Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.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: <41418@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 11 Apr 90 01:04:26 GMT
Reply-To: bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante)
Distribution: na
Organization: malkaryotic
Lines: 24

- Me:
-> 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

dhinds@portia.Stanford.EDU (David Hinds) <11017@portia.Stanford.EDU> :
-    As far as I know, the MSDOS system files are always called MSDOS.SYS and
-IO.SYS.  The IBM*.SYS files are what IBM chose to call them in PCDOS.  I
-think these files are sufficiently generic that they'll boot any old PC, but
-they obviously don't work without a matching COMMAND.COM.  Just reformat the
-disk, since there isn't anything else on it.


No, Zenith at least converted their distribution of MSDOS to the
IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM names with v3.21 (and later, I suppose).  As for
"sufficiently generic", these files are in fact intimately tied to the
hardware configuration.  Most clones try to be as generically compatible
at this level as possible, but not all and not some competing "name"
brands --- the Zenith Z-100, DEC Rainbow, and TI Business Pro machines,
for example, and possibly some Tandy, Leading Edge, AT&T, and GRiD
machines.  You cannot boot them with genuine IBM PC-DOS disks, nor boot a
True Blue PC with some of these versions of MSDOS.  (But then, I don't
think any of these machines except the Tandy's are still in production.)