This article on CNN talks about recovering data from a hard drive on Columbia. edition.cnn.com/2008/TEC...iref=mpstoryview

What I found upsetting was this paragraph.

Edwards attributes that to a lucky twist: The computer was running an ancient operating system, DOS, which does not scatter data all over drives, as other approaches do.

Hey I can remember when this was released! Does that make ancient too?

I don't necessarily think they were bagging DOS out. Simply referring to it as an older operating system.
:-)

Craig Iedema writes...

Does that make ancient too?

Yes. At least your memory hasn't gone - yet.

I remember running DOS off 1.2 meg drives.

...but the 340-megabyte drive was only half full, and the damage happened where data had not been written.

I wonder how much disk space DOS could go up to?

Did you know that DOS commands still work in Vista.

I started with DOS 4. Now that is old lol...around 1990.

MS never got away from DOS at all..

heisdeadjim writes...

I wonder how much disk space DOS could go up to?

3.x was only 32mb - the guys who did the recovery, OnTrack, used to have a special tool to allow larger partitions than this.

It was an interesting piece.

Craig Iedema writes...

...quote from an article:
DOS, which does not scatter data all over drives, as other approaches do.

Which is nonsense in itself. (I think it is anyway)

Fragmentation won't be as pronounced as in a larger system with much more data being moved & written to the drive - but it would have to occurr - The file system didn't change when early windows came along did it?

Just because defrag wasn't available doesn't mean it didn't occurr.

Edit: But yeah - interesting story...

PS. Except for an Atari (?) someone gave me which had AtariDOS on it, & some kind of GUI (not Windows)... DOS 4.0 was my first PC experience too!

If the person writing that article was young, then chances are they view DOS as something that existed while they were still in nappies - to them - yeah I guess DOS (and OP) would appear a little ancient!

I have to correct you but defrag was available from DOS 6.0 and later via command prompt. Remember these lol...

You should start DEFRAG only from MS-DOS. Starting DEFRAG from a program such as Microsoft Windows may cause you to lose data. The following is a list of DEFRAG exit codes:

0 The defragmentation was successful.
1 An internal error occurred.
2 The disk contained no free clusters. To operate, DEFRAG needs 1 free cluster.
3 The user pressed CTRL+C to stop the process.
4 A general error occurred.
5 DEFRAG encountered an error while reading a cluster.
6 DEFRAG encountered an error while writing a cluster.
7 An allocation error occurred. To correct the error, use the SCANDISK command.
8 A memory error occurred.
9 There was insufficient memory to defragment the disk.

Options
/F - Used to defragment files, ensuring that the disk contains no empty spaces between files.

/U - Used to defragment files, leaving empty spaces between files.

/S - Used to control the way in which files are sorted in their directories. Without this option, the current order of files will be maintained. You can use any combination of the following sort options . Do not put spaces between the values.

N Alphabetical order by name.
N- Reverse alphabetical order by name.
E Alphabetical order by extension.
E- Reverse alphabetical order by extension.
D By date and time, earliest first.
D- By date and time, latest first.
S By size, smallest first.
S- By size, largest first

/B - Used to restart your computer after files have been reorganized.
/skiphigh Used to load DEFRAG into conventional memory, rather than in upper memory.

/LCD - Specifies an LCD color scheme.
/BW - Specifies a black and white color scheme.
/GO - Used to disable the graphic mouse and graphic character set.
/H - Used to move hidden files.

If MS-DOS is ancient , then what is CPM prehistoric ?

I used CPM back in 1986
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M

I remember using an Amiga 500 with 512kb of memory and no hard drive and running the OS (workbench) off a 3.5" floppy.

A 20MB external hard drive that plugs into the side was like $800

Dos is old, I wouldn't call it ancient, that would be :- Control program for microprocessors (CP/M).

Edit: (Just saw someone had posted this allready while I was writing).

TLN

TLN writes...

that would be ...(CP/M).

Unfortunately I have used this also. :-( And Apple][ and 64's and Amiga's and ....

What a miserable old man I must be.

Craig Iedema writes...

Hey I can remember when this was released! Does that make ME ancient too?

Yes, I'm afraid it does heheh. I'm not sure why that guy needed to use the word 'ancient'. He should keep in mind that the stuff we're using right now will be 'ancient' too in the future. Anyway, that guy is probably the kind that doesn't have a respect for grass roots. Without the grass roots, we wouldn't have what we have now.

Craig Iedema writes...

What a miserable old man I must be.

Can't be if we're to believe your quip. At least that's what my stepson would say. Since he got his macbook we've not heard the end of how deprived we must be (still using PCs)

tafed00d writes...

I used CPM back in 1986
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M

OMG....dinosaurRR. heheh..kidding. I don't recall using CP/M. Although, the first 'computer' that I ever used was a sharp pc-1121. And the second one I used was a zx-80. Both were really good at the print 'blah blah'.... goto 10...next ... thing heheh.

