7-2000 IS) but that will
> let me use hard drive space up to 30 gb or so. and that will run all my
> old DOS software without problems. And preferably I would like
> something that I can get all made up and ready to go in a series of 1.4
> mb floppies or a CD - as PCDSOS7 does when you buy it (or is that
> expectation too much). Is there any simple and straigtforward way to
> achieve that?
Well, MS-DOS 7.1 is the picture of compatibility and probably as
bug-free as one can ask for, but it is only available as part of Windows
9x, and it does not come with all necessary DOS tools.
FreeDOS is a complete DOS, but it's compatibility is lower, and it's got
its fair share of bugs.
DR-DOS is also complete, but the tools in the v7.03 distribution are
rather old and lack support for FAT32 drives. You would also need to
replace its kernel files with those of Enhanced DR-DOS to access the
large hard disk.
Perhaps the best DOS you can get nowadays would be a mix of these; i.e.,
use either MS-DOS or Enhanced DR-DOS as a base and complete the missing
tools with those of FreeDOS.
Regards,
Udo
-- The DR-DOS/OpenDOS Enhancement Project - http://www.drdosprojects.de
-- This mail was written by a user of The Arachne Browser - http://arachne.cz/
Arachne at FreeLists
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