Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!csus.edu!uop!billj
From: billj@uop.edu (Snugglupagus)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: Which DOS should I get? (again)
Keywords: DOS
Message-ID: <27fb610a.3e42@uop.uop.edu>
Date: 4 Apr 91 17:23:23 GMT
References: <1991Mar29.164431.18022@novell.com> <1991Mar31.195238.24513@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <6798@clear19.UUCP>
Organization: University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA [138.9.200.1]
Lines: 92

zanolla@motcid.UUCP (Donald J. Zanolla) writes:

>daver@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David Ruby) writes:


>>While we're on the subject of dosses (dosum, dosi?), 
>>I have ms dos 3.2, which has served me fine, but now that
>>I've upgraded from a 720k drive to a 1.4m drive on my 286, I can only format
>>1.4m disks.  format /4 gives me "bad track 0" errors.  I'm 
>>figuring that I need to upgrade to dos 3.3 at least.  Does this make
>>sense?

survey says...BRRAAAATTT!!!!  format /4 is used for 360k floppies only.
to format a 720k disk in a 1.44M drive, use format /t:80 /n:9.  this
will tell it how many tracks and sectors the disk has.  it's a pain in
the butt, but it works.

>>Does anybody know the differences between dos 3.2 and 3.3 (and how
>>about 4.01?).  
>>Does anybody have a history file of dos?  I'd be curious about the
>>differences between the various dosses as they progressed from 1 to 5.

WHOOPS!  excuse me, i'm wrong!  i just reviewed the msdos 3.3 manual,
and it says that support for 1.44M 3.5" disks was added with 3.3.

anyway, here are the "printed" differences between 3.2 and 3.3:

	- performance improvements.  several internal enhancements and a
	  new command fastopen, improve ms-dos performance, especially
	  with applications that use many files.
	- support for 1.44 megabyte, 3-1/2 inch disks.
	- support for four serial (com) ports.  previous versions of
	  ms-dos supported two.
	- enhancements to config.sys commands including buffers,
	  stacks, device.  ms-dos 3.3 also includes a new
	  config.sys command, country.
	- ability to use partitions larger than 32 megabytes.  you can
	  create extended dos partitions for disks larger than 32
	  megabytes with fdisk.
	- improved national language support.  ms-dos 3.3 offers the
	  ability to select alternate language-specific character sets
	  (called code pages) instead of the standard u.s. character
	  set.  three new commands - chcp, nlsfunc, and select, and
	  several enhanced ms-dos commands, including keyb and mode,
	  support code page selection.  in addition, the config.sys
	  command, country, and two new installable device drivers allow
	  you to select language-specific code pages.
	- enhanced batch processing capabilities.
	- ability to make a system disk formatted by an earlier version
	  of ms-dos bootable with ms-dos 3.3.  this is possible because
	  ms-dos 3.3 allows the io.sys system file to be noncontiguous
	  on the disk.
	- various enhancements to existing commands, including
	  append	format		mode
	  attrib	graphics	restore
	  backup	keyb		time
	  date

whew!  i hope this helps.  a lot of that is just microsoft flexing its
word power, but it sounds like that in order to use your new floppy
drive, you have to upgrade to at least 3.3.  a few months ago, i copied
a pirated version of pc-dos 4.0 from our labs.  i was going to try it
like shareware - if i liked it, i'd buy it.  to make a long story short,
i ended up trashing the thing and going back to 3.3.  4.0 takes up TWICE
the hard disk space as 3.3, with no readily apparent reason. 

>Part of your problem could be your BIOS chip.  I have a 286 and have been
>told that if I want to go from 720k to 1.44m I must upgrade my BIOS chip.

hmmm....strange.  i have a 286/10 with a 1.44M disk and it works just
fine.  of course, my bios IS f*cked up so i can't get past the 640k
barrier, but....

>I do not think you have to go to dos 3.3 .

yes you do.

>-- 
>*                                                  /\  /\           
>Donald J. Zanolla                                 //\\//\\  work:1-708-632-2228
>Motorola Inc.; Mail: IL27/2240                   ///\\//\\\ fax: 1-708-632-4552
>1501 W. Shure Dr, Arlington Heights, IL 60004   ///  \/  \\\     


snugglupagus 
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