Craig Iedema writes...

Hey I can remember when this was released! Does that make ancient too?

Yes. Yes it does. I too am one of the ancients.

Ommmmmmm. Ommmmmmmm. Ommmmmmm.

I loved playing with DOS.

*sigh*

Ole Sedate writes...

Can't be if we're to believe your quip.

Very OT but I have to say I am pretty darned (to use ancient English) pleased with it (only had it 3 weeks).

But then again I thought I was the bees knees when I got my first computer a PC Clone with 128kb of RAM and dual floppies running Ancient MS-DOS 2.0.

When think about in that terms it was ancient, no multitasking, TSR programs so you do some extra stuff (Sidekick anyone) - the first office suites - Wordstar ruled - yes it even before WordPerfect.

Ah those were the days.

This is a blast from the past.

I started with MS-DOS 3.3. At some point I had Digital Research's DR-DOS.

It's interesting to see how far personal computing has come since DOS was current. Multi-tasking? What's that? :-)

J.

Craig Iedema writes...

Ah those were the days.

Don't forget PCWrite with all those Icon like characters (I think either side of a word) to make it bold, Italic or underlined.

MicroBee with two 5.25 floppies one for the program and one for the data.

1987 Yes they were the days.

In the worlds before Windows, primal DOS reigned. MS sought order. But the Phoenix (Technologies) can fly only when its feathers are grown.

Johnno writes...

It's interesting to see how far personal computing has come since DOS was current. Multi-tasking? What's that? :-)

Around '90+ (and before, not sure how much) you could multi-task with DOS using QEMM memory manager and Quarterdeck's DesqView. Very nice it was, text mode though but extremely efficient and light weight. Set timeslices for individual progs, switch tasks with shift-tab i think it was. A lot of the dudes that ran BBS's on their own boxes relied on it.

I started in '78 with a TI-59b programmable calculator - 100 memories or 1000 program steps - you'd set a partition point between them to decide which you needed the most of. It used magnetic strips for storage. I ported a game from California called Wumpus, written in HP BASIC to the TI language, it only output numbers and you had to draw the caves map on a sheet of paper to play it.
Went on from there to play with a friend's home built signetics 2650 with 8k of ram, then on to good 'ol CP/M on the Z-80 ;)

NSW Police still use DOS.

ColPeters writes...

Around '90+ (and before, not sure how much) you could multi-task with DOS using QEMM memory manager and Quarterdeck's DesqView.

Yep. :-)

A lot of the dudes that ran BBS's on their own boxes relied on it.

They sure did. I was a BBS sysop in the '90s, but I didn't run DESQview.

J.

Jeez, you lot are ancient! My first foray was with Minex loaded on Perkin Elmer 3210 Mini Computers (1979).

I've still got one 486 machine running DOS and Win 3.11 in my bedroom hahaha

Johnno writes...

hey sure did. I was a BBS sysop in the '90s, but I didn't run DESQview.

Ahh, I knew there was something looked wrong when i wrote that word, just couldn't figure out what ;)

My most vivid memory of DOS and computers in the early 90's was the price of memory - $50 a meg - second hand !
And just about any peripheral would cost 400 bucks.

"ancient operating system, DOS"

They should have said antique.

20 years is Antique, 50 is Vintage

Although I did hear something about Indiana Jones & the Ancient Temple of DOS...

I started with a System80 & a tape deck, & later an accoustic coupler & a yellow box. (coulda been red or blue...)

ColPeters writes...

in the early 90's was the price of memory - $50 a meg - second hand !
And just about any peripheral would cost 400 bucks.

I remember buying a 4meg memory expansion for the Amiga 500 (512KB) for about $900. The computer cost about $700. And Sculpt-Animate 4D was another $700.

SouthPark writes...

only when its feathers are grown
Yes, With our thoughts we make the world!
And the Ancients understand this...

I think someone should whim a mod and get the title of this thread changed.

Ancient OS Lures 100s of Ancient WP Users Out of the Woodwork!

lol - I had no idea there were so many oldtimers lurking around the place! Damn good to see it is too :) Anyway...

What's it all for? What's the point of it all? And if it hasn't got a point, what's the point of that?

ColPeters writes...

DESQview.

Ahh, I knew there was something looked wrong when i wrote that word, just couldn't figure out what ;)

Heh. Gotta love pedantry. :-)

My most vivid memory of DOS and computers in the early 90's was the price of memory - $50 a meg - second hand !
And just about any peripheral would cost 400 bucks.

I was something of a latecomer to PCs; I had used them in the '80s, but didn't have one until '92.

It was a 286 with 640KB of RAM and 512KB of extended RAM, and had a whopping 20MB hard disk. I installed Stacker and got 60MB out of it.

