On Sat, 24 Mar 2001 10:22:42 -0500, Barry Kaufman wrote:
> There are some who dislike Microsoft so much that they may be missing
> advantages of the MS-DOS 7 that comes with WIN98. I am trying to switch
> from DOS 6.22 to DOS 7, have not tested everything yet, but so far am
> impressed:
> 1) DOS7 supports FAT32 partitions. I don't believe that the non-MS DOS's
> do that, and certainly not DOS 6X.
The only reason you would need FAT32 support
is if you're running win9x or above. :(
> 2) DOS7 has native support for LS-120 so drive A can be a multi-megabyte,
> bootable emergency recovery disk with every utility you would ever need.
> perhaps WIN3 or even a cut down version of WIN98 would run from the LS-120.
> To be bootable, BIOS has to support booting from LS.
I've never used an LS-120 so I can't comment on that point.
However, I do have an Iomega ZIP100 and ZPPA.EXE
With ZPPA... we have direct support for booting a 100MB ZIP drive.
(regardless of DOS version)
http://www.blueskyinnovations.com/zppa.html
> 3) I haven't tried it yet but it appears that if the BIOS supports
> booting from CD-ROM, then DOS 7 on the CD will boot. That's a 650 MB
> CD boot disk. Do any of the non-MS DOS's support LS or CD booting?
You pointed it out in the first sentence.
It's not the version of DOS which must
support bootable CDROMS...... It's the BIOS.
AFAIK, Booting of any device (3.5" disk, 5.25" disk, HDD, CDROM),
takes place directly within the BIOS and has nothing to do with the OS.
As a "rule of thumb", the first active partition of the first physical
storage device is booted. (if it contains an OS)
If it does not contain an OS, then the BIOS looks at the first active
partition of the second physical storage device. (and then the 3rd and
then the 4th)
All of this takes place *before* the OS has been touched.
That is how the BIOS finds the OS. ;-)
ZPPA works by placeing a "bootloader" of sorts into the MBR of the HDD.
It then pauses at boot-up so that the user can choose any of the
following....
1) boot the HDD and give the ZIPdrive letter A: and the diskette letter B:
2) boot the HDD and give the ZIPdrive letter B: and the diskette letter A:
3) boot the ZIPdrive as A: and give the diskette letter B:
4) boot the HDD and don't load the ZPPA ZIPdrive drivers (user can then
load the normal Iomega drivers as needed)
(all of this is done before the OS comes-into-play)
> 4) A previous message from someone said that DOS 7 did not recognize a
> 5.25" disk in drive B. I tried that on my old PC and it worked fine.
> So, does anyone have or know of test results to show that DOS 7 won't work
> as well as DOS 6 (speed, memory usage, etc) or is not compatible with
> programs that DOS 6 runs?
> Thanks, Barry.
I have been using OpenDos v7.01 ever since it came out.
No such problems here. :)
BTW,
In each of your points above....
Don't you actually mean to say "MS-DOS" not simply "DOS" ??? ;-)
Or were you reffering of one of these?
OpenDos, DR-DOS, PC-DOS, PTS-DOS, FREE-DOS, IBM-DOS, etc, etc,.... <vbg>
--
Glenn
http://arachne.cz/
http://freedos-32.sourceforge.net/
http://www.delorie.com/listserv/mime/
http://www.angelfire.com/id/glenndoom/download.htm
