Hey Kodo you awake yet?

Mornin Sir,

Do you know any older dos programming?

Our old dos crapped out today and I need to replace some files and forgot how to get into the area I need to re-install them, any ideas?

 

I don't do dos. I wish it would die..

 

How about xtgold or data ease?

 

never heard of them.

 

*chuckles*

 

The companies system is an older dos running 386 machines. Every now and again when printing job tickets there must be a conflict and the autoexec.bat and config sys get corrupted.

That then locks everyone out of the server and system software. Typically all I have to do is overwrite those two files with copies I have saved on zip.

When this happened a half year ago all I did was talk to the computer guy who set this up some 15 -20 years ago. He walked me through re-installing using a program called xtgold.

Well, I found using third party software more confusing than just going into dos,
but do not know the commands to achieve the desired results. Not wanting to make it worse, as in rubics cube, I won't experiment with the company computer. Boss got impatient and with good reason and we took it to the place the machines were bought (20 or so years ago) and the tech took care of it right away while I observed and coached so to speak.


It's not really my company, I just stay there and hang out a bunch. I'm not on the payroll or anything but like to help out whenever I can.

I would like to see them update to newer technology, but haven't found a painless way to do so without disrupting business.

Anyway in summary all it takes is to do a copy autoexec.bat c: or something like that, I just don't have the exact syntax etc.
I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a written procedure for the offcice manager, so they can do it on the spot by themselves. I now also have the autoexec.bat and config.sys files on 3.5 floppy for easy extraction., but still don't know the correct commands to acieve the overwrite of corupt files.

At the present time I'm more concerned about learning html and java for web design and repair (changes etc)

 

I'm surprised that company is still in business. Relying on technology that old is a disaster waiting to happen. The longer you wait,the harder it will be to transition.

 

Huh - yea but Kodo as I'm sure you are aware many businesses adopt a strategy of if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Ok, so this company does need to fix something and it sounds like the manager has had an attempt at addressing the situation - and I would agree it's time to start looking at a new computer solution... but I doubt this portion of the company's IT infrastructure is integral to their operation if they are running crappy old 386's and could afford the downtime from the previous failure...
As the infamous Millenium Bug shows these problems can be known about in advance and still only worried about being fixed at the 11th hour.

To mag00 it sounds like a simple batch file will fix your problems. You can do this at home on your own PC with test files (I repeate TEST files) until you are happy it works and can shift it across to a live system...
It looks to me like:
a) the autoxec.bat (and other files?) are being corrupted regularly.
b) you have backup good copies (excellent - make sure you have a couple of these!)
c) you know what you need to do.

Your batch file is going to need to
- delete the corrupt copy
- copy a good version to the root directory on the c drive.

So first of all on the local system create a directory on the C drive called repair or something - trying to emulate the command prompt below...
C:\> cd \
C:\> md repair

copy the good version of the autoexec.bat file here and any other file that is prone to corruption that you intend to repair with this procedure.

eg:
C:\> cd \repair
C:\repair> copy a:\autoexec.bat c:\repair\autoexec.bat
C:\repair> dir
(the last command just to double check its copied and there - sanity checks are useful!)

Now keep the floppy with the backup - that is vital. Store this in a safe place - remember its a floppy disk so not next to a great big magnet

Now you are set to create the batch file. In notepad add something like the following:

del c:\autoexec.bat
copy c:\repair\autoexec.bat c:\autoexec.bat

You will need to repeat a similar process for any other files you want to repair - eg config.sys or whatever! I have also used absolute path names that point explicitly to the files - this means it shouldn't matter where this batch file is run from.

I would probably be tempted to save a copy of this batch file onto the root of the C drive, into the repair directory, and onto the floppy disk. Lets say you save it as fixme.bat.

Next time it screws up from the DOS prompt type
C:\>cd \
C:\>fixme

hopefully that should sort you out some and if not be a step in the right direction - the principles of what Im saying will remain the same - we just may have to hammer out the syntax a little more... no biggie.

Let us know how you get on and good luck!

 

Thanks QS, this really all sounds to simple almost. I thought a batch file was something so complicated I couldn't possibly understand it. So, then, what exactly would the auto.exec.bat be? A batch file?

Let's say I want to look into this file to see what it does, how would I do that. I have it on 3.5, can I open and edit it on my windows 98 machine? (the autoexec.bat)

I'm just courious, as the computer tech who set it up does an awfull lot of complaining when it comes to creating batch files, like the world was going to end and such.

So now I'm thinking of going after the "hotfax" software that no longer works. Beauty is that they have most all of the original software, somewhere, and all the manuals.

If I can sort through enough, maybe I can upgrade them to a better network system. The network system I guess is what is really making it difficult to make the transition to newer machines.

 

I have been there many times and every time I lead those kinds of departments and map what can happen if it DID break.. they let me fix it In my honest opinion, if you're still using DOS programs, the system is broken because there are applications / environments vastly superior by many generations ; enough to qualify as a valid path. Software does not need to be "broken".. business logic could suffer too and that is broken enough.

 

I agree with what you say there Kodo for certain circumstances... I just don't think that it is applicable to ALL circumstances a business may be in...
If it were the nature of my work to consider upgrade paths for customers and I came across someone driving their network from DOS I would be horrified believe me... but quite often, especially with legacy equipment/setups an upgrade isn't a viable option - at all.
My old man's work is connected to the pharmaceutical industry and he routinley checks equipment, that is large pieces of hardware that do specialist jobs that are tens of years old. These pieces of equipment are quite often built to last many decades and there aren't pieces of equipment on the market for whatever reason that do the same job. Often-times this equipment is driven by DOS applications that simply will not run on later platforms...

My point is that, as you say, businesses should not be running an IT infrastructure with DOS as a cornerstone. Absolutely not. I would not contend that at all (though using Windows as a choice I possibly would ) but what I do disagree with is whether DOS has its place. Ok as far as command line driven OS' go its pretty terrible - but I would say it has definitely fallen into the legacy category. There will always be applications that can only run on a certain version of DOS - and for some companies the purpose of these applications is so specialist, obscure, (and hopefully not at the forefront of their IT array) that running them is the only option. Sometiems upgrading is not worth the cost/time/business interruption for the results it will yield...

 

Mag00, batch files are nothing more than a series of commands which could be run at the command line. The simplest batch files like the one we did earlier in this thread consist of a few DOS commands but Im sure there is a load more which I have no idea about... personally I prefer the UNIX platforms for command line work - so much more flexibility and functionality at your fingertips... anyhoo I digress.
To answer your question, the autoexec.bat file is just a regular batch file that is run at startup automatically. So take a copy of one of your backups (best not to mess with them just yet ) and load it up on your ocmputer at home in Notepad and see what it does... You'll probably see it invoking a few programs, maybe with a few parameters set... if you have all the manuals like you think you may do then you can see exactly what those parameters are doing...

Maybe not a good idea to play with the live version, but with the manuals, detailed knowledge of what the system is already doing, and an idea of how it can be modernised... well thats a good step towards working out how to upgrade it...

 

Kodo, I agree, the new generation stuff is far superior. Doing the transition, should be doable as far as hardware is concerned, nothing special here.


In the day, he had custome software developed to do the sign business. At least that is what I keep hearing. Doesn't seem that special by todays standards.

The biggest hurdle is transferring the current data to new software.The other day I saw on google that Data Ease has a new version. I must research and see if it is compatable with the older version and window platforms. If it is it may not be that big of a deal to upgrade.