I had a rocking good time with my CGA screen.

MS-DOS 3.3 and WordPerfect 5.1. Life was grand.

J.

Johnno writes...

Multi-tasking? What's that?

Nothing that, as a male, you would understand. :)

Johnno writes...

Heh. Gotta love pedantry. :-)

Such a brilliant piece of work, it deserves to be witten cowwectly ;)

I was something of a latecomer to PCs; I had used them in the '80s, but didn't have one until '92.
A bit like that for me, always been a model or two behind, really only caught up last year lol

MS-DOS 3.3 and WordPerfect 5.1. Life was grand.
Those were the days, XTree, PCTools, PKZip, Nortons when it was really Norton's
and Leisure Suit Larry !

Gator writes...

Nothing that, as a male, you would understand. :)

Whoah, what's with the flame?! (feminist alert!)

omano-jaku writes...

Whoah, what's with the flame?! (feminist alert!)

Ignore it. Injoke lol. Johnno just toasted me in IRC. :D

ColPeters writes...

Those were the days, XTree, PCTools, PKZip, Nortons when it was really Norton's
and Leisure Suit Larry !

Now there are some old names.

I had Norton Utilities 2.0, which I ran on my DOS machine. This was in the days before OS-supplied defraggers.

Peter Norton used to stand around with his arms crossed; I'd love to know how he poses these days!

The first version of Windows I ran was Windows 3.0. It came in a box with a dark blue portion along the top of the packaging. Much like this:

farm2.static.flickr.com/...6_a4c2b3ec54.jpg

I also had a boxed copy of Windows 2.0, but never installed it.

I moved from Windows 3.0 to Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11 (or Windows for Warehouses [err, Workgroups]), then Windows 95, then XP. Never ran '98, 2K or ME.

omano-jaku writes...

Nothing that, as a male, you would understand. :)

Whoah, what's with the flame?! (feminist alert!)

Re her comment, not at all; I am perfectly capable of ignoring her incessant nagging while I concentrate on important things like watching TV and consuming a beverage or two.

:-)

J.

Johnno writes...

like watching the game and consuming a beverages or two.

...but isn't that like claiming multi-tasking is like reading the data while the disk is spinning and displaying it on screen "all" at the same time?

(don't look at me funny - I'm stiing firmly on the fence on this one)

The period in time we are referring to here is the time when "she" was always referred to as "she who must be obeyed" (well, that was before we forgot about that and downloaded another version of xtree gold - gees - had to save the world somehow didn't we...)

Damm, how different was it with all the little codes for your modem, and dialling and dropping out - and now...

...but apparently A LOT of people still are on dial up. (still, 'tis a little easier now with windows isn't it!)

Edit: I was going to say "or Mac" - but probably not nexessary to be so "PC" in this forum is there! :)

ColPeters writes...

Leisure Suit Larry

why when I read this i think to my self, "Ken sent me"

I read ask.slashdot.org/article...08/05/08/1523257 yesterday which covers some interesting stuff on similar ground (data recovery on very much legacy systems ;-) )

ColPeters writes...

Leisure Suit Larry !

Really miss that little educational app :)

ColPeters writes...

Went on from there to play with a friend's home built signetics 2650

... with a DECWriter & paper tape...

Good times!

Cheers,
Tas

Craig Iedema writes...

Hey I can remember when this was released!

I can remember Master-DOS ;) Yip, it makes me feel ancient!

But hey, WHO GIVES A DOS?

DOS is old but was the first OS I used and I still use some of the command structure I use today in Windows...

I knew DOS very well and it helps me to do many things that some youngsters cannot because they were born with the GUI already there!

I remember I spend hours tweaking my autoexec.bat config.sys to reach enough memory to run a game such as...The Vikings, Doom, Wolfenstein etc.

Played around with upper memory block with LH command...and who cannot remember Smartdrv.exe harddrive cache utility? Qbasic, Nibbles, Xtreegold (that app owns windows explorer hands down!)

I caught a teacher playing MS Golf all the time on WFW 3.11 lol

Also compressiopn tools like RAR and PKZIP and ARJ. Doublespace on Harddrives/ QEMM Memory manager and Thunderbird Antivirus!

The first virus i got was the "STONE" virus on MBR.

A friend got so happy that he got a 486 DX4 100 running worms in DOS and even organised a hot-seat party with it. that's right taking turns to play...

I discovered IRC and newsgroups plus BBS using modem dial-up programs in DOS.

When Duke Nukem 3D let you play 1 v 1 on modem that was a hit! Had to configure AT commands in DOS...lol

I remembered Norton Disk Doctor. NDD.EXE I always put that in autoexec.bat

What about CDROM driver! MSCDEX /d:msdc001 that really brings back memories.

Neonlight writes...

