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NTFS and DOS programs

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NTFS and DOS programs

I have an NTFS machine. Now I?m interested in running an old DOS program called GWBASIC. I intend to use file handling and some memory managing.

I am aware there might be a conflict with the file system, and I do not wish to mess up WinXP.

What are my options?

What are my chances?

Regards, Gunnar Klevedal

13 replies

by local support

Hi Gunnar

I suggest you get yourself a bootable DOS diskette and put gwbasic.exe on it. The exe-file is only 78 kB, so you will have plenty of space for your BASIC files. You should opt for version 3.11 or better. Hewlett Packard delivered it together with HP Vectra.

There is no built-in help, so you need the book.

Regards

by local support

Hi again Gunnar

If you have a nationalized keyboard, you might want to put keyb.com and country sys on your boot-diskette, and edit config.sys and autoexec.bat . Try using character table 437.

If you do not do this, some of the keys will seem to be placed in the wrong places. Eventually you might become used to this.

Regards

by entawanabi

GWBASIC is not a DOS thiong it is a DOS compatable thing ala IBM Compatible days and it iis not to my knowledge compatible with anything current because of the high amperage needed for it.

by kpsoucy

Hello Gunnar.

Hopefully one of the other answers worked for you, but if not, you could always try using DOSBox: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net
It's a DOS emulator primarily designed for running games, so it should be able to handle GWBASIC with no problem.

Kevin

by cg it

MS DOS or PC DOS [IBM] only work with FAT/FAT32 file system. Just as W9X will only work and recognize FAT/FAT32. If your HDD is formatted NTFS Fdisk will report is as non DOS. You won't be able to load up DOS on it.

Best way to run DOS programs is to get a old Pentium junker and load up DOS on it and run it that way. [KVM switch between your XP machine and the old junker].

by nz_justice

Youroptions are dosbox like kpsoucy@... said, but dosbox resourse hungry(well the version I had anyway) so hopfully your dos app is small.

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