I was overlooking an exam given to applicants that my housemate got when she applied to new job yesterday and one of the questions was :
What are the five files needed to boot to DOS?"
Now I’m not a DOS guru, but I was under the impression that you only needed three files to get a DOS prompt. Those files being io.sys, msdos.sys, and command.com. Am I off base here?
The person reviewing her exam stated that you needed autoexec.bat and config.sys as well. Now I understand that if you want environmental settings and hardware stacks you will need them, but the questions was as I stated. It did not say “boot to DOS with envornmental variables and hardware configurations?”.
That’s how I remember it too. You definitely do not need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Simple enough to prove too…just make a boot disk as described and show the fools that at least you know your stuff.
Yeah, you only need those 3. I remember having to do that a lot in the days before Win95. I had to boot from a floppy to play video games with bizarre system requirements which precluded you loading ANYTHING but a clean dos session.
Yikes! I was a teenager when DOS was out! I’m getting OLD!!!
Akash
Having a Pre-Midlife Crisis
Yes, only three files are absolutely required to boot into DOS. In fact, these types of questions are usually given as trick questions to make sure you know your stuff. Many people will in fact answer that you need the five files, at which point the test giver can respond with “Nope, you only need three; config.sys and autoexec.bat are optional.”
I love to find validation in the words and assurances of my peers.
Some of you noted that all I need to do was load those files on to a disk and boot with it but all my DOS disks are 5 1/4". Won’t work. I actually got rid of all my old trash boxes about a year ago and with them my only 5 1/4" drive. I have no idea why I still have the floppies. Maybe I’ll freak my grandkids out with them.
No, only 3 are needed.
Maybe they were asking what the 5 files to boot to DOS, AND have access to the CD drive, were? Could this maybe be it? If so, then those 5 files would make since because the other 2 would be needed to load the CD drive.
Now that I think about it, 2 others would be needed as well the CD driver and MSCDEX. So, nevermind! LOL
-DolphTX
So I’ll make a total zombie reference. There are four requirements to become President of the US. Barry Goldwater met three and failed the fourth. What are they?
1 35 years of age
2 Natural born citizen of the U.S.
3 Resident for 14 years
4 Receive the most Electoral votes (or failing that if no one receives a majority
be elected by the House)
4a In place of 4 you can become President if you’re VP and the President dies, resigns or is impeached and removed from office. (You could also be Speaker, President Pro Tem of the Senate, or a Cabinet member if those ahead of you also removed from office.)
Goldwater didn’t meet #4 as didn’t lots of others.
I wondered about that too. I think it was the third post down, when someone referenced a username that I didn’t see that made me check the date. I assume one of the first posters used to go by that name.
With every new edition of M$ Winders (since Win 98 at least), we hear more and more of people hating it. For some time now, lots of people have been asking: Is Winders off on a dead-end track?
The farther we get down that line, the more relevant it becomes to have some people still alive who know how to get DOS up and running.
I had a boot floppy that I made once (maybe I still have it around somewhere) that had the basic required files, plus a basic CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT plus my preferred selection of basic utility programs, typically those geared toward basic system maintenance, troubleshooting, and fundamental operations. (Hex file dump; text editor; XCOPY; stuff like that.)
Will on old DOS 6.2 system disk still run on a modern 64-bit processor?
I didn’t get a certificate (like a light associates degree, without the gen ed shit) in the 90s because I refused to take the required Intro to MS-DOS class. Department head wouldn’t let me substitute something else, even harder, and maybe something that was of use in 1995, much less 2000 or 2013, despite my protests that I probably knew more about MS-DOS than the prof, or could at least teach the class.
No point to that tale. It’s just that I see I didn’t tell it the first time this thread came up, and I wanted to redress that wrong.
yes DOS does boot on 64 bit cpu… well not all , not the new ones.
(Windows requires BIOS to boot. So the bios must be functional. DOS only needs the bios . So DOS must also be functional… )
I had to do it to update firmware , bios… using a floppy in 2006 - even to 2010.
New ones don’t have floppy drive interfaces so what are you going to connect a floppy drive to ?
And the bootstrap is being changed to. UEFI rather than bios,
A UEFI motherboard will require a GPT capable OS.
(the motherboard’s EUFI is partition table aware… )
until those people stop bitching and just get on with it.
maybe. The CPU will run it, though it’ll be stuck in 16-bit “real” mode with all of the memory/addressing limitations that entails. If you think having a really fast 8086 is useful, more power to ya. Oh, and that’s assuming the system either still has a legacy BIOS or- if it’s an EFI system- has a BIOS compatibility module.
I think it’s been multiple years since I’ve used a floppy disk.
I actually got rid of all my old trash boxes about a year ago and with them my only 5 1/4" drive. I have no idea why I still have the floppies. Maybe I’ll freak my grandkids out with them.