copy a dos program

Sure you could copy that program to a CD, but you have to run it in DOS. Not Windows CMD prompt. I see that you have Vista.

Jolicloud April 16, 2012 at 13:04:53

If it is a standard IDE Laptop Hard Drive, you could buy an USB External Hard Drive Case to put it in. Though as Vista 32bit has no MS-DOS, only NTVDM 16bit MS-DOS5 emulation, the program may not run ! Though if you have Vista 64bit, it has no NTVDM.

wizard-fred April 16, 2012 at 14:13:33

You can transfer by network, modem, cd or usb.

DAVEINCAPS April 16, 2012 at 20:29:43

Youi'll need to make sure you copy all the files associated with the program. There's a good chance they're all located in the same directory. Find that directory and copy everything in it--files and subdirectories--to floppies, if that's all you have. Depending on the amount that needs to be copied you may need several disks. There may be some stuff loading in config.sys and autoexec.bat related to the program too. That may not matter if you get it to run with a newer OS but you might want to copy them too, just in case. Then copy them all to another computer, recreating the directory structure as it was on the laptop. Copy config.sys and autoexec.bat to the folder also; don't put them in their normal place in the root directory. You don't want them possibly interfering with booting of the other PC. Then burn it all to a cd.

Mike Newcomb April 19, 2012 at 05:06:36

Hi Acampi, building on Daveincaps reply above, it is often forgotten that frequently dos applications were *INSTALLED* and a program to do this came as part of the package,. It is one thing to copy the data, but can be something very different if copying the application itself. Thus when copied to a different pc, problems might occur when running. For example when printing or with a different monitor. Even memory size can enter the equation. If the old laptop only has a floppy dirve, copying can be done using this with PKZIP/PKUNZIP. Please advise back on progress. Good Luck - Keep us posted.

If you're having trouble running the DOS software in Vista or Win7, you can try ExDOS. It solved all the problems I was having with a dBase IV program on Windows 7. Exdos supports 64-bit too, but I think only for Windows 7, not Vista. this is their website: www.exdos.com I hope it helps you.