Doublespace on Harddrives

Or Troublespace as it was known. There was a kafuffle surrounding the name DoubleSpace, and it was later renamed to DriveSpace.

Thunderbird Antivirus!

That would be ThunderBYTE Anti-Virus. From memory, it was distributed via a guy based in Kallangur (Brisbane).

What about CDROM driver! MSCDEX /d:msdc001 that really brings back memories

Oh, the joys of getting CD-ROM drives (twin-speed!) to run back then.

Your post brought back some memories I'd long since forgotten, so thanks for that. :-)

J.

ColPeters writes...

Those were the days, XTree, PCTools, PKZip, Nortons when it was really Norton's
and Leisure Suit Larry !

XTree Gold, dont you mean ?

Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards - complete with CGA Graphics and typing in the commands, like SIT DOWN - never quite worked out what the purpose of the drunk was, though if you typed KICK DRUNK, it used to do something - cant remember what now

Back on topic though - that drive from Columbia would not have been protected against fragmenting because it was DOS based - 1) defrag.exe was part of DOS 6, because it was needed and 2) if DOS did protect drives from fragmentation, the same principle would apply to Win9x, as it was DOS based, even down to a command.com , io.sys and msdos.sys being the three files needed to make a machine bootable

CNN, half a story again ....

Johnno writes...

Thunderbird Antivirus!

That would be ThunderBYTE Anti-Virus. From memory, it was distributed via a guy based in Kallangur (Brisbane).

lol I think I'm using Thunderbird (Email client too much) yes that's right it was Thunderbyte. It was the very colourful Antivirus program, along with F-PROT.

I still recall the time all these different Sound blasters 8bit, 16bit, AWE32 and AdLib. Those drivers are a pain to get working in DOS!

You cannot even get mouse working without MOUSE.COM. Don't even mention ASPI.SYS and SCSI Drivers lol

Thanks for the correction. its good to remember the "good old days".

sys c: a:

attrib -r -a -s -h *.*

deltree

...some commands are still useful to make batch files :)

^^gg^^ writes...

XTree Gold, dont you mean ?

No, before that it was just XTree :)
InspectA was popular in some circles too.

never quite worked out what the purpose of the drunk was, though if you typed KICK DRUNK, it used to do something - cant remember what now

At least i'm not the only one with a streak of cruelty.
I don't remember anything happening though, except maybe a gurgled complaint. I think if you bought him a drink he gave you something, maybe the remote control or a ticket or something ?

I bet you got toilet paper stuck to your shoe as well :D

Neonlight writes...

...some commands are still useful

I used to like "DIR" because when you typed it, you could se all the files on your computer as they scrolled down the screen.

Then the processors got faster and and you'd need to use /p or they'd just scroll past too fast to read!

I think one of my highlights was when they brought out "EDIT!"

...bye bye edlin, nice knowing you.

You know whats realy funny, if you got XP - open up a cmd prompt and type in edlin abc.txt - Can you still create, edit & save a file?

So, can someone tell me if it's still in Vista too?

ColPeters writes...

I think if you bought him a drink he gave you something, maybe the remote control or a ticket or something ?

It was the remote control for when you went upstairs, so you could lure the pimp out of the way

Do you remember what happened if you didnt take a detour to the chemist's shop before you did business upstairs ?

I must see if I can find that game - Ive got it here somewhere - the question is where (I got it thrown in as a freebie when I bought a new 286)

Ahh - who says you need a fast processor to play games :P

No, before that it was just XTree :)

There was also something called XTreeJnr - it fitted on one 360k floppy disk and had most of the functions of XTree, which for those who dont remember it, did almost everything which Windows Explorer does today, and a lot more beside

^^gg^^ writes...

It was the remote control for when you went upstairs, so you could lure the pimp out of the way
Yep, that's it.

Do you remember what happened if you didnt take a detour to the chemist's shop before you did business upstairs ?
You caught AIDS and died !

Ahh - who says you need a fast processor to play games :P
I think i tried it years ago on a modernish one, and iirc poor Larry ran around like a roach on uppers..

There was also something called XTreeJnr
Y'got me there, never heard of that one

Syntax%20Error writes...

I used to like "DIR" because when you typed it, you could se all the files on your computer as they scrolled down the screen.

I used to use 4Dos (anyone remember that?) and the "wow" factor as my directories scrolled past IN COLOUR! And having other features I'd only ever known in unix :)

(actually still used dos and 4dos quite regularly until a couple of years ago - it was faster than using Explorer in Win95)

ColPeters writes...

Leisure Suit Larry !

The thing I remember about Leisure Suit Larry was those obscure questions at the start too make sure you were old enough to play the game.

That was also the days when 'Copy Protection' was a question at the start of the game asking you what the word '5 words in on row 3, page 7' of the manual was.
I can't remember what the name of the game that did that was though, I'm sure there was at least one? Can anyone remember?

