yun@eng.umd.edu (Dragon Taunter) (11/27/90)
I have been handed down an old AT with 512K ram. It has a full hard disk which I do not want to overwrite. How do I upgrade to a newer dos? I suspect that there is more to it than copying over everything in /DOS -- yun@wam.umd.edu zwy0c@scfvm.gsfc.nasa.gov (code 926) yun@eng.umd.edu zwy0c@charney.gsfc.nasa.gov 5 hrs 10' 39" W 39 deg 2' 9.7" N A milihelen is the amount of beauty required to launch one ship.
joris@tnosoes.izf.tno.nl (Joris Linssen) (11/27/90)
yun@eng.umd.edu (Dragon Taunter) writes: >I have been handed down an old AT with 512K ram. It has a full hard >disk which I do not want to overwrite. How do I upgrade to a newer dos? >I suspect that there is more to it than copying over everything in /DOS Well, this is supposed to be easy: 1. Boot your computer from floppy with the new DOS version. 2. After confirming date and time enter SYS A: C: from the command line. This will transfer two hidden files from floppy to hard disk. 3. Copy the DOS utility files from A: to the system subdirectory on your hard disk, for example C:\DOS 4. Say a quick prayer and reboot you computer from hard disk. Normally this works (but then, when does something work normally in a DOS environment :-), but should a problem occur, you can always restore your old version with the same procedure. 5. In case of trouble contact your local DOS whizard, good luck, Jori$. =============================================================================== Joris Linssen TNO Institute for Perception P.O. Box 23 Phone : +31 34 63 562 11 3769 ZG Soesterberg E-mail: tnosoes!joris@mcvax.cwi.nl The Netherlands or: joris@izf.tno.nl ===============================================================================
cctr132@canterbury.ac.nz (11/28/90)
In article <1427@tnosoes.izf.tno.nl>, joris@tnosoes.izf.tno.nl (Joris Linssen) writes: > yun@eng.umd.edu (Dragon Taunter) writes: > >>I have been handed down an old AT with 512K ram. It has a full hard >>disk which I do not want to overwrite. How do I upgrade to a newer dos? >>I suspect that there is more to it than copying over everything in /DOS > > Well, this is supposed to be easy: > > 1. Boot your computer from floppy with the new DOS version. > 2. After confirming date and time enter SYS A: C: from the command line. > This will transfer two hidden files from floppy to hard disk. > 3. Copy the DOS utility files from A: to the system subdirectory on your hard > disk, for example C:\DOS > 4. Say a quick prayer and reboot you computer from hard disk. Normally this > works (but then, when does something work normally in a DOS environment :-), > but should a problem occur, you can always restore your old version with > the same procedure. > 5. In case of trouble contact your local DOS whizard, Good advice *EXCEPT* step 2 should also include the instruction: COPY A:COMMAND.COM C:\ This definitely needs to be done up to (MS) DOS 3.3 (some OEM versions may have SYS copy COMMAND.COM automatically) - don't know about DOS 4, as have never installed it. Without copying the new version of COMMAND.COM to your hard disk, you will get a "Bad or missing command interpreter", or some such, error message. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nick FitzGerald, PC Applications Consultant, CSC, Uni of Canterbury, N.Z. Internet: n.fitzgerald@canterbury.ac.nz Phone: (64)(3) 642-337
p2t80b@suns01.Nowhere (Wolfgang Grimm) (11/28/90)
In article <1990Nov26.172206.244@eng.umd.edu> yun@eng.umd.edu (Dragon Taunter) writes: >I have been handed down an old AT with 512K ram. It has a full hard >disk which I do not want to overwrite. How do I upgrade to a newer dos? >I suspect that there is more to it than copying over everything in /DOS > I don't know what OS you're running on that AT. But if you're installing DOS 4.01, DR DOS 5.0 or some other new DOS they will overwrite the old system files. But to be on safe side I'll suggest you make a backup of the hard disk. (You should do it already on a regular basis) Wolfgang. -- ============================================================================= CALIFORNIA: From Latin 'calor', meaning "heat" (as in English 'calorie' or Spanish 'caliente'); and 'fornia', for "sexual intercourse" or "fornication." Hence: Tierra de California, "the land of hot sex." -- Ed Moran, Covina, California -- ============================================================================= "Aneth! That's a charming place!" "You've been to Aneth?" "Yes, but not yet." -- The Doctor and Seth, "The Horns of Nimon".
poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) (11/29/90)
In article <1990Nov28.131211.10020@canterbury.ac.nz> cctr132@canterbury.ac.nz writes: >In article <1427@tnosoes.izf.tno.nl>, joris@tnosoes.izf.tno.nl >(Joris Linssen) writes: > >> yun@eng.umd.edu (Dragon Taunter) writes: >> >>>I have been handed down an old AT with 512K ram. It has a full hard >>>disk which I do not want to overwrite. How do I upgrade to a newer dos? >>>I suspect that there is more to it than copying over everything in /DOS >> >> Well, this is supposed to be easy: >> >> 1. Boot your computer from floppy with the new DOS version. >> 2. After confirming date and time enter SYS A: C: from the command line. >> This will transfer two hidden files from floppy to hard disk. >> 3. Copy the DOS utility files from A: to the system subdirectory on your hard >> disk, for example C:\DOS >> 4. Say a quick prayer and reboot you computer from hard disk. Normally this >> works (but then, when does something work normally in a DOS environment :-), >> but should a problem occur, you can always restore your old version with >> the same procedure. >> 5. In case of trouble contact your local DOS whizard, > >Good advice *EXCEPT* step 2 should also include the instruction: > COPY A:COMMAND.COM C:\ >This definitely needs to be done up to (MS) DOS 3.3 (some OEM versions may >have SYS copy COMMAND.COM automatically) - don't know about DOS 4, as have >never installed it. > >Without copying the new version of COMMAND.COM to your hard disk, you will get >a "Bad or missing command interpreter", or some such, error message. > I is possible that you will need to use Norton Utilities or something similar ro make sure there is enough contiguous space for the two new boot files that must reside in contiguous blocks at the beginning of the disk. Since the new DOS has larger boot files (probably), and the disk blocks after the existing boot files are probably being used by other files, then sys C: will probably fail. Russ Poffenberger DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen 1601 Technology Drive CIS: 72401,276 San Jose, Ca. 95110 (408)437-5254
cctr132@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (11/29/90)
Sorry about the extensive quoting of previous posts, but it kind of sets the scene. In article <1990Nov28.223852.12623@sj.ate.slb.com>, poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) writes: > In article <1990Nov28.131211.10020@canterbury.ac.nz> cctr132@canterbury.ac.nz writes: >>In article <1427@tnosoes.izf.tno.nl>, joris@tnosoes.izf.tno.nl >>(Joris Linssen) writes: >> >>> yun@eng.umd.edu (Dragon Taunter) writes: >>> >>>>I have been handed down an old AT with 512K ram. It has a full hard >>>>disk which I do not want to overwrite. How do I upgrade to a newer dos? >>>>I suspect that there is more to it than copying over everything in /DOS >>> >>> Well, this is supposed to be easy: >>> >>> 1. Boot your computer from floppy with the new DOS version. >>> 2. After confirming date and time enter SYS A: C: from the command line. >>> This will transfer two hidden files from floppy to hard disk. >>> 3. Copy the DOS utility files from A: to the system subdirectory on your hard >>> disk, for example C:\DOS >>> 4. Say a quick prayer and reboot you computer from hard disk. Normally this >>> works (but then, when does something work normally in a DOS environment :-), >>> but should a problem occur, you can always restore your old version with >>> the same procedure. >>> 5. In case of trouble contact your local DOS whizard, >> >>Good advice *EXCEPT* step 2 should also include the instruction: >> COPY A:COMMAND.COM C:\ >>This definitely needs to be done up to (MS) DOS 3.3 (some OEM versions may >>have SYS copy COMMAND.COM automatically) - don't know about DOS 4, as have >>never installed it. >> >>Without copying the new version of COMMAND.COM to your hard disk, you will >>get a "Bad or missing command interpreter", or some such, error message. >> > > I is possible that you will need to use Norton Utilities or something similar > ro make sure there is enough contiguous space for the two new boot files that > must reside in contiguous blocks at the beginning of the disk. Since the new > DOS has larger boot files (probably), and the disk blocks after the existing > boot files are probably being used by other files, then sys C: will probably > fail. This whole area is shrouded in myth/mystery. As I understand it (and I may well be wrong), Russ is correct for versions of DOS pre-3.0, and possibly for 3.0 (maybe even 3.1?), but somewhere around ver 3.0/3.1 MS reorganized the code of IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS so the file-handling calls were loaded earlier (first?) than in previous versions. This allowed the system files to be non-contiguous, after a certain portion of them had been loaded. It may also have removed the requirement of MSDOS.SYS being the second entry in the root directory of the boot disk - I'm not so sure about this. Confusion over what has to be where on a system disk, and how to insure that all is right are frequently the source of questions to this and related groups. (A couple of months back someone advised an inquirer with a question similar to the poster who started this discussion, that s/he would *have* to low-level format their disk.) Anyone who knows the full story care to throw some light on this?? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nick FitzGerald, PC Applications Consultant, CSC, Uni of Canterbury, N.Z. Internet: n.fitzgerald@csc.canterbury.ac.nz Phone: (64)(3) 642-337
userDHAL@mts.ucs.UAlberta.CA (David Halliwell) (11/29/90)
In article <1427@tnosoes.izf.tno.nl>, joris@tnosoes.izf.tno.nl (Joris Linssen) writes: >yun@eng.umd.edu (Dragon Taunter) writes: > >>I have been handed down an old AT with 512K ram. It has a full hard >>disk which I do not want to overwrite. How do I upgrade to a newer dos? >>I suspect that there is more to it than copying over everything in /DOS > >Well, this is supposed to be easy: > >1. Boot your computer from floppy with the new DOS version. >2. After confirming date and time enter SYS A: C: from the command line. > This will transfer two hidden files from floppy to hard disk. . I think an important step was omitted here. SYS transfers only the two hidden files, as Joris states, but it soes NOT transfer COMMAND.COM, which is necessary for the computer to boot. It isn't good enough to have it in a subdirectory (e.g. \DOS): it must be in the root directory unless you have specified a different command processor in CONFIG.SYS. So, add step 2.5 Copy COMMAND.COM from the floppy to the root directory of the hard disk. . If you omit this, when you boot you will likely see a message about a bad or missing COMMAND.COM. . If the disk is REALLY full, you may need to make room for the files by deleting some things, because DOS is constantly getting bigger. Starting somewhere in the version 3.x range, it was no longer necessary to have space for the hidden files at the START of the disk: they could be non- contiguous, as long as the directory entries were at the start of the root directory. For older versions, you had to clean up the beginning of the disk. >3. Copy the DOS utility files from A: to the system subdirectory on your hard > disk, for example C:\DOS >4. Say a quick prayer and reboot you computer from hard disk. Normally this > works (but then, when does something work normally in a DOS environment :-), > but should a problem occur, you can always restore your old version with the > same procedure. >5. In case of trouble contact your local DOS whizard, > > good luck, > Jori$. Good luck^2. Dave Halliwell #! r