Don't pirate MS-DOS, get FreeDOS!

[J-Man]

FreeDOS works really well for almost all DOS games. If you have a pirate copy of MS-DOS, GET RID OF IT and get FreeDOS!!!

http://www.freedos.org

If a game that worked in MS-DOS does not work in FreeDOS, please let me know and I might be able to help you. (This should be very rare, however)

FreeDOS has been in development since 1994 and it is very mature and stable. It can even provide over 600 KB of free DOS conventional RAM!!!

If you need help in implementing FreeDOS, please let me know.

[jmmijo]

Sure, this is good for sure

However if you are like me and already own multiple copies of MS-DOS, you usually don't have to worry about it but then again you may have to install some memory management tools like QEMM as well, which I also own

[Unknown_K]

Anybody make a DOS yet that works with fat32 formatted drives larger then 2gb?

[Splodginator]

I saw this version called MS-DOS 7 (I think thats what it was called) that was supposedly free (It had installation disk images). I think it worked with FAT32 drives.

[Unknown_K]

Thats a hack ripping out the dos that runs under windows 95 osr2, not a stand alone product.

[J-Man]

FreeDOS can support FAT32!

[jmmijo]

@J-Man, is that native support for FAT32 or do you have to run a device driver via CONFIG.SYS or what ?!?

[J-Man]

That's native support built in the kernel.

[jmmijo]

That feature alone may indeed make it worth a look, thanks

[J-Man]

Jmmijo, there are two versions of the FreeDOS kernel, one supports FAT32, the other one doesn't. Other than that, they are almost identical. Make sure you get the right one if you want FAT32 support.

I have finally finished the FreeDOS boot disk setup. Download it at:

http://www.geocities.com/axsclf/freedos.zip

Make sure you right-click and Save Target As... (don't do a normal left-click).

Extract it to its own directory and run SETUP.BAT.

[J-Man]

I edited my last post to include most of what used to be on this post (thanks Dogbreath).

[Dogbreath]

(I can't edit my last post)

Yes you can. It's the button right beside the "quote."

[Oz]

err.... humm. can in install this on a drive/drive partition that has another Os on it? (eg i have windows ME on drive c:, i instal this over the top). would that work?

[J-Man]

Go ahead and install FreeDOS on that C: partition. It will safely retain your data, install itself on that partition, and then you can boot FreeDOS from that C: partition. All except 5 of your files will be saved.

These 5 files will be deleted to make way for the FreeDOS installation:

IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS
COMMAND.COM
CONFIG.SYS
AUTOEXEC.BAT

Everything else should be safe. When FreeDOS is finished installing, you can boot it up to your hard drive and run whatever DOS games or programs you have.

If you install FreeDOS over Windows ME (or other Windows), you won't be able to go back to Windows until you boot up with a startup disk and type SYS C: so make sure you have a startup disk handy just in case you ever want to go back to Windows.

[jmmijo]

I d/l all the files from the site and I'll look at them in a little bit. I have to decide on what kind of box I want to install this onto, so many parts and so little time

[Interon]

I have finally finished the FreeDOS boot disk setup. Download it at:

http://www.geocities.com/axsclf/freedos.zip

Update: That link is dead. If you want a FreeDOS package, PM me.



(Note to Dogbreath: I'm 99.999% sure this is a valid revival.)