Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!cica!iuvax!bobmon
From: bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Need help on weird disk FAST!
Message-ID: <41361@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 10 Apr 90 19:31:14 GMT
References: <2778@milton.acs.washington.edu>
Reply-To: bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante)
Distribution: na
Organization: malkaryotic
Lines: 33

pingpong@milton.acs.washington.edu (Jimmy) <2778@milton.acs.washington.edu> :
[	has a floppy with a puzzling DOS.  Posting appended...	]

This sounds like a floppy that was formatted with an earlier version of
MSDOS from one of the vendors that (for what reason?) named those system
files MSDOS.SYS and IO.SYS (in Zenith's case; other names may also have
been used).  That would be why you can't find IBMDOS.COM.  If the files
are too specific to one machine (e.g., Z-100 DOS can't boot a real IBM)
the error might be reported as "Incorrect DOS version number".  And because
it's an old version, it doesn't leave enough room for a newer version.

You need something to show you what those hidden files are named.  Various
MSDOS implementations of *nix 'ls' do this, as do other programs.  Or,
get a 'chmod' that doesn't need explicit filenames, to unhide the files.
Or, forget about it and reformat the disk from scratch.

[	orignal query follows	]

-I hava a weird 5.25 floppy disk.
-When I try to boot it from Drive A, it gives me two error messages :
-
-   1. Incorrect DOS version number
-   2. Command interpreter not found.
-
-So I boot from my C drive, and do a DIR on drive A. NOTHING. That explains
-error (2) since command.com is not there. Then I do a CHKDSK on Drive A and
-it said '3 hidden files.' Then I used DEBUG A:IBMDOS.COM assuming that is
-one of the hidden files. But nope, FILE NOT FOUND. Now, finally, I tried
-SYS A:, but it gave me 'insufficient space for system...'
-
-Could anyone explain error (1) to me? 
-How could I find out the DOS version on my floppy disk?
-Why doesn't SYS work on my floppy disk?