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From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Upgrading from DOS 2.x to 3.x/4.x
Message-ID: <1990Aug29.174003.16546@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 29 Aug 90 17:40:03 GMT
References: <1990Aug29.141540.2806@infonode.ingr.com>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 30

In article <1990Aug29.141540.2806@infonode.ingr.com> drudetb@infonode.ingr.com (Ted B. Drude) writes:
>I am looking for a good reference guide on upgrading older machines from
>DOS 2.x to 3/4.x.  I'm primarily interested in something that explains
>the upgrade process in detail (backup hard disk,  reformat under new

 Backing up is always a good idea.  But forget about reformatting under the
new DOS.  Initially you don't want to do that.  DOS 3./4. can handle
hard disks formatted under DOS 2.x quite nicely.  The converse is not true.
Don't reformat until you are sure you don't wan't to ever run DOS 2.x
again.

 All you should need to do is boot from the DOS 3.x/4.x floppy, then run
the SYS command that came with your new DOS version.
>DOS,  replace system files using SUBST, etc.)  Also a quick look at the

 Please use COPY or REPLACE to replace the system commands.  SUBST does
something quite different.

>most important compatibility issues (Free RAM available, FCB problems, 

 You should not have too many problems with DOS 3.x for compatibility.  It
will occupy more RAM, however.  I can't vouch for DOS 4.x - I tried it and
didn't like it.  DOS 3.3 seems pretty reliable, and will have much the same
look and feel as DOS 2.x.

-- 
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  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115.                                  +1-815-753-6940