DOS doesn't work anymore!

[Ed Ferris]

Hi folks. This is my first visit here, so my problem may have a well-
known fix, I hope.
My OmniBook started making burnt-plastic smells so I got a new laptop. I
have a large database programmed in QuickBasic 4.5. When I run QBasic
(off the Windows 98SE disk) under Command Prompt, it can't access any
files and quits on Bad File Mode error. I think this is because
everything in XP is NTFS.
So ...
1) Get Microsoft to fix their half-assed DOS emulator. Not likely.
2) Wipe the disk, format it as FAT32, and reinstall XP. What utilities
do this? -- not Disk Management or DiskPart as far as I can tell. Will
DOS apps read FAT32 files?
3) Make a FAT32 partition (how?), install another copy of XP in it. No
advantage over #2, I would think.
3a) Make a FAT32 partition and install Windows 98SE. Probably would
cause horrendous conflicts.
4) Make a FAT partition and keep the data files in it. Will XP
translate an NTFS file into FAT (or FAT32) when I move it into the new
partition?
5) Wipe the disk, trash XP, and install Linux. Their DOS emulator
works.
6) Find a still-working OmniBook and buy it cheap.

Any other (polite) suggestion?

 

[Vanguard]

Hi folks. This is my first visit here, so my problem may have a well-
known fix, I hope.
My OmniBook started making burnt-plastic smells so I got a new laptop.
I
have a large database programmed in QuickBasic 4.5. When I run QBasic
(off the Windows 98SE disk) under Command Prompt, it can't access any
files and quits on Bad File Mode error. I think this is because
everything in XP is NTFS.
So ...
1) Get Microsoft to fix their half-assed DOS emulator. Not likely.
2) Wipe the disk, format it as FAT32, and reinstall XP. What
utilities
do this? -- not Disk Management or DiskPart as far as I can tell.
Will
DOS apps read FAT32 files?
3) Make a FAT32 partition (how?), install another copy of XP in it.
No
advantage over #2, I would think.
3a) Make a FAT32 partition and install Windows 98SE. Probably would
cause horrendous conflicts.
4) Make a FAT partition and keep the data files in it. Will XP
translate an NTFS file into FAT (or FAT32) when I move it into the new
partition?
5) Wipe the disk, trash XP, and install Linux. Their DOS emulator
works.
6) Find a still-working OmniBook and buy it cheap.

Any other (polite) suggestion?

The NT kernel never has allowed direct hardware access (except by
privileged drivers). You didn't bother to mention what OS you had on
your old computer to give a clue as to why your old program would work
over there. The DOS *shell* you use in NT is NOT an emulator. It's
just a console mode DOS *shell*. Sounds like you probably had
DOS/Win9x-ME on your old computer and now you expect old programs that
bypassed the OS and made direct hardware access to also work under an NT
kernel.

Have you yet tried to use the compatibility mode? Start -> Help and
Support, search on "compatibility mode". Might work, might not if your
program is indeed trying to directly access the hardware. If none of
the compatibility modes work, start looking into multi-booting of
different operating systems where you use a boot manager, like BootMagic
or BootIT NG. It's too late to think about dual-booting unless you know
how to recover the system partition's boot sector where you installed
Windows XP because a later install of Windows 9x/ME will overwrite it
and make Windows XP unusable. Or you could use Virtual PC to use load a
virtual instance of an old Windows 9x/ME to run your old program under
it, but you'll need to make sure you have lots of memory so you can
allocate enough to the guest OS(es) and to the parent OS.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Hi folks. This is my first visit here, so my problem may have a well-
known fix, I hope.
My OmniBook started making burnt-plastic smells so I got a new
laptop. I have a large database programmed in QuickBasic 4.5. When
I run QBasic (off the Windows 98SE disk) under Command Prompt, it
can't access any files and quits on Bad File Mode error. I think
this is because everything in XP is NTFS.
So ...
1) Get Microsoft to fix their half-assed DOS emulator. Not likely.
2) Wipe the disk, format it as FAT32, and reinstall XP. What
utilities do this? -- not Disk Management or DiskPart as far as I can
tell. Will DOS apps read FAT32 files?
3) Make a FAT32 partition (how?), install another copy of XP in it.
No advantage over #2, I would think.
3a) Make a FAT32 partition and install Windows 98SE. Probably would
cause horrendous conflicts.
4) Make a FAT partition and keep the data files in it. Will XP
translate an NTFS file into FAT (or FAT32) when I move it into the new
partition?
5) Wipe the disk, trash XP, and install Linux. Their DOS emulator
works.
6) Find a still-working OmniBook and buy it cheap.

Any other (polite) suggestion?

As long as your looking for options, why not just install DOS 6.22 in a separate partition?
You can freely move files between partitions. The file format of a partition is not an issue.

 

[Galen]

In Ed Ferris <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Hi folks. This is my first visit here, so my problem may have a well-
known fix, I hope.
My OmniBook started making burnt-plastic smells so I got a new
laptop. I have a large database programmed in QuickBasic 4.5. When
I run QBasic (off the Windows 98SE disk) under Command Prompt, it
can't access any files and quits on Bad File Mode error. I think
this is because everything in XP is NTFS.
So ...
1) Get Microsoft to fix their half-assed DOS emulator. Not likely.
2) Wipe the disk, format it as FAT32, and reinstall XP. What
utilities do this? -- not Disk Management or DiskPart as far as I can
tell. Will DOS apps read FAT32 files?
3) Make a FAT32 partition (how?), install another copy of XP in it.
No advantage over #2, I would think.
3a) Make a FAT32 partition and install Windows 98SE. Probably would
cause horrendous conflicts.
4) Make a FAT partition and keep the data files in it. Will XP
translate an NTFS file into FAT (or FAT32) when I move it into the new
partition?
5) Wipe the disk, trash XP, and install Linux. Their DOS emulator
works.
6) Find a still-working OmniBook and buy it cheap.

