dmurdoch@watdcsu.waterloo.edu ( D. Murdoch - Statistics ) (10/13/88)
Yesterday I accidentally wiped out the system files (IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS) for MSDOS 3.2 on my hard disk. Figuring that the space for them was still there, I attempted to use the SYS command to transfer the system from a floppy onto the hard disk, but got the message that there wasn't enough space for the system. After that, I tried all kinds of things to give extra space in the first few hundred clusters on the disk, in the first few root directory entries, and so on, all with no success. I had to resort to manually moving the files onto the disk and hoping to get them in the right spots. I was lucky; it worked. My questions are these: What does SYS look at to determine if there is space for the system? Does it vary from version to version of DOS? Please email the responses; I'll summarize and post. Duncan Murdoch
wersan@dasys1.UUCP (John R Wersan Jr.) (10/16/88)
In article <5150@watdcsu.waterloo.edu>, dmurdoch@watdcsu.waterloo.edu ( D. Murdoch - Statistics ) writes: > ... MSDOS 3.2 ...... ^^^^^^^^^ That is your problem, MS/DOS 3.2 is the worst version that I have ever had the misfortune(sp?) to use, it is SO full of bugs that I went back to 3.1, rather than use it. Do yourself a favor, upgrade to 3.3 FAST!!! -- John R. Wersan, Jr. Big Electric Cat Public UNIX ..!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!wersan
jmj@mhuxu.UUCP (J. M. Johnson) (10/17/88)
In article <6961@dasys1.UUCP>, wersan@dasys1.UUCP (John R Wersan Jr.) writes: > That is your problem, MS/DOS 3.2 is the worst version that I have ever had > the misfortune(sp?) to use, it is SO full of bugs that I went back to 3.1, > rather than use it. > > Do yourself a favor, upgrade to 3.3 FAST!!! I don't know what your problem is but I've had no problems with MS-DOS 3.2. Must be the user. -- Life's just a game, you fly a paper plane, there is no end. - TBA J. M. Johnson, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Reading, PA ...!att!mhuxu!jmj
phco@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (John Miller) (10/17/88)
In article <5150@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> dmurdoch@watdcsu.waterloo.edu ( D. Murdoch - Statistics ) writes: >Yesterday I accidentally wiped out the system files (IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS) >for MSDOS 3.2 on my hard disk. Figuring that the space for them was still >there, I attempted to use the SYS command to transfer the system from a >floppy onto the hard disk, but got the message that there wasn't enough space >for the system. After that, I tried all kinds of things to give extra space >in the first few hundred clusters on the disk, in the first few >root directory entries, and so on, all with no >success. I had to resort to manually moving the files onto the disk >and hoping to get them in the right spots. I was lucky; it worked. IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS have to be the first files on the disk. Besides being marked as "hidden" and "system" files, these are also marked as "read-only" so they cannot be deleted or altered by the usual DOS commands. However, SYS also respects the "read-only" status of the files and refuses to write over them. The way to get around this is to use a utility such as PC-TOOLS to (1) change the attributes of IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS from "read-only" to "read-write" and (2) delete IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS. Then you can use SYS to transfer the new versions of these files. It would seem that SYS should tell you that your hidden files are protected and ask for confirmation of your request to replace them. It should also tell you what version of the software you already have on the disk. I guess that's asking a bit much of Microsoft, though. :-) -- John Miller (ecsvax!phco) Dept. of Pharmacology, Univ. of N.C.-Chapel Hill CB#7365 1026 FLOB Chapel Hill, NC 27599 (919) 966-6966