Another 'puter ? about DOS

[Zeke]

I have been given an older computer that is slow and w/o much memory. Might work around here as simply a word processer (really allI need for business records.

The PO dumped all the files. I got it booted and into DOS. Here's what it says under the DIR command, last line:

Y EXE 35,328

This was done recently. Is this where she dumped everthing? Can I reverse this command? Sorry, I'm really pretty illiterate about DOS and haven't used it since '94.

In the DIR it says I have
WINDOWS
PROGRA~1
MSINPUT
MPASS
MYDOCU~1
WINNT

But the thing won't load the OS. Why? TIA

[vash]

you know what zeke? i bet some 10 year old will come on and talk you through it. you and i? we are lost......

[id10t]

Looks like you are missing command.com and a few other crucial files. Also looks like it had Win9x on it at some point (the ~ filenames). If you can futher define "old" and specify how much memory, I'd say upgrade the memory if you can for cheap, and put Linux on it or just reinstall Win9x .

[Zeke]

Can't install anything right now. Looks to me like she dumped the CD/ROM driver. W/o a driver disc, I'm dead unless I want to install and old copy of Win95 I might still have on floppys.

That's why I wanted to know if I could recover the files.

[84porsche]

Their was a dos command that would undelete files from what I remember but it has been so long - search the internet for undelete dos commands.
Another suggestion, make a bootable floppy from another computer with CD-ROM drivers and you at least have a generic driver to get the CDROM working and then you can reinstall Windows.

[Z-man]

It's not too difficult to navigate in DOS. To get to the subdirectories, just type cd at the command prompt, like this:
C:\cd MYDOCU~1.

Then you can type dir again, and see what's in the MYDOCU~1 folder. You can always copy these files off to a floppy and see what they are on another 'puter.

If in the directories, you see files, you can always see what's in them by typing [b]type as in
C:\type MYFILE.DOC

There may be a lot of gibberish, but if it is a word doc (for example), you will also see the body of the document. (That will get you can idea of what the content of the folders are)

OR: you can just take the hard disk out, pop it into a working computer as a slave hard drive, and see what's out there quicker.

HTH,
-Z.

[djmcmath]

Or get yourself a boot disk to use for the install. Most complete versions of operating systems these days have a bootable install disk containing all the drivers you need. Depending on how old is "old," Win98 is probably not a bad bet. Look on eBay maybe for a full version of Win98. You may need to format the drive before you re-install, as sometimes windows installations complain about installing over themselves, even though the existing install doesn't work. Anyhow, you might need to format the drive before installing. Like Cliff said, find yourself a 10-year old to walk you through it. It's harder than say, adjusting valves, or swapping engines.


Dan

[RickM]

I have a few older OSs at home....some on diskettes. From DOS through XP. Which version of Windows is/was on this machine? 3.1?

I also have different types of memory and accesories you can have if you'd like them...modems, video cards (Bernoulli boxes lol)

[campbellcj]

The \WINNT directory indicates that it (probably) had NT on it...coulda been 3.1, 3.5 or (more likely) 4.0.

The mangled directory names are because it is using an old FAT file system, not NTFS or other modern ones that support long filenames.

Probably best to just reformat it with your OS of choice. Depending on the hardware I'd try to go to Windows 2000 if it's semi modern or 98 SE if it's really old i.e. a Pentium or PII.

[Zeke]

It's a P II. I have gotten it to start loading Win 95 which still resided within. Had to restore dozens of filles indescriminatley as I don't know what half this stuff is. Right now, it says I'm missing "IFSHLP.SYS" It is shutting complelty off at the Win95 screen just as it returns to the DOS screen. If I can get it to recognize the CD/ROM, I have OEM Win95 to install.

Oh, and I have NT as well, if that would wake it up.