BDC writes...

The thing I remember about Leisure Suit Larry was those obscure questions at the start
Yeah they were infuriating, I'll never forget the music either, have to resist humming it in my head cos it'll be with me for weeks if i do.

That was also the days when 'Copy Protection' was a question at the start of the game asking you what the word '5 words in on row 3, page 7' of the manual was
I can't remember for certain, but i think some of the other Sierra games might have done that, maybe even LSL3 which i actually bought. It was on about six floppies...man...it was huge !

Syntax%20Error writes...

...bye bye edlin, nice knowing you.
lol some things about DOS are best not remembered at all.

My question is: why was a craft that went down in 2003 using DOS as an operating system? Surely there was something better at the time.

And for the record, I started with windows 95, old people. :D

Cannon_F0dder writes...

My question is: why was a craft that went down in 2003 using DOS as an operating system? Surely there was something better at the time

The space shuttles are basically early 1980s technology

I remember reading an article a couple of years ago, about how NASA had people whose sole job was to drive around the USA , from junk shop to junk shop, looking for XP/286 machines to get parts out of - for the Shuttles

I dont know if its true or not - I did think it a bit far-fetched, as an XT power supply and case would accomodate anything up to a 486 and some Pentium One motherboards, but maybe that IS the reason.

Whatever, you can imagine that with a fleet of shuttles which have been flying for twenty years, and a "generation" in computers being about three years or less, there is going to be some difficulty in keeping up to date without rebuilding the Shuttle

ColPeters writes...

Yeah they were infuriating, I'll never forget the music either, have to resist humming it in my head cos it'll be with me for weeks if i do.

But, will you remember the music when you are 64 ?

It was the tune of the Beatles song, "When Im 64" from the Sergent Pepper's album

^^gg^^ writes...

The space shuttles are basically early 1980s technology

thats true, found out this hard drive was made in 1994.

See this article for more detailed info

www.computerworld.com.au...957;fp;16;fpid;1

Neonlight writes...

I remember I spend hours tweaking my autoexec.bat config.sys to reach enough memory to run a game such as...The Vikings, Doom, Wolfenstein etc.

Played around with upper memory block with LH command...and who cannot remember Smartdrv.exe harddrive cache utility? Qbasic, Nibbles, Xtreegold (that app owns windows explorer hands down!)

A friend got so happy that he got a 486 DX4 100 running worms in DOS and even organised a hot-seat party with it. that's right taking turns to play...

All of that was back when I first got interested in Computers. Early 90's I think it was...

I used to go to the local flea market and there was a stall selling share ware on 3.25 floppy's, I remember getting Worms... Loved it..

Still very much addicted to my comp.

Wow... your bringing back so many memories... thanks for the walk down memory lane.

Ahh.. I miss DOS. My first ever version was 3.0 on 360k floppies!
Man I loved Stacker (Drivespace app) that doubled my old 40mb MFM hard drive! On defrag the damn thing flew! :o
XtreeGold.. So wish someone made a version that worked in XP / Vista. I still have my original XTreeGold 720k floppy. lol
I'd take Xtree over Explorer anyday, even in the old interface!
:D

Leisure Suit Larry!!!

Oh My God!!! (Back in the day we spelt the WHOLE words... no acronymns for us LOL)

Larry... I wasted so much valuable work time on him on my positively ancient 256 dual floppy with WordStar - ah but I was the envy of every other woman in the office - still using their IBM typewriters with changeable golf balls to vary their poor sad lives.

Oh the memories. Keep em coming.

DOS off floppies boot time ... 1-2 minutes

Vista boot time on latest grunt hardware ... 1-2 minutes

We have come a long way !!! NOT

Also: www.freedos.org for those who need it

here is a link to a program called Ztree, it looks and behaves like xtree. And yes, they say it works under Vista

www.ztree.com

Cool...and runs under Vista.

But does not report right size for my huge HDDs correctly.

CypherOz writes...

We have come a long way !!! NOT

But look what you can do with a computer now !

This machine is close to 1000 times faster than my first 4Mhz XT, its got well over a thousand times more ram, 12,500 times more hard drive space, and it would have taken that first machine a few days to boot Vista, had it been possible

That is an amazing advance in technology in less than two decades - a pace of change unparalleled in human history

Still, I do miss the whirring and grinding that went on before my first machine would inform me that it was "Starting MS-Dos..."

Syntax%20Error writes...

So, can someone tell me if it's still in Vista too?

Indeed it is.

C:\Users\Sam\DOCUME~1>edlin /?
Starts Edlin, a line-oriented text editor.

EDLIN [drive:][path]filename [/B]

/B Ignores end-of-file (CTRL+Z) characters.

C:\Users\Sam\DOCUME~1>

Clamburger writes...

