QB vs XP or W2000 : create a DOS partition (How to)

[Jark]

This may help a lot of people.

Start from a W9x environment. Create a bootable Dos floppy, i.e. with the IO.sys and MSdos.sys files. This can be made from the Windows explorer.

Copy on the floppy the following files:

KEYB.COM
FDISK.EXE
FORMAT.COM
SYS.COM
CHKDSK.EXE
KEYBOARD.SYS
ATTRIB.EXE
MEM.EXE

You may copy some moe, but these files are the useful ones.

Then come the hard stuff : you have to re-format your hard drive. Save your data first ! Then, while formating either from a Windows install CD or better, from a Linux distribution, save 128 Mbytes for a dos partition, with a FAT32 file system : both Windows and Linux will thus read it.

I personnally highly recommand using a Linux Fdisk to do so, then you will get Lilo or Grub for the multi-boot. The best solution is clearly to start from a Mandrake distribution.

When this is done, re-boot from the Dos floppy, and just type SYS X:, where X: is th name of the dos partition (for example, you may have C: as the main XP NTFS partition, D: as the CD-Rom drive, E: as the NTFS partition, F: as the dos partition, etc...

Copy the files from the floppy to the dos partition, and create an autoexec.bat file with a text editor that you will place on the do partition.

And that's it, you have a plain dos partition on your PC, fully compatible with QB...

Right, I know this post will sound obscure to many, but I trust more people will contribute...

[Agamemnus]

Still running '98 and old computer.

[HystericPoison]

i use WinXP pro and i have no trouble with the DOS thing.

its better if i run through Start->Run->command because it hardly slows down my computer (compared to cmd.exe, which is made for XP, command is "Windows DOS").

my comp REALLY slows down when i just click qb, cus it runs the XP version which is more demanding on resources.

hope that made sense... :o

[Jark]

The main issue is I cannot launch correctly QB (ie, with the /l options) directly by clicking a .bas file. The .lnk and the .pif are not managed the same with XP and the previous Windows.

The second issue is related to the SVGA modes, that I use with QB, and that interfere with the HW of my machine (a portable Compaq, ATI technology).

As for W2000, the issues are with the mouse driver...

[Antoni Gual]

You forget the variable execution speed!

Does someone have a solution?

I did find a partial solution: In text mode if you print regularly to a file the execution speed remains constant. But it does'nt work if your screen is in graphic modes...

[typosoft]

hystericpoison:

will the method you use run pedxing's quest? I've been trying to find a way to run it on XP for a long time. When I tried it I couldn't get an emm driver to load. I then searched for command.exe to maybe set up a .pif file, but it couldn't find it.

if you don't have it. pedxing's quest is at
http://typosoft.qbasicnews.com/pedxing.zip or lite version
http://typosoft.qbasicnews.com/pedlite.zip

[toonski84]

Did you try adding the proper lines to config.nt (XP's config.sys)?
...And dosbox runs it, veeery slowly.

[DrV]

Red Hat Linux has a very nice GUI setup program that allows reformatting, and (I think) even lets you dynamically resize partiitons without losing data if the partition is not too fragmented.

[typosoft]

yeah, I added the correct lines to config.nt, and used vdmsound, bochs (couldn't figure it out though), dosbox (freezes on the logo part), and I edited the _default.pif files. None work, I guess it is a lost cause.

[toonski84]

wait a second... when i ran it the first time it froze on the logo too. I thought the program was corrupted so I installed pedlite, and it worked fine without error. What's the difference between those versions anyhow?

this i suppose is your last hope:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/u...eandxp.asp