Any other (polite) suggestion?

In addition to the other answers, I have found that this is an often
effective solution.

DOSBox, a x86 emulator with DOS:
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/

There's a bit of a learning curve but it's fairly well laid out and not too
difficult to master in but a few minutes. It's a DOS emulation that can be
used within XP without any problems. It's often recommended by me in the
gaming areas or for people who are looking for compatibility with older
applications. Again, it's not the easiest thing on the planet to figure out
but it's not the hardest either. If you were fluent in DOS and understand
needing a front-end (though I think you can get a package with it already
loaded now) then you're good to go and can even get the source for it and
modify it to your likings though that's never been required by anyone who's
used it for simple things like you intend to do with it.

Galen
--

"You know that a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his
trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will
come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all."

Sherlock Holmes

 

[Ed Ferris]

In addition to the other answers, I have found that this is an often
effective solution.

DOSBox, a x86 emulator with DOS:
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/

Thanks for the tip. I downloaded it, got QBasic running and it couldn't
open any file -- Bad File Mode again. Looks like I'll have to split off a
partition and put the Basic programs and data in there.

 

[Ed Ferris]

As long as your looking for options, why not just install DOS 6.22 in
a separate partition? You can freely move files between partitions.
The file format of a partition is not an issue.

That is a better idea, install DOS to run DOS programs. I think you're
telling me that XP will change the file format from NTFS to FAT if I move
a file from the XP partition to the DOS one. If so, that would work.

From the XP Help, I gather that I have to install DOS first so it won't
write over the XP boot sector. If this is necessary, I'll have to wipe
the existing XP partition and re-install XP after DOS. This makes me
nervous about the hidden and unnamed partitions, but I'll give it a try.

Next step is to find a utility that will split off 4GB from the C:
partition while XP is still running in it. As I mentioned, it doesn't
look like DiskPart will do this.

Thanks for the help, all!

 

[ronald.phillips]

The files are not in "NTFS" file format or "DOS" format. They are just
files. The filesystem does not matter to applications, unless they
work at the lower level of the hardware. Qbasic does not.

I suggest you simply boot off of a DOS/Windows9x boot disk. Place your
Qbasic files on the same floppy or a seperate one if you need the space
and see if you can run the files from there before playing around with
partitions.

 

[Ed Ferris]

Here's what worked and what didn't, in case somebody else has the same

problem. The computer is a Dell Inspiron 1200 notebook.

Bought a USB floppy drive.
Booted from the Win98 Startup floppy.
Ran FDISK.
Deleted C partition.
Created C partition (4GB) as Primary DOS Partition.
Marked it Active.
Created D partition (the rest) as Extended DOS Partition.
Re-booted, selecting CD-ROM support.
Formatted C and D as FAT32.
Installed Win98 in C partition by running win98\SETUP.
Inserted WinXP Re-Install CD and booted from it.
Formatted D as FAT32 (yes, again).
Installed WinXP in D partition.
Obtained Drivers CD from Dell and installed them.
Installed QuickBasic from floppy in C:\Program Files.

Now Basic runs fine but I don't have Stand By or Hibernate in either

Windows. Win98 doesn't have the device drivers so it can't use the

modem or CD drive. On startup, the boot menu gives me a choice of

WinXP, WinXP (version from a false start earlier), or Win98.

Things that didn't work:

Just re-formatting C as FAT32 and re-installing WinXP. QBasic quits
on

Bad File Mode.
Not formatting D while installing Win98. ScanDisk reports an error
and

Setup quits.
Not formatting D before installing WinXP. It expects to find HAL.DLL

and quits when it doesn't.
Re-installing XP from the Re-Install disk, without the drivers.

Doesn't even see the modem or CD drive.
Trying to install Win98 from inside WinXP. Win98 Setup says you can't

do that.
Trying to boot from Win98 CD. It's not bootable.

I didn't install DOS because I don't have installation disks and
wasn't

sure that just copying it from my 486 would work.
Does the license for one copy on one computer mean you can legally

transfer the OS to another computer when the first one dies? Maybe I

shouldn't ask that.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Here's what worked and what didn't, in case somebody else has the same
snip<

Ed

Thanks for letting us know how you sorted this problem.

Does the license for one copy on one computer mean you can legally

transfer the OS to another computer when the first one dies? Maybe I

shouldn't ask that.

As long as the OS is a retail version and not OEM you can transfer it as many times as you wish.

 

[Gunther]

Option 5, going with linux is the best solution. Also I know in the
retail copy of XP it gives you the option of formatting in the
partition of your choice.

 

[Ed Ferris]

Option 5, going with linux is the best solution. Also I know in the
retail copy of XP it gives you the option of formatting in the
partition of your choice.

Ah,but Linux DOSEMU states that it doesn't handle the kernel ring
problem which DOS Basic evidently has. I would much prefer a command-
line interface instead of all these g*ddamn windows.

Also, one glitch I forgot to mention. In Win98 Setup, unplug the USB
floppy drive immediately after you make a Startup disk or before you
click OK to skip making one. Setup will hang on "detecting hardware"
if you don't remove the drive. (On my computer, at least.)