DOS ain't dead

Considering DOS (now FreeDOS) Part 3 (Users)

posted by Rugxulo , Usono, 10.08.2011, 14:32

(BTW, I hope I'm even halfway understanding this correctly, much less explaining it as mhc / Michael H. Tyc would be the guru to ask.)

> Rugxulo: thanks for that. Reading the install instructions, it states "You
> should run `bootmgr.com' from plain DOS, not from a MS Windows DOS box, nor
> under any multitasking environment".
>
> Not sure how to do this since I need, in my case, GAG to get into a DOS
> environment and (Free)DOS can only see my XP D:\ drive (as its C:\ drive)
> so I'm not sure how it can modify the MBR of the 'real' C:\ partition
> (NTFS)

It doesn't need to read NTFS, it only has to read/write raw sector 0, which is where the (only) MBR w/ partition table resides. Each partition can have its own boot sector, too, which is good for chain loading (or whatever).

It's not that using GAG via floppy is a bad idea, far from it! But sometimes you can't use a floppy, sometimes they go bad, yadda yadda ... I just wanted to mention another (easier?) way in case you ever needed to use something else.

To be honest, I just like BootMgr, it's so well done, so small (NASM ftw!), so any chance to use it is cool with me. And it's just easy enough to use (unlike most boot tools) that I can (mostly) wrap my head around it!

Complete thread:

• Considering MS-DOS (now FreeDOS) - Part 3 - paulrichards, 08.08.2011, 03:11 (Users)
  • Considering DOS (now FreeDOS) Part 3 - LBA48 and > 128 GiB - DOS386, 08.08.2011, 03:34
    • Considering DOS (now FreeDOS) Part 3 - LBA48 and > 128 GiB - paulrichards, 08.08.2011, 03:51
      • Considering DOS (now FreeDOS) Part 3 - paulrichards, 08.08.2011, 12:36
        • Considering DOS (now FreeDOS) Part 3 - SOLVED - paulrichards, 08.08.2011, 23:37
        • Considering DOS (now FreeDOS) Part 3 - DOS386, 08.08.2011, 23:39
          • Considering DOS (now FreeDOS) Part 3 - paulrichards, 09.08.2011, 04:18
            • Considering DOS (now FreeDOS) Part 3 - Rugxulo, 10.08.2011, 04:48
              • Considering DOS (now FreeDOS) Part 3 - paulrichards, 10.08.2011, 06:27
                • Considering DOS (now FreeDOS) Part 3 - Rugxulo, 10.08.2011, 14:32
                  • Considering DOS (now FreeDOS) Part 3 - paulrichards, 10.08.2011, 15:40
                • Considering DOS (FreeDOS) Part 3 | GAGA real/unreal "C:\" - DOS386, 17.08.2011, 09:20
                  • Considering DOS (FreeDOS) Part 3 - paulrichards, 17.08.2011, 23:02
                    • Considering DOS (FreeDOS) Part 3 - Rugxulo, 18.08.2011, 01:59
                      • Considering DOS (FreeDOS) Part 3 - paulrichards, 19.08.2011, 05:34