Indeed it is.

What a bugger of an editor it was.
I ditched it when Dos edit appeared: Dos 5, I think.
Just like MS to keep something so clunky in its latest product.

oldman writes...

I ditched it when Dos edit appeared: Dos 5, I think.
Just like MS to keep something so clunky in its latest product.

EDIT was part of Dos 5, and if I remember right, 5, 6, 6.2 and 6.22 didnt have EDLIN at all - seemed like it had been dumped

Not sure about Windows 9x - I know its in XP/Vista, but as I havent used it since the early 1990s, Im really not sure

"Windows Vista, brought to you by the makers of Edlin" :)

oldman writes...

What a bugger of an editor it was.

That's true heheh. That's why they had to come out with things like NE.com (norton editor).....or just something that didn't make you tear your hair out while using it.

Neonlight writes...

What about CDROM driver! MSCDEX /d:msdc001 that really brings back memories.

Oh God yes!

I spent half a night pissing around with that command, or lack of it, because the clown I got the second hand Soundblaster card off didn't supply all the installation disks.
Finally got sound on Alone in the Dark

sydguard writes...

Did you know that DOS commands still work in Vista

Of course, why change the commands? That's got nothing to do with DOS itself though.

MS never got away from DOS at all..

Of course they have. the DOS (Disk Operating System) has been gone ever since Windows ME left us. Just because they kept the commands in NT/2000/XP/Vista command line interface means absolutely nothing.

CypherOz writes...

DOS off floppies boot time ... 1-2 minutes

Vista boot time on latest grunt hardware ... 1-2 minutes

We have come a long way !!! NOT

I don't get what the point of that is?

omano-jaku writes...

I remember buying a 4meg memory expansion for the Amiga 500 (512KB)

Ohh now you're talking! I was an Amiga fan right through to 90s, because quite frankly its operating system shit over everything up until Windows caught up in late 90s.

THAT is a system I miss, I don't miss MSDOS for a second!

Neonlight writes...

I still recall the time all these different Sound blasters 8bit, 16bit, AWE32 and AdLib. Those drivers are a pain to get working in DOS!

I bought a Sound Blaster (the original 8-bit jobby) in 1992 or 1993, and in 1996 bought an AWE-32 with a new system.

From memory, I had no trouble getting these working.

Thanks for the correction. its good to remember the "good old days".

It sure is. Did you ever tinker with ANSI.SYS? I mucked around with that, and did some tinkering of the command prompt so that it displayed in a more exciting colour than plain old white.

^^gg^^ writes...

But look what you can do with a computer now !

Indeed. We can waste time in so many more ways. :-)

J.

You guys never had fun at all. What having to set all those jumpers on the Soundblasters so that you didn't end up conflicts? Now that was fun.

I remember working on an NCR 8200 computer in the late 70s. The original version came out and had a timing problem where twoe signals which were supposed to arrive at the imput to a certain chip simultaneously in fact arrived one after the other. The solution? On the backplane of the system remove a wire and replace it with a piece of wire one metre longer to slow the faster signal down. I kid you not. The modern equivilent would be to replace a track on the motherboard to make it longer.

Now that was fun.

By the way I still have a box of Verbatim 8" floppies in my office. Anyone want to buy them?

Have fun

MegaMike writes...

You guys never had fun at all. What having to set all those jumpers on the Soundblasters so that you didn't end up conflicts? Now that was fun.

Yeah I was doing this too back then ... but when you realised that there were other superior systems around at the time, effing around with DOS and ISA bus configuration become just a pain in the ass. It was like "I cant believe people are using this shit".

The last few posts have reminded me of the various buses that used to exist.

ISA, EISA, and VESA local bus. More blasts from the past.

As for having fun getting Sound Blasters to work, if you didn't run into IRQ conflicts, it was good -- it meant you could enjoy your new toy without stuffing around to get it to work.

What fun is that, you ask? Well, I could listen to horrible, tinny MIDI music while some of you had your PCs eviscerated. :-)

Does anyone remember the "Turbo" buttons on the cases of x86-based beige boxes? If you wanted your computer to run faster back then, you'd hit the Turbo button. These days if you want your system to run faster you need to un-install Windows, which takes more time. :-P

J.

shaunf writes...

Just because they kept the commands in NT/2000/XP/Vista command line interface means absolutely nothing.

Unless you know what they can do & make productive use of them.
Can be 1000's time more productive than going click click click click click click cl... ooops click

...in the right context of course, and especially if put into a script or batch file.

Jus tlook at some of the Admin Tools packs for servrs etc - they are just chock a block with command line utilities.

*They also probably figure (for some of the lesser relevnt commands) - why bother taking it out if it's only taking kb of space?

Edlin

In th eright hands it was pretty cool.

