Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!agate!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!hpcvlx!everett
From: everett@hpcvlx.HP.COM (Everett Kaser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Request for boot sector information
Message-ID: <101000055@hpcvlx.HP.COM>
Date: 14 Jul 89 16:07:27 GMT
References: <1046@krafla.rhi.hi.is>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Corvallis, OR, USA
Lines: 12

I think you're on shaky ground, because the string starting in the 4th byte of
the boot sector is the OEM identification string; i.e. there are going to be
a significant number of different ones, up to (but not likely) as many as there
are OEM's of MS-DOS.  On the HP Vectra PC that I'm using with MS-DOS 3.3 (OEM'd
from Microsoft by HP) the ID string says "IBM  3.3".  I suspect that many
clone manufacturers that supply MS-DOS use the "IBM" string in order to be as
compatable as possible with IBM.  But I know that on a couple of HP's earlier
computers, different strings were placed there.

Everett Kaser                   "Your thoughts create your reality."
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