ees@vax135.UUCP (Gene Sampieri) (03/01/86)
I would like to change from MS-DOS 2.11 to 3.1 on my 6300 with hard-disk. Can this be done without re-formattiing the HD? It does fully boot from floppy, but when I use the "SYS" command to transfer the new system to the HD then reboot it hangs the machine. For know I have gone back to 2.11. HELP! Gene Sampieri ATT-Bell Labs (201)949-4707 vax135!ees
nather@utastro.UUCP (Ed Nather) (03/02/86)
In article <1312@vax135.UUCP>, ees@vax135.UUCP (Gene Sampieri) writes: > I would like to change from MS-DOS 2.11 to 3.1 on my 6300 with hard-disk. > Can this be done without re-formattiing the HD? It does fully boot from > floppy, but when I use the "SYS" command to transfer the new system to the > HD then reboot it hangs the machine. For now I have gone back to 2.11. You will have to re-format, I'm afraid, but you would want to do that anyway. If your hard disk is 20 MB then your smallest disk file under DOS 2.x is 8K (4K if it's 10MB) but DOS 3.x supports 2K filesize minima -- but only if you REMOVE THE DOS 2.X PARTITION and then re-create the partition with the DOS 3.x "fdisk" program. THEN reformat. DOS 3.1 is so much bigger than DOS 2.1 that the "sys" command can't replace with DOS 2.x system files without splilling over. Yet DOS 3.1 hase several goodies that make it worth the trouble -- command.com will execute a file presented as a pathname, the "subst" command lets you substitute a drive name (e.g. E:) for a pathname on a hard disk, which helps with older programs written for floppy-only systems, etc. And you only have to reformat once. -- Ed Nather Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin {allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather nather@astro.UTEXAS.EDU