中国DOS联盟

Impressions of Trying ROM-DOS 7.1
ROM-DOS 7.1 is obviously designed to be as compatible as possible with the same version number of MS-DOS 7.1 (that is, the DOS of WIN95OS2/WIN98/WIN98SE). It also supports FAT32, etc., so it has very good compatibility with MSDOS 7.1. Not only external commands, but also memory management programs, etc., can be used interchangeably. Third-party software such as UCDOS works normally on ROM-DOS. Once I tried to boot ROM-DOS 7.1 from a floppy disk and then tried to start the installation program of WIN98SE to start the installation, of course, it didn't continue.
The ROM-DOS 7.1 I got is from Wengier's website, and there is only a boot floppy disk image. In addition to a few core files, there are only a few external commands such as himem.sys and ATTRIB,SYS. Fortunately, ROM-DOS 7.1 can directly use most of the external commands of MSDOS 7.1, so the missing external commands can be "borrowed" from WIN98. You know that MSDOS is the least friendly to compatibility, and its external commands are most likely to act up, often giving you a "Incorrect DOS version" and refusing to work.
The core files of ROM-DOS 7.1 adopt the PCDOS naming method copyrighted by IBM. It is estimated that there is a certain cooperation relationship with IBM, and its high compatibility may be related to this.
The startup of ROM-DOS 7.1 is faster than that of MS-DOS, and the core files are also much less than those of MS-DOS. There is a relatively large advantage in making a tool floppy disk. However, FINDRAMD.EXE in the WIN98 startup disk that is responsible for finding the virtual disk just won't work in ROM-DOS, which to a certain extent offsets the advantage of ROM-DOS.
I searched for ROM-DOS on google and found that it is also used in China. It is really made in ROM and applied to industrial computers. On industrial computers that require stability and efficiency, the unstable WINDOWS has little room to stand, and it is exactly the territory where DOS can avoid the oppression of WINDOWS and make a great show.

In fact, that FINDRAMD is not useful either. A better way to query memory drives, such as XSET, can be used.

Moreover, I found that the so-called "Find Virtual Disk" function of FINDRAMD does not actually go to find the memory virtual disk, but starts from drive A and goes until drive Z, checking which drive has the volume label "MS-RAMDRIVE", and if so, the search is completed. Therefore, if the volume label of the memory disk is not "MS-RAMDRIVE", FINDRAMD cannot find it; if the volume label of other disks (such as a drive of the hard disk) is "MS-RAMDRIVE", it will also treat it as a memory disk. So the result of FINDRAMD is not accurate.

Yeah, I'm really worried about this matter. Then I'll look for XSET.

Where can I download ROM-DOS7.1?

The ROM-DOS boot disk here:
http://newdos.yginfo.net/dosware/rdos71bd.zip

Dare you guys using any system to go online? Could it be DOS?

Also please ask the webmaster Wengier for help. The post is at http://www2.zzu.edu.cn/ie/newdos/dispbbs.asp?boardID=3&ID=668

Where is XSET? Is there a download? Please let me know if anyone knows! Thank you!

Just use the FINDRAMD command mentioned by baobolz, and it has now been added to the ROM-DOS boot disk.

I also found that the FORMAT from WIN98 can be used under ROM-DOS, but the /S parameter cannot be added. Only after FORMAT, use SYS to transfer the system.
And indeed, ROM-DOS is not as stable as MS-DOS. Today, I hung up when I booted a computer with the ROM-DOS system disk (booted from the CD), so I had to go back to MS-DOS.

How does it "hang" during startup? ROM-DOS may not be as stable as MS-DOS on some bad hard drives, but it is definitely more stable than MS-DOS in terms of the "logical lock" problem of the hard drive.

It hangs when booting halfway (after loading the virtual disk), of course, it may be a conflict problem between the hardware of that computer and other software. The hard disk of that computer is fine, but I don't know the chip model of the sound card. I want to boot into DOS and use HWINFO.

That's not a problem with ROM-DOS itself. Try using XMSDSK, it should be fine.

Experts all: I use Windows 2000 and XP systems. How to back up and restore the registry under DOS? I can't see Scanreg.exe in the boot disks of 98 and ME. Is it an internal command of 9X? Thanks for the answer.