john@wa3wbu.UUCP (John Gayman) (06/21/91)
Does anyone know the difference between the DOS 5.0 upgrade kit and the entire release ? It sounds like the upgrade kit has an automated install routine which senses a prior version and automatically installs. Does this mean you cannot install the upgrade to a freshly formatted hard disk ? Will DOS 5.0 allow you to run completely from floppy for doing low-level disk type maintenance ? There also seems to be a lot of confusion about where exactly DOS 5.0 gets its extra memory, is it from extended ? I mean I have a older 8 Mhz 80286 with 640K conventional and 384 extended... will I realize the memory gain ? I'd sure appreciate a detailed explaination from someone in the know. Thanks!! John -- John Gayman, WA3WBU | UUCP: uunet!wa3wbu!john 1869 Valley Rd. | Marysville, PA 17053 | Packet: WA3WBU @ WB3EAH
act@softserver.canberra.edu.au (Andrew Turner) (06/21/91)
In article <811@wa3wbu.UUCP> john@wa3wbu.UUCP (John Gayman) writes: > > > Does anyone know the difference between the DOS 5.0 upgrade kit and >the entire release ? It sounds like the upgrade kit has an automated >install routine which senses a prior version and automatically installs. >Does this mean you cannot install the upgrade to a freshly formatted >hard disk ? Will DOS 5.0 allow you to run completely from floppy for doing >low-level disk type maintenance ? There also seems to be a lot of >confusion about where exactly DOS 5.0 gets its extra memory, is it from >extended ? I mean I have a older 8 Mhz 80286 with 640K conventional and >384 extended... will I realize the memory gain ? I'd sure appreciate a >detailed explaination from someone in the know. Thanks!! > 1. The upgrade kit is not on bootable disks and assumes that you already have at least dos 2.11 or later already installed. The upgrade kit does have quite a wonderful upgrade program that is very user friendly and simple. When run it also saves a copy of your system as it is and provides a very simple de-install procedure. You cannot install the upgrade to a freshly formatted disk unless you have sys'd it with your current version of DOS. 2. Yes, once you have an upgrade installed you can sys floppies and make them bootable and thus(obviously) boot your system off of them. 3. Microsoft uses the following terminology to describe memory: BASE MEMORY : 0-640 Kb (CONVENTIONAL MEMORY) UPPER MEMORY AREA : 640 Kb - 1 Mb HIGH MEMORY AREA(HMA) : 1 Mb - 1Mb+64 kB Due to a feature on 286's and 386's real mode execution is available in the HMA per the A20 address line. DOS loads Command.COM into this area if you specify DOS=HIGH in CONFIG.SYS. NB COMMAND.COM has been totally rewritten and is RE-ENTRANT!!. This adds memory overheads of about 2.8k, I assume for each re-entry. You also must specify DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS in config.sys. 4. You will not be able to use your 384 Kb on the 286 as this requires EMM386.EXE to be loaded. 5. To quote Microsoft: "UMA support for 80286 class machines is not supplied in MS-DOS 5.0. The choice to use EMM386.EXE as the engine for using Upper Memory Blocks has been motivated by two major factors. 1. High Memory is available on both 80386 and 80286 machines. To prevent having two drivers, one for each machine. 2. Development research indicated that UMB savings on 80286 class machines did not offset the memory costs of the UMB driver nor development time. MS-DOS 5.0 OEMs have shown interest in developing UMA capabilities into their releases. OEMs do have options that were not addressed by Microsft's project, options such as Hardware and Firmware solutions." Comment: Sounds like 'bull....' to me. Summary: Until I try it on our 286's with 640+384 I'm not sure but it seems like unless you have memory in the HMA you get nothing! On my 386 the following memory comparisons are indicated: DOS=HIGH DOS loaded low MSDOS 16208 bytes 61072 bytes COMMAND 3008 " 5088 " HIMEM 1184 " 3200 " (Not needed?) This is all without EMM386.EXE Hope This helps. TOTAL FREE 509504 " 460576 " -- Andrew Turner act@csc.canberra.edu.au Die, v: To stop sinning suddenly. -- Elbert Hubbard
rjs3@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (Robert J. Snyder, III) (06/28/91)
John Gayman (uunet!wa3wbu!john) asked if it was possible to install the DOS 5.0 upgrade to a freshly formatted hard disk. A procedure for doing this is described in the book on installing DOS 5.0 that Egghead attempts to "pursuade" you into purchasing when you buy the upgrade from them. All that you need is a bootable floppy with some earlier version of DOS and a hard disk that is at least low-level formatted already. The key to the proceedure is that the setup program will install DOS 5.0 onto a floppy disk if you give it the /f switch. Actually it takes several floppies, so have a pile on hand before you start (I think it formats them). Once you have a floppy based DOS 5.0, simply boot that and use its copies of FDISK and FORMAT to arrange things to your liking (particularly useful if you want to start using large disk partitions). I don't know how much of this is covered in the DOS 5.0 upgrade manual as I haven't actually tried to install DOS 5.0 yet. Robert Snyder rjs@moss.att.com (201) 386-7629