MS DOS Interview Questions and Answers - DoAnswers.com

MSDOS is a disk operating system for the IBM range (or compatibles) of computers. The MSDOS system resides on diskette (3.5" or 5.25") and the system files may be transferred to a hard disk unit. An operating system is a program which allows competing programs to share the resources of the computer (memory, disk, devices like printers and modems, and processing time). The operating systems first job is to initialise the hardware of the computer system, before running application programs. For personal computers, MSDOS is a single user, single tasking operating system. Single user means only one person uses the computer at a time. Single tasking means that it essentially only runs one application program at a time, and has no inherent support for running more than one application program simultaneously. An operating system provides mechanisms for running programs, handling errors, controlling devices, configuring the computer system, and for MSDOS, a user interface (sometimes called a shell).

MS DOS Interviews are getting tough these days as the technology grows faster. To get through the MS DOS interview one needs to update him/herself in a regular manner. Having said that, just before the interview, it is very important to have a quick glance of the reputed MS DOS questions and answers to make yourself comfortable during the interview process. This is where DoAnswers.com helps you in renewing yourself on MS DOS and various other technologies interview preparation.

If you use the dir command always with a lot of options like /O /W or whatever you want, it's nasty to type them all the time. You can solve this problem by setting the varibale DIRCMD in autoexec.bat: SET DIRCMD=/W The example above will set the parameter /W as default, you only type dir and you'll get the same result as dir /w. This doesn't work for DR-DOS! In DR-DOS, you may set the default paramenter with dir /C [parameters], e.g. dir /CW "dir" gives now the same result as dir /W.

You have to change the country-settings in config.sys (add 21000 to the country code): COUNTRY=21049,437,c:\drdos\country.sysThis will switch the currency from "DM" to "EUR" and the format of the date from "dd.mm.yyyy" to the new format defined in DIN EN 28601 (ISO 8601) "yyyy-mm-dd". This will also work for the other countries in the European Union which take part in the currency union and which are supported by DR-DOS: Simply add 21000 to the country code in config.sys (you find the "normal" country codes in the DOSBOOK). I added a german posting from Matthias Paul in de.comp.os.msdos to the Quicknote section.

On modern system with harddisks >8GB you often have got the problem that you must use the new 0Fh extended partition (LBA) instead of the old sort 05h extended partition (CHS). DR-DOS 7.03 won't accept this new type 0Fh and won't have access to the data. A solution would be to use the old 05h partition type but then you would have access to 8 GB under DR DOS but you would be limited to these 8 GB under Windows 9x/NT, too. The only "real" solution would be to create two extended partitions, first one with DR DOS FDISK (all the space above the primary partition but below the 8 GB) with the C5h type ("DR DOS secured"). MS DOS won't be able to recognize this partition. Afterwards, you must create another extended partition with the rest of the space for MS DOS which won't be recognized by DR DOS using FDISK of MS DOS 7.10 or higher with the 0Fh type (not readable for DR DOS).

There exist several GUIs for DOS. The most frequently used one is Windows 3.x, but it's not developed any more and it's not for free. http://www.seal.cx is a great site about SEAl, a free DOS environement. If you're intereseted in SEAL, try also this site: http://seal.drdos.org. GEM is a great environement, too. You get more information about it at http://www.deltasoft.com.

by pressing F2, you should add that at the end of the prompt command but before something like $P$G in your autoexec.bat: $e[0;60;"FORMAT A:";13p The complete command would look like that: PROMPT $e[0;59;"C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM";13p$e[0;60;"FORMAT A:";13p$P$G ^ ^ code 59: key F1 code 60: key F2

Yes, there is. Lineo sells licenses in big packages, but if you only want to buy a single license you can get it at http://www.blands.co.uk, at Caldera (only version 7.02) or - if you live in or near Germany you can purchase it at http://www.linuxland.de. If you need >5 licenses, feel free to get them from Lineo at http://www.drdos.com.

Many people think that DOS is a very very old OS and has got a lot of problems with Y2K. Folks, I can tell you that DR DOS 7.03 even corrects the BIOS date if your BIOS has got problems with the year 2000. So DOS isn't as bad as you might think of this topic. I don't really had problems with PC DOS (IBM DOS 7) and FreeDOS, neither with PTS DOS and ROM DOS. If somebody of you made other experiences, please send me an e-mail (mailto:cfuchs@drdos.net).

These files are OEM versions of Ontrack. They have got a big bug: an error occures when you want to rename a file. The IBM*.COM files nativly support the new partition type 0Fh (LBA). It's not recommended to use these files if you don't know what you do. The COMMAND.COM file seems to be okay, but I didn't notice any changes. If you want to try these files, please go to http://www.drdos.net/err705.htm. - good luck.

First, you need a computer which is IBM compatible. The computer should have 640 KB of RAM or even more :)) (in some cases it will work with fewer RAM, too, but I would use more). Then, you need a floppy drive, a harddisk or something simular. It would be great to have a keyboard or a mouse and if you want to see something you might need a monitor... but that's all.