Need DOS 3.3 to restore a PC based instrument

From: Stan Perkins <stan_at_netcom.com>
Date: Sun Nov 28 14:13:25 1999

Fred,

Thanks for the note. I determined it was 3.3 by aborting the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file and typing "VER".

It said "Microsoft DOS Version 3.3", IIRC. But now it won't boot from
the electronic drive, so I'm stuck with using an external floppy (for
now). If it helps matters, the COMMAND.COM on the electronic disk shows
a size of 25,308 and a creation date of 02-02-88 at 12:00a.

Anyway, I could use 6.22 except for one complicating factor. The
electronic disk is only 1 MByte and it's filled to within about 5 KB of
its capacity. The newer versions of DOS are too big to install and still
allow the application software to be on the same drive. Certainly the
drive size restrictions of DOS 3.30 will not be a factor :-)

"Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" wrote:
>
> If the ONLY problems are "Incorrect DOS Version" messages, then you can
> still use 6.22 . That's what SETVER is for. Somewhere in the code that
> you are running is something that closely resembles:
> MOV AH, 30h
> INT 21h
> CMP AX, ...
> That inquires of the OS what version it is, and then balks if it isn't
> what was expected. SETVER, which started with version 5.00 (?) lets the
> OS lie about its age for just that situation. SETVER contains a database
> that is configurable via the command line, so that the OS can keep its
> lies straight. You'll need to install SETVER and add entry to its
> database.
>
> >From where are you getting the information that it is 3.3?
> 3.30 and 3.31 are significantly different. Among other things, 3.30 can
> not comprehend a drive (lofical or partition) larger than 32 honest
> megabytes (it is limited to 65536 sectors per drive). 3.31 can go to 2
> honest gigabytes (if the BIOS can handle it). 3.31 and 2.11 are the
> versions of MS-DOS that are HEAVILY customized - besides MODE.COM being
> unique, they often have had hardware vendor added support for unique
> hardware. Compaq MS-DOS 3.31 is different from Zenith MS-DOS 3.31, etc.
> BTW, there is no PC-DOS 3.31, unless you want to count 4.00.
>
> BTW, there is no such thing as 3.3 !! INTERNALLY the OS version number is
> stored as if it were a 2 digit decimal number. Thus, 3.30 INTERNALLY is
> 3.1D or three point thirty, and 3.31 INTERNALLY is 3.1E or three point
> thirty-one. Thus, if there WERE a three point three, it would actually be
> 3.03.
>
> If you have difficulty configuring SETVER, among us we can probably come
> up with 3.30, and haf a dozen varieties of 3.31.
>
> Good luck,
> --
> Fred Cisin cisin_at_xenosoft.com
> XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com
> 2210 Sixth St. (510) 644-9366
> Berkeley, CA 94710-2219
>
Received on Sun Nov 28 1999 - 14:13:25 GMT

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