DOS prompt

[navnah]

How do you leave windows to return to DOS prompt? I need to use DOS XCOPY
command to back up damaged files.

 

[Malke]

How do you leave windows to return to DOS prompt? I need to use DOS XCOPY
command to back up damaged files.

There is no DOS in Windows XP so you can't do this as you could in Win9x/ME.
If you can't get into Windows proper, you might be able to accomplish your
task by booting into Safe Mode Command Prompt. This will give you the
command prompt without a gui and you can use XCopy from there.

Malke

 

[Don Phillipson]

How do you leave windows to return to DOS prompt? I need to use DOS XCOPY
command to back up damaged files.

It is the other way round. WinXP boots by itself, but you
can run CMD (pseudo-DOS) in a box and then return to
Windows (GUI.)

Free software from www.xxcopy.com beats DOS XCOPY
in several respects.

 

[Stan Brown]

There is no DOS in Windows XP so you can't do this as you could in Win9x/ME.

Or, to answer what the OP really wants to know, click
Start | Programs | Accessories | Command prompt.

If it's not there, click Start | Run and enter this command
cmd /k
then click OK

I will never understand why normally helpful people say "there is no
DOS" and then stop, when they know perfectly well that everyone but a
few use "DOS" as a short term for "the command prompt". Is it
technically accurate? no, but neither are lots of short forms of
speech.

 

[Hodges]

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:53:41 -0700 from Malke <[email protected]>:





Or, to answer what the OP really wants to know, click
Start | Programs | Accessories | Command prompt.

If it's not there, click Start | Run and enter this command
cmd /k
then click OK

I will never understand why normally helpful people say "there is no
DOS" and then stop, when they know perfectly well that everyone but a
few use "DOS" as a short term for "the command prompt".  Is it
technically accurate? no, but neither are lots of short forms of
speech.

I don't remember if xcopy is included in the recovery console or not,
but you could build a PE disc with Bart's PE Builder and copy files
that way. It boots from a cd so you can even copy/modify system
files. The URL for that is http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

 

[Malke]

Or, to answer what the OP really wants to know, click
Start | Programs | Accessories | Command prompt.

If it's not there, click Start | Run and enter this command
cmd /k
then click OK

I will never understand why normally helpful people say "there is no
DOS" and then stop, when they know perfectly well that everyone but a
few use "DOS" as a short term for "the command prompt". Is it
technically accurate? no, but neither are lots of short forms of
speech.

Because the OP asked if there was a way to get out of Windows and into DOS
like you could in Win9x/ME. Unlike you, I *did* answer his question. He
apparently can't use the gui and your way won't be useful if that is the
case. If you hadn't "conveniently" snipped the rest of my answer, it would
be apparent to you.

And here it is! Surprise!

"If you can't get into Windows proper, you might be able to accomplish your
task by booting into Safe Mode Command Prompt. This will give you the
command prompt without a gui and you can use XCopy from there."

Malke

 

[Steve Hayes]

How do you leave windows to return to DOS prompt? I need to use DOS XCOPY
command to back up damaged files.

Go to Start --> All Programs and look for "Command Prompt"

I find it most useful to copy it to the desktop, where it is more quickly
available.

 

[N. Miller]

I will never understand why normally helpful people say "there is no
DOS" and then stop, when they know perfectly well that everyone but a
few use "DOS" as a short term for "the command prompt". Is it
technically accurate? no, but neither are lots of short forms of
speech.

Like the "hard disc", "power unit", "CPU", and such for the system unit? I
don't know that there is a proper term for the "tower", but it is much more
than just a "hard disc", "power unit", or "CPU". It is all of those, plus
I/O system, all in one box. Which is why "system unit" for that box is as
good a term as any.

I have a friend who keeps referring to removable media as, "tapes". Matters
not whether it is a floppy disc, CD, or DVD. It goes into a slot in the
system unit, much as an old eight-track, so, to her, it is a, "tape".

But it is hard for us geeks to understand what they mean, more often than
not. There is a reason for techno-jargon.

 

[Richard Urban]

Or, to answer what the OP really wants to know, click
Start | Programs | Accessories | Command prompt.

If it's not there, click Start | Run and enter this command
cmd /k
then click OK

I will never understand why normally helpful people say "there is no
DOS" and then stop, when they know perfectly well that everyone but a
few use "DOS" as a short term for "the command prompt". Is it
technically accurate? no, but neither are lots of short forms of
speech.

Stan,

The O/P wants to DROP back into DOS as he could with Win98. That is not
possible for two reasons. The first, of course, is that there is no DOS in
the newer operating systems.

The second is based upon the first. You can not DROP BACK to something that
does not exist.

Malke's answer is spot on in telling the O/P to press F8 and use Safe Mode
Command Prompt!

In addition, how is a person who does not have the basic knowledge learn -
if we keep on anticipating what he means. It is proper, and correct, to tell
him/her that DOS does *NOT* exist in Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.
Otherwise he will keep on coming across as a dummy!

 

[Malke]

Go to Start --> All Programs and look for "Command Prompt"

I find it most useful to copy it to the desktop, where it is more quickly
available.

This will only work if the OP can get into Windows in the first place. If you
read the thread, you would have seen that there is some question about
whether that is the case. Unless the OP comes back to clarify what is really
going on with his/her system, we'll never know.

Malke

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Stan,

The O/P wants to DROP back into DOS as he could with Win98. That is not
possible for two reasons. The first, of course, is that there is no DOS in
the newer operating systems.

The second is based upon the first. You can not DROP BACK to something that
does not exist.

