Booting to DOS in a Win98SE machine.

I hope this is the right place to put this, since it is, fundamentaly, a Win98 machine. ;)

My basic question is: I'm trying to understand the differences between these three different ways to get to a DOS prompt:
(Relative to what drivers and so forth, might be loaded.)

1. Boot to the command prompt at the boot-up menu. (Which one sees by having BootMenu=1 in the Msdos.sys file.)

2. Boot all the way into Windows, then open a full-screen DOS box.

3. Boot all the way into Windows, then Restart in MS_DOS Mode.

I believe, that 1 and 3 are the same, but not sure. I know that a dosstart.bat file is involved with one way. And I'm not sure how the config.sys, autoexec.bat, and dosstart.bat all interact with each other.

Any help that anyone can offer in clarifying all that, would be appreciated.

And, in case it helps, here's what I'm trying to do:

Ultimately, I'm trying to get an older Aureal Vortex 2500 (8830 chipset) PCI souncard to work with the DOS-based MP3 player called MpxPlay. This is on an older 233Mhz MMX computer that has slide-in drive bays, so I can quickly switch back and forth between pure DOS 6.22 and Win98SE.

Depending on the answer to this thread, I may start a new one in the Multimedia section.

Thanks all.

Dex

in my views 1 and 3 is the same thing but there may be a difference. Regarding number 2, you are still using windows when you open msdos windows so basically you are running msdos shell on window. Anothe way of looking is you launching a program that is built in to windows called "dos or command"

hope that helps

1. Real Mode DOS. Loaded using the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys commands. You will load your sound drivers, CD-rom and any other device, and assign the memory that you want to use while in DOS.
Better to not type WIN in order to load Windows when this mode has been assigned memory. Extended memory is subtracted from total memory and is not available to Windows.

2 Protected Mode DOS. Or as commonly called, a DOS Box. Starts a new instance of the command prompt each time it is started. Your sound card will still be using the Windows drivers. Anything not saved to disk is lost when the box is terminated.

3. Real Mode DOS. Environment is already loaded. Uses the DOSStart.bat to load your sound drivers. The session ends with a reboot before ever returning to DOS or Windows, so if booting to DOS, everything will be loaded fresh again.

When booting directly to Windows, better to bypass the DOS bootup files when spec'd for loading memory.

WhatIs Real Mode and Protected Mode DOS
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/...212838,00.html

Booting to DOS mode.
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/dos_mode.htm

How to Increase Conventional Memory for MS-DOS-Based Programs
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q134399/

There is much more to be found on the web about DOS.

Thanks ylen13 and oldhermit. :)

oldhermit; That second link was outstanding. I pretty much knew 1 and 3, but that 2nd one was new to me. Great info.

Let me ask you one more thing. If you were going to run a Win98 machine in DOS only, which method would you choose. (This will be for a command line driven MP3 player only.)

It looks to me like the method outlined in that second link would be the best.

Thanks again.
Dex

I would use Real Mode DOS if you have no intentions of using Windows at all. Protected Mode simply works like another program in Windows, and batch files would necessarily assign everything each time a DOS box is started, otherwise doing so could be time-consuming.

Most everyone was very happy when Windows showed up because it automated many tasks. However, DOS is more reliable once configured correctly.

MP3 Players for DOS
http://www.audiogalaxy.com/software/players.php

Lots of DOS utilities here.
http://cyberside.dyn.ee/freesoft/0z2idx.htm#M

More
http://www.undercoverdesign.com/dosg...os/utildos.htm

There were lots of books on DOS and they still show up in the used section of book stores.

Thanks again for those links oldhermit. By the way, I hope I didn't give the wrong impression. I'm actually, quite fluent in DOS, and I can make my Windows machine run pretty well. Its in using DOS from a Windows machine, that I'm not sure of.

I have a couple computers I use that are pure DOS 6.22. I love them for there sheer simplicity, and what I can do with them.

Here's one of my favorite DOS links:

Interesting DOS Programs

Lots of good stuff there. ;)

Thanks again for the links and tips.

There are a few members here that are very much into DOS. I was one of the last hold-outs using it because I found it very useful for diagnostics. But I eventually succombed to the ease of using Windows like everyone else. I have to snicker whenever I hear somebody knock DOS though, because to me it's just like they are admitting that they could never figure it out. Hehe.
See ya...

I like pc dos over msdos

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/os/dos/

Kevin