Back to home page

DOS ain't dead

Forum index page

Log in | Register

Search:  
Back to the forum
Board view  Mix view

Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? (Users)

posted by Doug E-mail, 24.04.2014, 07:49

My 2 cents....

I agree with RayeR and ron -- why not just get a new system and copy over the entire hard drive.

But there's the rub -- copying the files might be tedious and error-prone using diskettes.

You might possibly be able to use a flash drive to copy the original hard drive, but DOS can only use a 2gb or less disk partition (depending on the DOS version... i dunno about 6.x limits). And i have found DOS USB drivers to be "flakey" and inconsistent between systems and flash drives. (Sometimes an external USB hub makes USB devices more compatible.)

My preferred solution would be to use a "null modem" cable (serial port - slower transfer) or a "null printer" cable (parallel port - faster transfer). These are specially-made cables used only for this purpose. (You can NOT use regular serial or parallel cables.) Then get a file-transfer program (need to install a copy on both source and target systems). I used to use ZIP.COM by Eric Meyer (latest version 2.22 2006-Apr-25) to do just this:

https://sites.google.com/site/vdeeditor/Home/vde-files

If you are set on Windows anyway, i'd suggest 98SE -- the last version to "play nice" with DOS... and the last MS product to include a "fully functional", stand-alone, real DOS (MS-DOS 7.1). Unless you set it up on an older system, though, you'll have tons of driver (and other) headaches.

- Doug B.

Post reply
 

Complete thread:

Back to the forum
Board view  Mix view
22049 Postings in 2034 Threads, 396 registered users, 183 users online (0 registered, 183 guests)
DOS ain't dead | Admin contact
RSS Feed
powered by my little forum