MS DOS Emulation

[InTheSand]

Hodgkinson wrote:
Since V6.21 is on HD disks, any suggestions (Before I start installing PC Task) of how to load up DOS?

If you have access to a real PC, you can transfer DOS to DD disks easily enough. You'll need to do a full install of DOS first (perhaps in a virtual or emulated environment such as the type provided by VMWare, Bochs or QEmu), then format a load of DD disks with:

format a: /t:80 /n:9

Then make one of the DD disks bootable with:

sys a:

Then copy some key commands (fdisk, format, sys, etc) to the same disk with:

copy a:

And finally copy the remainder of the "DOS" directory to the other DD disks, e.g.:

copy c:\dos\a*.* a:
copy c:\dos\b*.* a:
copy c:\dos\c*.* a:

... etc... until each disk is full, then repeat as needed.

When PC Task boots, insert the first DD disk, then use fdisk and format as you would on a real PC.

Then, to transfer DOS to the emulated hard drive:

sys c:

Then create a "DOS" directory and copy the rest of the stuff from the other DD disks into it.

Sorry if this is vague and/or incomplete, but it's been a long long time since installing real MS-DOS!

One other thing...What exactly is PC-Task (Specifically v3.1) capable of?

It can certainly do graphics (up to EGA and basic VGA as far as I know), not sure about sound, but will provide basic access to serial and parallel ports - "system-friendly" stuff stands a chance of working, but stuff that bashes directly on the hardware may fail...

 - Ali