If you had 300 lines of code you were working on - you tend to know what line you are dealing with at any one time - and to open edlin and be able to edit line 142 and save the file in a few key strokes WAS MUCH more efficient than opening an editor & finding the line you wanted etc...

But of course - times change

Johnno......

...mentioned something about Ansi.sys - Yeah - we did some pretty fancy stuff with that (once upon a time) too. A lot of fun :)

And then there was good ol' Doskey!
Wasn't he a clever one.

Syntax%20Error writes...

Unless you know what they can do & make productive use of them.
Can be 1000's time more productive than going click click click click click click cl... ooops click

I love the command line, i use it all the time.

My point was, that people think that it is actually MSDOS thus trying to say Microsoft is still hiding it there. It's nothing to do with MSDOS, other than backward compatible commands similarity.

Syntax%20Error writes...

And then there was good ol' Doskey!
Wasn't he a clever one.

Aye; I used to use that.

Thankfully it's now the default behaviour, and may have been since Windows 95, or perhaps slightly later.

J.

Craig Iedema writes...

Hey I can remember when this was released! Does that make ancient too?

Hey, i used to have a computer that ran DOS v5. haha

Now a Commodore 64 is ancient :)

flubber writes...

Now a Commodore 64 is ancient :)

In around 1984-1985, the slogan used in the TV commercial advertising the Commodore was:

"Are you keeping up with the Commodore? 'Coz the Commodore is keeping up with you!"

Outstanding. :-)

J.

The Turbo button. Wasn't that the most misleading thing the marketing guys ever did?

The purpose of the turbo button was to actually slow the computer down so that some old CPU bound programs would run properly on the faster processors. The engineers did the right thing by creating this feature, but of course the marketing guys wouldn't have a bar of it being called a 'go-slow' button. So they dreamt up Turbo button. Which of course it never was.

I actually saw a salesmen in a major store one day making a big thing of this. He was trying to impress the customer with this new Turbo button which made the machine faster.

Misleading statements from computer salespersons? Some things never change.

MegaMike writes...

I actually saw a salesmen in a major store one day making a big thing of this. He was trying to impress the customer with this new Turbo button which made the machine faster.

lol that would have been a laugh

Clamburger writes...

Indeed it is.

32bit versions of Vista, 64bit version no it isn't. As with the edit command and a few other 16bit programmes.

MissMuffitt writes...

I used to go to the local flea market and there was a stall selling share ware on 3.25 floppy's, I remember getting Worms... Loved it..

Still very much addicted to my comp.

Wow... your bringing back so many memories... thanks for the walk down memory lane.

This thread certainly reminds people about the "early days".

I remember games were more original back then. Some titles are still being "reused" having sequels after sequels today...Worms, WarCraft, C&C and many others...

Johnno writes...

I bought a Sound Blaster (the original 8-bit jobby) in 1992 or 1993, and in 1996 bought an AWE-32 with a new system.

From memory, I had no trouble getting these working.

MegaMike writes...

You guys never had fun at all. What having to set all those jumpers on the Soundblasters so that you didn't end up conflicts? Now that was fun.

I recall when i did not understand a thing about IRQ, DMA Channels, I/O Address etc. Come to think of it everything now its all PnP and no need for Jumpers...I/O 220, DMA 1, IRQ 5 or 7...Some apps were fiddly with drivers

Johnno writes...

It sure is. Did you ever tinker with ANSI.SYS? I mucked around with that, and did some tinkering of the command prompt so that it displayed in a more exciting colour than plain old white.

That was too much to play with, it reminds me of the BBS days and also the pretty things you see with people's NFO files...ANSI Art I think they call it.

I also did DOS ANSI Menu programs at TAFE as an assignment. I knew DOS so well I walked out a TAFE exam in 10 mins with those command line questions, when the time given was like 1 hour lol. Some of my early work was taken by the teacher as a demo for the year after lol. I have already forgotten how to create those things.

MegaMike writes...

I actually saw a salesmen in a major store one day making a big thing of this. He was trying to impress the customer with this new Turbo button which made the machine faster.

I think that button was introduced when 386 DX chips were out. Some people thought they were so cool having it turned off with their 486s on 33 instead of 66 and showing off their new machine, saying no need to turn TURBO on and still running fast, also mentioned it would "Stress" the machine if you had it on all the time LOL

Some nerd at school keeps telling people about BUFFER size editing Config.sys and increasing it will improve performance etc at computer classes. I had a good laugh lol.

BDC writes...

That was also the days when 'Copy Protection' was a question at the start of the game asking you what the word '5 words in on row 3, page 7' of the manual was.
I can't remember what the name of the game that did that was though, I'm sure there was at least one? Can anyone remember?

I'm fairly sure Street Rod did this, as well as LHX Attack Chopper.

