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IBM Dos 4.0

Caluser2000

Caluser2000

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I've got a boxed set of IBM Dos 4.0, two 3.5" 720kb disks. One of the interesting things about it that is it demands the user would make backups prior to proceeding to the installation. Did other DOSs do this?

Also the outside case is a bit grubby and stained. Any advice on cleaning it up?
 

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Hmm.. have you checked any book cleaning or collector threads/forums? I wouldn't want to offer the wrong advice. I would THINK that maybe just a slightly damp cloth could get some of that off but then I could also see something dumb like all the dust deciding to clump together and leaving some even worse stain.

The only trick I know for books (not cardboard) was that several folks I know who worked at used college book stores used butane to get the sticky stuff from labels off the book without damage. I'm sure there's some risk there but that's what they did and it does work.

The only other trick I heard was for annoying things like silverfish and that was to make sure there's no metal (paperclips, etc) in the paper/book and microwave it for a very short period to kill the bugs.

Let us know what ya find.
 
The original PC-DOS 4.0 was pretty buggy. I think I still have a mess of CSDs for it that made it at least usable.

As far as cleaning it up, try Absorene, the old standby for conservators.
 
I knew MS/IBM Dos 4.00 was buggy. 4.01 sorted most of it out IIRC. Just curious that it had a routine that had the owner making backup disks. Neither DrDos nor MS Dos that I've used do this.

barythrin I gave it a squirt with some cleaning liquid and warm water. No worse but no better either. Not too worried about it really. Just wondering if some of the old hands had some usefull tips that's all ;). Absorene looks interesting.

The manuals are a wealth of info. The main reason I kept this set, as well as the fact it came on 3.5" diskettes.
 
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Well, both of the 4.00 install disks were write-protected (no write enable toggle). Does the install write anything to the install disks? If so, that would explain the backup. Otherwise, backing up wouldn't make much sense, as you couldn't write to the original disks anyway.

ISTR that PC-DOS 4.0 came out before the generic Microsoft version.
 
I was wrong. Read TFM. Turns out it's not backups. What the installation disk(labeled Install with the other labeled Shell) do is create install disks, either two 720k (labeled Startup and Install) or one 1.44meg (labeled Statrup) for hddless use. For hdd installation a disk labeled Select Copy is created and uses this disk along with the original Install disk.

Seems it IBM Dos 4.0 was available on 5 5.25" 360k disks too.
First implementation of Dos Shell wasn't it? "The Getting Started with Dos version 4.00" booklet gives a good rundown on how to use it. I guess for that reason alone they're a bit unique, if not really desirable ;)

The Machine Requirements reads like an IBM whos who of 80s computers.

The first screen shot is creating the first set, the second the Select Copy dialogue prior to going to a screen similar to the first shot.
 

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Interesting. I remember reading articles about DOS 4 being late, late, late (do I see a pattern?) and speculating about its capabilities, multitasking being the main thing. Then, of course, it was delivered, and it was buggy, and it didn't multitask or contain any of the other ambitious things that had been rumored.... I guess you could call it "Vista 88."

I had no idea that the DOS 4 of rumor actually came that close to production.

I used DOS 4 once, to win a bet. There was this guy who wasn't my boss, but always acted like it. He told me it was impossible to make a boot floppy that had both network and CD-ROM support. The problem was that he was using the DOS portion from Windows 95 or 98 and running out of disk space. DOS 5 and DOS 6 had smaller system files of course, but DOS 4 was smaller still, so I used it and that gave me just enough headroom to fit it all on there. I think it worked too.

Then I started showing off, zipping all the files up, then making autoexec.bat set up a ramdisk and unzip the file there and then do all the network setup. It worked a lot like Bart Lagerweij's modboot system over at nu2.nu, but without the slick menus, and you had to edit some files to get it to work with a different network card. Once I got it to that point, there was enough space on the disk to use Windows 98's DOS, or whatever other DOS you wanted, so there wasn't any reason to use DOS 4 anymore.
 
I recall reading about it, maybe in PC Week, but knew that MS had not plans for general release.

But then, there were DRI products that did the same thing already.
 
From what I can gather it was released, all be it limited, around April 1986. Two years prior to the later infamous one. Utilities in MS Dos 5 had major bugs as well. Chkdsk and undelete being the most memorable. I think that's why I decided to go the DrDos route originally.
 
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Mr Google led me here in a round about way via an old post about DOS 1.0. I have just resurrected my IBM PS/1 386 SX from the attic. It still boots up but the keyboard and mouse appear to be dead. I used a Dell keyboard and can access all the software on it. It came loaded with IBM DOS 4.00 and Windows 3.0. There is olso and IBM 3.5 Diskette... 2.0 MB capacity, labeled IBM DOS for PS/1 Version R4.01. I can boot from this floppy.
 
fjk61011 said:
Mr Google led me here in a round about way via an old post about DOS 1.0. I have just resurrected my IBM PS/1 386 SX from the attic. It still boots up but the keyboard and mouse appear to be dead. I used a Dell keyboard and can access all the software on it. It came loaded with IBM DOS 4.00 and Windows 3.0. There is olso and IBM 3.5 Diskette... 2.0 MB capacity, labeled IBM DOS for PS/1 Version R4.01. I can boot from this floppy.
Click to expand...
Good to see. By all accounts 4.01 sorted most of 4.00s issues.
 
Caluser2000 said:
Good to see. By all accounts 4.01 sorted most of 4.00s issues.
Click to expand...

Plenty of clone PC makers used MS-DOS 4.01, but others avoided it altogether. Tandy kept using their version of MS-DOS 3.3 for such a long time that they were still selling new machines with 3.3 in ROM after they had already begun using MS-DOS 5.0 on their higher-end models.
 
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