MS-Dos

Recently we moved and I found an un-opened box of MS-DOS 5.0 upgrade. I don't even recall buying this, but it must have been just before the time Windows was released. Started me thinking.... Should I load this on an old 386?

Dale

Top Replies

DAB over 9 years ago +3

It should work on the 386 and might work on 486 standard motherboards. I think version 5 was a fix just before they came out with MSDOS 6.0 to host Windows 3.1. Been a lot of years since then. DAB
clem57 over 9 years ago in reply to DAB +2

Would it be a blast to catalog how many modern machines can run MS/PC-DOS? I wonder a contest o f sorts. LOL Clem
COMPACT over 9 years ago in reply to DAB +2

The first modems I used were this speed and acoustically coupled to the telephone handpiece. This made it easier to get Australian regulatory approvals rather than direct attachment. To get Australian…

jack.chaney56 over 9 years ago

I have the boxed set of IBM-DOS-5 with the book(s) too. I say go for it. You should be able to run it on anything up to a pentium (because you can't trademark a number). The caveat is, device drivers for all the peripherals (particularly CDs).
Cancel
Vote Up +1 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
DAB over 9 years ago

It should work on the 386 and might work on 486 standard motherboards.

I think version 5 was a fix just before they came out with MSDOS 6.0 to host Windows 3.1.

Been a lot of years since then.

DAB
Cancel
Vote Up +3 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
clem57 over 9 years ago in reply to DAB

Would it be a blast to catalog how many modern machines can run MS/PC-DOS? I wonder a contest of sorts.
LOL
Clem
Cancel
Vote Up +2 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
dwinhold over 9 years ago

I just dusted off the old 386 and will see how well it runs, it has a huge 170mb hard drive.... It is funny how we can't even run computers on that much RAM. This will be fun to go back in time with it. I will have to update what is even on the drive, I haven't got a clue.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
COMPACT over 9 years ago

About a decade ago when cleaning up I found my pre release developer manuals for Windows 1.0.
As for MS-DOS - it is hard to beat version 3.3 unless you need drive partitions bigger than 32MB.

Digital Research had GEM!
Cancel
Vote Up +1 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
jack.chaney56 over 9 years ago in reply to clem57

Many cases for the new PCs and laptops is, you need to get an "outboard" 3 1/2" floppy drive to load the OS. Most of the releases for DOS were not on CD, and most of the new systems don't come with floppy drives. In fact, many of the newer devices are network based, and don't come with CDs either.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
peterjcs23 over 9 years ago

...and if you get a copy of Xtree Gold you'll be able to run the best File Manager software ever... down hill all the way to Windows 8, (have yet to try 10)...Peter
Cancel
Vote Up +1 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
dwinhold over 9 years ago in reply to jack.chaney56

The boxed DOS I have is on 5 1/4" floppy, luckily my 386 has a 5 1/4" drive.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
COMPACT over 9 years ago in reply to dwinhold

360K or 1.2M ?

The disks spin at different rates 300RPM and 360RPM.
Just remember that 360K disks may not read or write well in a 1.2M drive.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel
jack.chaney56 over 9 years ago in reply to COMPACT

Oh, I almost forgot the dual format 1.2M 5 1/4 drives. If I recall, they didn't have trouble with reading, only with a write/read cycle. The reason was the voltage level for the head was decreased so the "spot" of data would be smaller.
Goes to another potential issue, which might just be urban legend. Data degradation on old magnetic media. Not sure the data image has held up over the decades since DOS 3.1.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Cancel