Will either the Pentium 4 or Athlon XP (or P3 or Athlon) run Dos as a primary operating system. I want to us a disk partitioning program (Partition Magic 8 or similar)to run Windows NT 4.0, Windows XP and Dos 6.2 as primary operating on 3 separate disk partitions and boot to the one I select.

What graphics controller is needed to display Dos applications?

Can any one recommend a consultant or PC shop to set this up for me?

Thank You.

Russ Dember

Though you can use MSDOS 6.2x, it has memory limitations, but install OK providing it thinks it is being installed to drive C:. As to graphics, no driver is required but to enhance graphics SciTechsoft have freeware VBE drivers, but only support some Graphic cards. See www.mwpms.uklinux.net/page2.htm, if you go to www.mwpms.uklinux.net/page1.htm it gives a link under MSDOS7.1x of how to extract DOS out of Win 95B/98.

I would advise using DOS 7.1x as it recognises FAT32, whereas DOS 6.2x only recognises a maximium of 2G partitions FAT 16, though there is DOS software available to read FAT32/NTFS and to read Long File Names as DOS is restricted to the 8:3 format.

Please read thru my site and email if problems!

Should work, if you set up a FAT16 (2GB or less) partition that is Primary and bootable. You could of course just try booting the system with a DOS 6.2 diskette, but it would not be able to see any of your FAT32 or NTFS partitions.

Your existing video adapter's BIOS should handle most DOS applications.

Further to my earlier answer you do not need any DOS etc software, you boot from MSDOS disk 1 and when asks if you want to install press F3 to exit this will take you to the A:\> command prompt, type FDSIK and delete all partitions wether DOS or non-DOS, then remake the size of partitions you require up to 2GB in size. ESC out of fsidk after making C: drive active and reboot, MSDOS will restart and this time install, it will offer to format C:.

When MSDOS is working fine, then install NT4 from the boot disks, they can be created from the CD, install on the next drive letter D: and it will install a boot loader, so eventually when you boot will have choice of O/S.

When NT4 is OK from within NT4 put in XP disk and choose new install as oppossed to upgrade and in the installation you can choose to alter/delete/file type NTFS/Fat32 etc etc your hard drive partition, providing you leave current MSDOS and NT4 drives C: and D: alone Xp will go on E:

Now you will have a 3 choice Boot Loader. Please be aware that NT4 and XP put a few files on the C: drive.

btw NT4 and DOS6 are FAT16 compatible Nt4 is also NTFS compatible. XP is FAT32 and NTFS compatible. If you plan to share files between O/S's then stick to FAT

btw Partition Magic is Windoze software, runs in DOS compatibility for partitioning

Also before you ask there is no DOS in the NT family, http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/226/03/1.html

Thank you very much for your detailed response.

My present 100 MHz P1 computer has a 1 GB SCSI (wide, 10 MHz ?) disk and Adaptech 2940 SCSI card (in a PCI slot ?). Another approach to what I initially proposed is to transplant the SCSI disk and card into the P4 or Athlon computer I am buying as the DOS disk, and then get a 40 GB ATA 133 disk as the Windows NT 4.0 and XP disk. Or copy all of the data on my current disk to a new ATA disk if that is easier.

My motivation for retaining DOS is that I have a mechanical engineering analysis program that works just fine and would be very expensive to replace in a newer Windows version. Not to mention my DOS based PC Write word processer that prints to my Diablo 630 daisy wheel printer. The daisy wheel printer does not like any Windows TSR's around when printing.

Russ Dember

If your SCSI card is bootable then it could be set as first boot device, though considering DOS is always short on conventional memory would partition the IDE drive and install the SCSI drive only for use in Windows.

You could Ghost over your SCSI drive to the C: patition etc. Ghost 5 or 6 will work with NT4 I believe

I have an Athlon XP 2600+ and have DOS 6.22 installed on the first primary partition of my first hard drive. It runs just fine. I also have the DOS version of System Commander on that same partiton. System Commander is very similar to Partition Magic and is made by the same company. Most people use the Windoze version but the DOS version is still available.

Sytem Commander comes up running before I select whether to boot into Red Hat Linux 9, DOS 6.22 or Windows ME. At the time I set this up I did not know there were newer alternatives to DOS 6.22.

I would like to try out the other currently available versions of DOS such as PC DOS 2000, DOS Pro 2000, Dr DOS, freeDOS and ROM-DOS. I may install one of them on the empty active bootable partiton if DOS is ok with being primary partion 3 of the first disk. Linux is happy booting from the a primary partiton of the 2nd hard disk and I am not sure if that would work with DOS or Windoze or not?

I submitted the following question to the AMD Technical Service Center and recieved the answer that follows.

Question:

I am buying a new computer and have a few questions.

Will an Athlon XP 2000+ support MS DOS 6.2 operating system. I want to use disk partitioning software such as Partition Magic to run MS Dos, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows XP Home Professional all on the same computer. How is the VGA handled in DOS if the video card in the APG slot only recognizes windows NT 4.0, 2000 and XP?

