Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS

I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it
anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located?
The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was
located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and
the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the
PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical.
The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which
weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or
something which contained these commands?

Yousuf Khan

From: "Yousuf Khan" <>

> I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS,
> where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about
> MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with
> autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different
> names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical.
> The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into
> the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands?
>
> Yousuf Khan

It depended upon the DOS falvour; PC/MS/DR.

However it was always located in the PATH (%PATH%).


--
Dave
Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk
http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

David H. Lipman wrote:
> From: "Yousuf Khan" <>
>
>> I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS,
>> where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about
>> MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with
>> autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different
>> names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical.
>> The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into
>> the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands?
>>
>> Yousuf Khan
>
> It depended upon the DOS falvour; PC/MS/DR.
>
> However it was always located in the PATH (%PATH%).
>
>
I normally kept mine in the C:\DOS directory, and made sure both it and
C:\$PROGDIR for all the programs were in the path. As long as all the
program locations were in the path, it didn't really matter where they were.

On a Toshiba laptop I had with DOS 3.3 in ROM when first booted from
new, it showed all the DOS commands in C:\, with everything else on D:\,
which was the Hard Drive, and the path was set to include D:\ by
default. This worked fine until you found a program which was hard coded
only to run from the C: drive, then I had to copy the contents of the
ROM onto the HD, and disable the ROM in the BIOS, losing about half a
megabyte of the 10 megabyte HD. I've still got the Toshiba DOS 6.xx
extensions on floppy somewhere, along with install floppies for all
MS-DOS versions except DOS 4.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

"Yousuf Khan" <> wrote in message
news:4fc92b8c$...
> I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it
> anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located?
> The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was
> located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys,
> and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for
> the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise
> identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or
> xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS
> folder or something which contained these commands?
>
> Yousuf Khan

As I recall, the default location for MS-DOS (at least v. 5 and 6.x) was
at C:\DOS
--
Glen Ventura
MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009
CompTIA A+

On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 17:26:07 -0400, "glee" <>
wrote:

> "Yousuf Khan" <> wrote in message
> news:4fc92b8c$...
> > I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it
> > anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located?
> > The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was
> > located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys,
> > and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for
> > the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise
> > identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or
> > xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS
> > folder or something which contained these commands?
> >
> > Yousuf Khan
>
> As I recall, the default location for MS-DOS (at least v. 5 and 6.x) was
> at C:\DOS


That's what I remember too, but at my age, I don't trust my memory <g>

"Ken Blake" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 17:26:07 -0400, "glee" <>
> wrote:
>
>> "Yousuf Khan" <> wrote in message
>> news:4fc92b8c$...
>> > I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it
>> > anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands
>> > located?
>> > The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was
>> > located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys,
>> > and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names
>> > for
>> > the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise
>> > identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or
>> > xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS
>> > folder or something which contained these commands?
>> >
>> > Yousuf Khan
>>
>> As I recall, the default location for MS-DOS (at least v. 5 and 6.x)
>> was
>> at C:\DOS
>
>
> That's what I remember too, but at my age, I don't trust my memory <g>

yes, well with MS-DOS, you need less memory anyway... lol

On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 20:55:33 -0400, "glee" <>
wrote:

> "Ken Blake" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 17:26:07 -0400, "glee" <>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> "Yousuf Khan" <> wrote in message
> >> news:4fc92b8c$...
> >> > I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it
> >> > anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands
> >> > located?
> >> > The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was
> >> > located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys,
> >> > and the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names
> >> > for
> >> > the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise
> >> > identical. The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or
> >> > xcopy, which weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS
> >> > folder or something which contained these commands?
> >> >
> >> > Yousuf Khan
> >>
> >> As I recall, the default location for MS-DOS (at least v. 5 and 6.x)
> >> was
> >> at C:\DOS
> >
> >
> > That's what I remember too, but at my age, I don't trust my memory <g>
>
> yes, well with MS-DOS, you need less memory anyway... lol


LOL from me too. I'm in the minority, but I love puns.

On 01/06/2012 4:57 PM, David H. Lipman wrote:
> From: "Yousuf Khan"<>
>
>> I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it anymore. In MS-DOS,
>> where were the standard external commands located? The only thing I remember about
>> MS-DOS was that the command.com was located in the root directory (along with
>> autoexec.bat, config.sys, and the hidden files msdos.sys& io.sys). Slightly different
>> names for the PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys& ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical.
>> The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which weren't built into
>> the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or something which contained these commands?
>>
>> Yousuf Khan
>
> It depended upon the DOS falvour; PC/MS/DR.
>
> However it was always located in the PATH (%PATH%).

Yeah, I know it was always available in the path, but was there a
default directory created to hold these commands? For some reason I'm
thinking that there may have been a C:\SYS or SYSTEM folder or
something? Or were they all placed into C:\ the root directory?

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf Khan wrote:

> I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it
> anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located?
> The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was
> located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and
> the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the
> PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical.
> The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which
> weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or
> something which contained these commands?
>
> Yousuf Khan

See replies to the disconnected MULTI-posted copy of your same message
over in the alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt newsgroup.

What does hardware, especially chips, have to do with your question?
Don't shotgun to unrelated newsgroups which results in posting off-topic
within them. With all those cross-posted newsgroups, you didn't even
bother to include the *.msdos newsgroups in your query.

VanguardLH wrote:

> Yousuf Khan wrote:
>
>> I've been trying to remember this, and I honestly can't remember it
>> anymore. In MS-DOS, where were the standard external commands located?
>> The only thing I remember about MS-DOS was that the command.com was
>> located in the root directory (along with autoexec.bat, config.sys, and
>> the hidden files msdos.sys & io.sys). Slightly different names for the
>> PC-DOS version, such as pcdos.sys & ibmio.sys, but otherwise identical.
>> The standard external commands were those like chkdsk or xcopy, which
>> weren't built into the command.com. Was there an MSDOS folder or
>> something which contained these commands?
>>
>> Yousuf Khan
>
> See replies to the disconnected MULTI-posted copy of your same message
> over in the alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt newsgroup.
>
> What does hardware, especially chips, have to do with your question?
> Don't shotgun to unrelated newsgroups which results in posting off-topic
> within them. With all those cross-posted newsgroups, you didn't even
> bother to include the *.msdos newsgroups in your query.

Oops, I see the problem. You did cross-post to the
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt newsgroup. However, my reply there only
went to that newsgroup. Why? Because TomT changed the Newsgroups list
without issuing notice about his change. I didn't notice he changed the
Newsgroups list. So never mind about the comment about multi-posting
(except regarding the unrelated newsgroups and lack of including the
msdos newsgroups).

See my reply to TomT but only in the alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
newsgroup since that is the only newsgroup that TomT retained in his
Newsgroups list in his reply.

To TomT:
Whenever you change the Newsgroups list, add a comment about making that
change. It's considered netiquette to inform of changing this header.
Lack of notification is typical of troll-like behavior or could be a
mistake in use of your newsreader. If you change the Newsgroups list,
add a note saying which newsgroups you chose to omit in your reply at
the top of your reply post.