MS-DOS 4????

edited April 2004 in Site Issues
Does anyone know anything about Microsoft's multi-tasking version of DOS? I think it was 4.00.

A friend has requested it from my site and I THINK I might have it.

I need any details anyone has.

Thanks a lot.
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Comments

  • Ah, I think you mean DR-DOS or OpenDOS 4. MS never made a multi-task DOS. There are some 3rd party addons that can make MS-DOS use multi-tasking.
  • No they did.

    They made it in-between building version 3.

    It was only released as OEM and only to very few companies.
  • I got it somewhere, but at the moment i cant find my big book of abandware. :D

    WinMan should have it somewhere, he almost has what I have and I sure he has MSDOS 4
  • Thanx Warpster, I'll look into that one.
  • Interesting, I've never heard of that.

    -Q
  • I got the normal version of v4...that the same?
  • To tell you the truth, I have no idea. lol :?
  • Multi-tasking dos huh...
    According to some googling, this dos is version 2.x tweaked, it was given the number 4 because 3.x was released while this was under development. The dos 4 that was made widespread seems to have been a different version. This dos sorta dissapeared until it was later incorporated into OS/2, so...this secret dos is what lead to NT....
  • Yep. That's pretty much it.
  • Does it HAVE to be version 4.00.
    I can get you a copy of 4.01 if thats ok...

    Post if you want it.

    --- Joe
  • hrm....this thing was OEM, and seems that there probably wasn't much updating to it, I am not sure if 4.01 would be this hidden one, or the public one. Do you know if it can multi-task beanbag?
  • Hmm, I dont know....
    I'll test it on my old computer and post the results, this might take time people....

    ...now where is that floppy drive.....
    ...Ahha! found it, now for those floppys.....
  • Hmm, well i can't test it as i don't have any 720 KBs around...
    ..could my local shopee!..

    I have, however done some research and it doesn't look like it can multitask :(

    Sorry about that, this was oviously the public version (it's said to be a lot less buggy though...)

    -- Joe
  • get a 1.44MB and cover the 2nd hole OR use winimage to convert the image to 1.44M
  • Problem 1: I don't have a clue about you second hole!...
    Problem 2: The images I have are old exes and are not compatable with winimage.
  • ok, on a floppy, turn it over so that the label faces the desk. Then make it so that the metal protector is facing up.
    step 1)get some tape

    step 2) put a pice of tape over the BOTTOM LEFT hole on the disk.

    |
    |
    | | | | <---metal prtetor
    | |_____| |
    | |
    | |
    | |
    | * | <
    hole that needs to be convered
    _________________
  • Heres a easyer way floppy.png

    Just take a drill that has a bit about the same size as the lock hole and drill it on the right side of the floppy. Drill slowly and be careful. After doing that just run the format program in My Computer. That simple.
  • None of those methods work!!!
    XP doesn't allow me to change the disk capacity and I can't do it in WinImage.

    If anyone else wants to try it then the link to the file is:
    http://freepgs.com/winos/files/Dos-401.rar

    The archive contains 3 exes, which will extract the floppy images to 720KBs
  • As Powerload says...
    July 1988 MS-DOS 4.0 This version provided XMS support, support for partitions on hard disks up to 2.10 GB and a graphical shell. ~ It also contained a large number of bugs and many programs refused to run on it.
    November 1988 MS-DOS 4.01 Major Bug Fix for MS-DOS 4.0 (Core Files almost completely rewritten)
    April 1991 MS-DOS 5.0 This was a major upgrade. It allowed parts of DOS to load itself in the high memory area and certain device drivers and TSRs to run in the unused parts of the upper memory area between 640K and 1024K. This version also added support for IBM's new 2.88 MB floppy disks. An improved BASIC interpreter and text editor were included, as was a disk cache, an undelete utility and a Hard Disk partition-table backup program . After the problems with MS-DOS 4, it also provided a utility to make programs think they were running on a different version of MS-DOS.(SETVER) ~ Restores confidence in DOS after v4.x disaster.

    Well according to their timeline, the selling dos 4 wasn't too stable. And no where did they mention a multi-tasking version.
    http://www.oldstuff.myagora.net/powerload/timeline.htm
    I'm not saying that this version doesn't actually exist...but it may be as rare as windows 1.0.
  • Mr.BeanBag wrote:
    None of those methods work!!!
    XP doesn't allow me to change the disk capacity and I can't do it in WinImage.

    If anyone else wants to try it then the link to the file is:
    http://freepgs.com/winos/files/Dos-401.rar

    The archive contains 3 exes, which will extract the floppy images to 720KBs

    I dont think XP will format a 720K, try formatting them in the PC your installing DOS4 on.
  • Use a win95 bootdisk and boot up the PC and format the floppy that way. Or get MaxiDisk.
  • MaxiDisk doesn't work, neither does the Win95 bootdisk meathod and I don't have any OS already on my computer.
    It's starting to look like there is no way to format my 1.44s into 720s.

    - Joe
  • Maby your BIOS doesnt support the 720K format. mostly all 1.44MB drives will funtion as 720K, but I think the BIOS must support it. I dont even know why 720K was supported past 1995.
  • I dont even know why 720K was supported past 1995.

    Duh! For stuff like this ofcourse ;)

    -Q
  • use a 1994 PC to format them :-)
  • I think your doing something wrong. Theres a prefix for the FORMAT.COM that will let you change the format size of a larger floppy to a smaller size.
  • format [drive]: /f:[drive size]

    But XP/2000 doesnt support it anymore.

    if the cover-the-hole trick AND the /f: trick doesnt work, then you know your PC doesnt support 720K floppys. Have any other PCs with a 720K compatable floppy drive?

    PS: Doesnt 3-mode floppy mean that it supports all 3 modes (IE: 720K, 1.44M, 2.88M)

    If so, then all my Compaqs support 2.88M becuase all the Compaq floppy drives say "3-Mode floppy drive" on it.

    (they also say "replace with Compaq part #3984573075 on everything, even the RAM, Im surporsed they didnt get Intel to engrave a Compaq part # onto the CPU's)
  • 3Mode Floppy was some weirdo Japanese 1.2MB 2
  • meh, oh well.

    Yeah, Nortan deleted NT 3.1 and my 2003 8-in-1. Luckily I found a copy on a CD and the 2003 wasnt really needed.
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