Those were the days. I had a 386, 2Mb RAM, 71Mb HDD, 3.5" FDD, no CD, no soundcard, VGA, DOS 5.0. I was supremely jealous of my mate with a 486, 8Mb of RAM, single speed CD, and a soundcard!

One thing that amazed me, was the sounds the game developers managed to get out of the PC speaker.

Oh, and I had an old school colour printer. Had to swap between the black and colour ribbon, inserting an motor with the colour so it could be moved up and down :)

Neonlight writes...

That was too much to play with, it reminds me of the BBS days and also the pretty things you see with people's NFO files...ANSI Art I think they call it.

Oh yeah, Ansi and Ascii art ... I used to LOVE those! Used to be able to get programs that would do all the work for you too.

Probably was just very easily impressed back then, but yeah, it really had "wow" factor for me ...

I still use DOS. :)

Mostly in Virtual Machines, and also on embedded hardware (PC104).

I also have a USB key that boots DOS 7. for installing Firmware.

Just because it's newer doesn't mean it's better.

I've had dos based systems running every day for up to 15 years.

DOS is still going strong ........ in cricket, thanks to ol Matt.

Ahhh, yes.

MS-DOS 3.2 and Norton Commander.

Later I started using Quickmenu and QEMM to get the most out of 640k base memory.

The first MS-DOS PC's rolled out in the office I was working at in 1986/87 were considered a giant leap forward with their EGA monitors and 20Mb hard drives. We ran AutoCAD on them and ACAD back then could fit on a single 1.2Mb Floppy.

Neonlight writes...

I think that button was introduced when 386 DX chips were out.
Not right! This button existed on "IBM compatible" computers "Made in Formosa"-sorry, Taiwan for kindergarten users.
It was on the then 'wonderfull' XT boxen with 360K floppy and the Bill Gates 'prophecy' "Nobody will ever need more then 640K of memory!"
The CPU was 8088 or 8086 with 'normal(?!)' clocking rate of 4.7MHz, with possible 'overclocking', in turbo mode to incredible 10MHz.
And some hardware AND software simple refused to respond to such _crazy_ rate.
This was our "computer playing ground".

sabredog writes...

We ran AutoCAD on them and ACAD back then could fit on a single 1.2Mb Floppy.

I recall our 'later' version was a multiple 1.2 MB floppy installation to the tiny hard drive (eg a 20 MB hard drive). I didn't see the early 1.2 MB floppy version hehe

Craig Iedema writes...

Hey I can remember when this was released! Does that make ancient too?

Don't feel too bad about it.

I can remember DOS as well. The first place I worked at was still using it when I started there.

No, not that DOS, this one:-

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS/360

^^gg^^ writes...

remember reading an article a couple of years ago, about how NASA had people whose sole job was to drive around the USA , from junk shop to junk shop, looking for XP/286 machines to get parts out of - for the Shuttles

True!
NASA was NOT looking for "newest, faster, upgraded; buy now!" hardware. It was looking for MIL-SPECK or the strickter NASA-SPECK certified components. If memory serves, to get the manufacturing process to be certified to those specks takes few years so the 8086's (and maybe 286's) were in those lists, but not others.
Try to find MIL-SPECK'ED pentium 3 or 4.

Johnno writes...

... Multi-tasking? What's that? :-)

I remember there was a memory residential program to get spreadsheet screen up to hide the game screen right.. hehe..

It's so obvious that there's a lot of us that are old and senile :~)

Bob C writes...

MicroBee with two 5.25 floppies one for the program and one for the data.

i had a microbee... start of the art it was. 64 k of RAM!! I had a 5" floppy and a tape dive and a monochrome Green screen.

Also had a tape drive and some games would take 30 minutes to load... (Anyone remember games like Eye of Min/Halloween Harry/Emu Joust/Defender)

about a year later... we got a 2400 modem!! Most of my friends has a 1200 so BBS were really fast.

^^gg^^ writes...

Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards - complete with CGA Graphics and typing in the commands, like SIT DOWN - never quite worked out what the purpose of the drunk was, though if you typed KICK DRUNK, it used to do something - cant remember what now

YOu can buy this game... and they have redone if for XP with good graphics...

Jazman1973 writes...

they have redone if for XP with good graphics...

Geez. That's like colourising old movies. The crappy graphics are half the attraction. :D

Gator writes...

Geez. That's like colourising old movies. The crappy graphics are half the attraction. :D

Yeah, and the dinky music :P

BTW _gg_ I never noticed that before but the Larry tune is quite similar to Beatles' "When I'm 64" but it isn't that same. Maybe it was loosely based on that.

I think if Ken & Roberta had actually used that tune they never would have made any money - the company that owned the rights at the time would have bled them dry.

And to that impertinent individual that accused me of being senile - i'm not !
I know because I always put my underwear on the outside just like normal people