Malke's answer is spot on in telling the O/P to press F8 and use Safe Mode
Command Prompt!

In addition, how is a person who does not have the basic knowledge learn -
if we keep on anticipating what he means. It is proper, and correct, to tell
him/her that DOS does *NOT* exist in Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.
Otherwise he will keep on coming across as a dummy!

Richard, I completely agree with everything you say. But I also agree
with what I think was Stan's main point. He said "people say 'there is
no DOS' and then stop." It's the "...and then stop" that I think he
was driving at, since if all you say is "there is no DOS," you are not
really helping the person to do what he wants to accomplish.

Malke's answer, of course, wasn't in the "...and then stop" category
and was a very good one.

 

[Steve Hayes]

This will only work if the OP can get into Windows in the first place. If you
read the thread, you would have seen that there is some question about
whether that is the case. Unless the OP comes back to clarify what is really
going on with his/her system, we'll never know.

Since the OP wrote about "leaving Windows" to get to the DOS prompt, it seems
that he/she was in Windows in the first place, and needed to get to the
command prompt to use xcopy.

A standard installation of XP doesn't make it all that easy to find, and I've
had support people give me extraordinarily convoluted instructions over the
phone when I could simply have clicked the Command Prompt icon on my desktop.

 

[Twayne]

Or, to answer what the OP really wants to know, click
Start | Programs | Accessories | Command prompt.

If it's not there, click Start | Run and enter this command
cmd /k
then click OK

I will never understand why normally helpful people say "there is no
DOS" and then stop, when they know perfectly well that everyone but a
few use "DOS" as a short term for "the command prompt". Is it
technically accurate? no, but neither are lots of short forms of
speech.

Actually, Microsoft describes the Command Prompt as a DOS window too, in
so many places one could never count them. It's even in the Help &
Support area on your own computer. The proper definition is that XP is
not BUILT ON TOP OF DOS as other windws versions were and thus is not
DOS based as other windows versions were. It does in fact still have a
DOS window, found in the Command Prompt, and today it is much more than
a simple DOS emulator since it has many many more possible commands at
the user's disposal.
Purists such as you encountered are silly and nonsensical beings in
that they have no wish to help the OP but rather only wish to show their
own egoes to the world. Who cares?

 

[Twayne]

Like the "hard disc", "power unit", "CPU", and such for the system
unit? I don't know that there is a proper term for the "tower", but
it is much more than just a "hard disc", "power unit", or "CPU". It
is all of those, plus I/O system, all in one box. Which is why
"system unit" for that box is as good a term as any.

I have a friend who keeps referring to removable media as, "tapes".
Matters not whether it is a floppy disc, CD, or DVD. It goes into a
slot in the system unit, much as an old eight-track, so, to her, it
is a, "tape".

But it is hard for us geeks to understand what they mean, more often
than not. There is a reason for techno-jargon.

But their meaning is often in their content and context if one bothers
to pay attention rather than showing off.

 

[N. Miller]

But their meaning is often in their content and context if one bothers
to pay attention rather than showing off.

More often, it is not clear, from their content and context.

 

[Stan Brown]

Because the OP asked if there was a way to get out of Windows and
into DOS like you could in Win9x/ME. Unlike you, I *did* answer his
question. He apparently can't use the gui and your way won't be
useful if that is the case. If you hadn't "conveniently" snipped
the rest of my answer, it would be apparent to you.

And here it is! Surprise!

"If you can't get into Windows proper, you might be able to accomplish your
task by booting into Safe Mode Command Prompt. This will give you the
command prompt without a gui and you can use XCopy from there."

As I said, you answered the literal words of his question but not
what the real question actually was. You can't really believe that
the OP really wanted to reboot, as opposed to opening a command
window within Windows.

You're a smart guy, and I know you want to be helpful, but I believe
that exalting form over substance because newbies don't know the
official vocabulary doesn't help them most effectively.

 

[Stan Brown]

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:09:30 -0700 from Ken Blake, MVP

Richard, I completely agree with everything you say. But I also agree
with what I think was Stan's main point. He said "people say 'there is
no DOS' and then stop." It's the "...and then stop" that I think he
was driving at, since if all you say is "there is no DOS," you are not
really helping the person to do what he wants to accomplish.

Bingo.

If we're here to be helpful, then it is important not to punish
people for not phrasing their questions with perfect vocabulary, but
rather to look behind the form of words at what they are actually
trying to do.

 

[N. Miller]

You're a smart guy, and I know you want to be helpful, but I believe
that exalting form over substance because newbies don't know the
official vocabulary doesn't help them most effectively.

There is a reason for the official vocabulary, and anybody trying to move
beyond casual use should learn it, and the reason for it. There is a reason
for everything, including, "All hands to the left!" That won't fly aboard a
ship as a quarter of the crew will be facing one of four ways, and all will
move to their left; not the desired result. "All hands to port!" will get
the desired result, of course.

 

[N. Miller]

Bingo.

If we're here to be helpful, then it is important not to punish
people for not phrasing their questions with perfect vocabulary, but
rather to look behind the form of words at what they are actually
trying to do.

So. Teach them the lingo as you instruct them how to do something. So they
will know, next time around.

 

[Jim]

As I said, you answered the literal words of his question but not
what the real question actually was. You can't really believe that
the OP really wanted to reboot, as opposed to opening a command
window within Windows.

You're a smart guy, and I know you want to be helpful, but I believe
that exalting form over substance because newbies don't know the
official vocabulary doesn't help them most effectively.

Malke is a lady .
Stan Brown - <plonk >