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From: ralphs%halcyon.uucp@seattleu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: MS-DOS 3.3 or 4.01?
Message-ID: <7kkqs6w163w@halcyon.uucp>
Date: 16 Nov 90 15:51:53 GMT
References: <15090019@hpspcoi.HP.COM>
Organization: The 23:00 News
Lines: 20

dlow@hpspcoi.HP.COM (Danny Low) writes:

> >(Jim Schwalbe)
> >and they state very clearly that it breaks the 32 M partition barrier.  Now,
> >question is, can anyone confirm this?  If so, where can I buy a copy of DOS
> >3.31?  It seems like all I can find is 3.30.

> When 3.3 was the latest and greatest DOS version, several PC makers
> added large volume support to 3.3 and typically relabelled it 3.31.

COMPAQ was one of these.

> The large volume was implemented through a special disk driver and
> FDISK program supplied by the maker. The problem with this scheme

No driver is needed with COMPAQ DOS 3.31.  ComputerLand still sells
it (around $90, I think).  I run it on two True Blue IBM PC/XT's,
a noname 386/25 clone, and a COMPAQ DeskPro, with the same good results.
If you just want large-partition support (without drivers), it's smaller
than 4.01 and should work well.  And yes, caveat emptor.