Microsoft KB Archive/75087

= 3.5-inch MS-DOS 5 Upgrade May Fail with Early DOS Versions =

Article ID: 75087

Article Last Modified on 11/16/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0a
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.2 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.21 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q75087



SUMMARY
When upgrading to MS-DOS 5.0 or later from DOS versions earlier than 3.2, installation from the 3.5-inch MS-DOS 5 Upgrade disks may fail.

Most MS-DOS and OEM DOS versions earlier than DOS 3.2 do not support 3.5- inch floppy drives and thus will not be able to correctly read all the files on 720K disks. When the Setup command is run from MS-DOS 5 Upgrade Disk 1 - Setup, the message &quot;bad command or file name&quot; will be displayed. When the DIR command is used on one of the MS-DOS 5 Upgrade disks, all the files will not be listed, or the filenames will displayed as garbage (extended ASCII characters).

For example, IBM PC-DOS versions 3.0 and 3.1 will provide the following information with the DIR command: Setup Disk    Files on Disk      Files Displayed --    -      ---   1               37                   5   2               28                   0   3               52                   27 Other OEM DOS versions may also exhibit the same behavior or display garbage.



MORE INFORMATION
To successfully install the MS-DOS 5 or later Upgrade, do one of the following:


 * Obtain the 5.25-inch MS-DOS 5 or 6 Upgrade disks if the computer system has a 5.25-inch floppy drive.
 * If another computer that is running DOS 3.2 (or later) with 1.2 MB and 3.5-inch floppy drives is available, and the current system has a 1.2 MB floppy drive, do the following:


 * Copy all files from each 3.5-inch MS-DOS 5 or 6 Upgrade floppy disk to three 5.25-inch 1.2 MB disks using the second computer.
 * Label the disks as Disk 1, Disk 2, and Disk 3 using the LABEL command. There should be six spaces between the word &quot;Disk&quot; and the number in the volume label (for example, Disk 1).
 * Run Setup from the 1.2 MB floppy drive on the first computer.
 * Start from a later DOS version that supports a 3.5-inch floppy drive, such as MS-DOS or PC-DOS versions 3.2 or later, and run Setup.

Additional query words: 6.22 3.00 3.20 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20

Keywords: KB75087

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