Does an ASUS A7M266 motherboard with an AMD 760 chipset comply with APG 2.0 specification. In particular will the typedetect pin sense the video card voltage requirements and will the chip set adjust the voltage to either 1.5 volts or 3.3 volts if the video card is APG 2.0 compliant?

Thank You.

Russ Dember

AMD Response:

Hello russ,

Thank you for contacting AMD's Technical Service Center.

DOS apps have a hard time running under faster processors so he may need a software update to run DOS apps.

Please contact Asus for mobo/AGP questions at:

http://www.asus.com/

AMD Athlon processors are compatible with virtually all x86 hardware and software. Most compatibility issues, if there are any, are usually between the motherboard and other components added to the system. It is often a good idea to make sure all the latest drivers for the installed components. Be sure to contact the product vendor to obtain
compatibility information and the latest drivers or patches. To assure maximum performance from any processor, high-quality contemporary hardware is always recommended.
Hope this helps. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.

Regards,
AMD TSC

I have replied to their email asking for clarification of their "DOS apps have a hard time running under faster processors so he may need a software update to run DOS apps" statement.

The video card will be the 1.5 volt only version of the 3DLabs Oxygen GVX1 Pro, so that part has been taken care of.

I would like to thank everyone for their responses to my questions. I have forwarded all of the information to my local computer builder who is going to put this thing together for me and make it run (I hope).

It is comforting to know that someone else has a DOS partition that works on a computer with a current high speed processor.

Russ Dember

Before selecting hardware for your computer, it would be best see what has DOS drivers are available. I use both DOS and Linux user so before I purchase anything I look on the manufacturers web page to see if the component will work under DOS, Linux and Windows. I also check to see if a DOS driver is available to be downloaded. Many components will work but sometimes not mention DOS or Linux.

Most internal modems these days are Win modems and are designed to be run from Windows only. Nearly any external modem will work. I have never tried to connect to the Internet from DOS although I believe it can probably be done. Do not expect your average Internet provider to know how to do that however. They may tell you it can not be done. Cable or DSL is not available here so I use a dial-up connection. I am connected using Linux at the moment.

My motherboard has an built-in Ethernet controller. I have not yet tried to use that from DOS, only Linux. DOS recognized my video card with no problem. It runs in the 640x480 mode and I have not tried to set it to a higher resolution. Many of my old DOS programs were designed for 640x480 anyway.

I have not yet tried to make my CD-RW work under DOS. I also have not yet figured out how to make the onboard game port work under DOS. The motherboard has a built-in soundcard. I tried to install the DOS version of the soundcard driver but for some reason it did not work.

My Morse code program works great under DOS because it an uses the motherboards tiny speaker instead of the soundcard and the external speakers. Most of my DOS programs still work great. My old parallel cable type 100 Mb Zip drive works too. So DOS works well for what I ask it to do. I have not bothered trying to set it up to run everything because Linux is my main operating system. If I want to burn a CD or connect to the Internet I use Linux or occasionally Windoze. By carefully selecting the right hardware and software more, could probably be done under DOS.

I believe DOS is required for a specific programRick344P but if want to know more about DOS capibilities and modern technology look thru www.mwpms.uklinux.net. Yes can even make some CDR coasters! WiFi network, Compact flash media........

{Actually I have an IBM 300PL P166MMX with on-board sound, graphics, ethernet, USB etc and drivers are available for DOS, even use a 17" monitoer at 1024x768 for surfing with Arachne}

So Russ, here is another possible solution for for your need to run that mechanical engineering analysis program under DOS. VMware makes a product which allows other operating systems to be run in a virtual environment from within Windows. VMware creates an imaginary virtual computer in which you can install and run whatever operating system you want. DOS could then be installed an run in a VMware window.

I am currently taking a computer networking class where we use VMware. We each have a computer on our desk. Earlier this semmester we installed Linux and Windows 2000 under VMware. Today is typical in that I had Red Hat Linux 7.3 running in one window. In another window I had a program running under Windows XP. Both programs were quite stable. The copy of Linux running under VMWare is also connected to the network.

We do not have DOS installed under VMware in the class I am taking, but apparently it can be done. You could run DOS 6.22 in a Window. Pressing Ctrl-Alt would make it run full screen. VMware costs about $300 and can be installed on a computer running either Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Linux.

When I open VMware, I select which operating system I want to run. For instance, if I select Red Hat 7.3, I actually watch it boot-up in the window and then log in. It also does a good job of running Windows 2000 from within a Window.

This would be a good alternative to how I have things set up on my home computer.

I will investigate VMware.

My present computer has a 100 MHz P1 with DOS and Windows 3.1. When I open a DOS window in Windows 3.1 and use my DOS word processor, PC Write, and print to my Diablo 630 daisy wheel printer on a serial port I get formatting errors on the printer that I don't get if I boot up (or re-noot) and open PC Write directly. I think that there are some TSR's from Windows that affect the printer. Do You know if opening a DOS window using VMware would cause a similar poblem?

Russ