3

There is a desktop with Windows7 that has no CD-ROM. The FAT32 partition was created with 100Mb (Megabytes) of space. When computer starts, I would like to be able to boot in MS-DOS or so (no Windows, but to run old programs under MS-DOS).

Unfortunately, format /S command doesn't work as I'm in Windows7 64bit.

How to make it done without CD-ROM and without USB ports, but with Internet access?

Thank you.

Haradzieniec
  • 133
  • 4

1 Answers1

1

If you want to run a MS-DOS environment, you'll need access to actual MS-DOS setup files (most likely as floppy images); simply creating a bootable MS-DOS partition isn't enough, you'll have to actually install MS-DOS in it.

As a side note, I'd suggest using a virtual machine instead of trying to run MS-DOS on a modern computer; this has two main advantages:

  1. It's a lot simpler to setup.
  2. You don't need to reboot your computer to run MS-DOS, you'll simply start the VM and stop it when it's no longer needed.

However, even with a virtual machine, you'll still need an actual copy of MS-DOS (or any operating system you want to run) to install in it.

Massimo
  • 70,200
  • 57
  • 200
  • 323
  • Sorry for reasking. Could you please explain, what are the steps in my situation? Still not clear is it possible or not. I have an Internet. Thank you very much. – Haradzieniec May 18 '15 at 18:26
  • It can be done, but it's quite complex to make MS-DOS run on a recent computer; a virtual machine would be a lot simpler to configure and use. But you'd still need a MS-DOS copy. – Massimo May 18 '15 at 18:36
  • 2
    There's always FreeDOS, too, which should run virtually everything you might want. – Michael Hampton May 18 '15 at 19:13
  • There's also Dos Box. – Davidw May 18 '15 at 19:29
  • Virtual machine option doesn't work for me as I need to do some things for system disc C where Windows 7 is located (yes, that's NTFS) from my bootable HDD logical disc (yes, HDD, not USB or CD-ROM). – Haradzieniec May 19 '15 at 08:16
  • You can't access NTFS from MS-DOS... – Massimo May 19 '15 at 10:58