I have a question regarding the MSDOS.SYS roll in the boot process (Win98). I should probably start from the beginning.
The other day I was experimenting with my win98 system. I decided to delete the MSDOS.SYS file to see what type of error message I would receive without the file. Upon re-boot I got the following errors:
VORTEX DOS AUDIO DRIVER (2.007) Copyright ? 1997-1999 Aureal Semiconductor
ERROR #3: WINBOOTDIR environment variable missing. Driver not loaded.
ERROR#5: AU30DOS.COM section not in AU30DOS.INI. Driver not loaded.
PCI AUDIO PRO enabled at Ports 220-22Fh, Interrupt 5, DMA 1, Joystick 201h.
I’m confused by this error. In reviewing several “Boot Process” articles I know that after the bootstrap phase, control is turned over to IO.SYS. From there IO.SYS looks to MSDOS.SYS. If this is the case, I don’t know where IO.SYS is getting the above driver information. It can’t be getting it from the AUTOEXEC.BAT (which does have entry’s for the hardware). AUTOEXEC.BAT isn’t loaded until the end of the boot process. Surely, IO.SYS’s internal AUTOEXEC.BAT wouldn’t have any reference to system specific Hardware.
Anybody have a clue?
Please no comments on how dangerous it is to delete system files. I’m very well aware of the consequences of such actions. If you don’t experiment, you’ll never learn.
Thanks
EBCDIC