dos inside Windows 98

[mike12]

The hard drive died in a friends older computer. He got a used small hard drive and I installed it in his Pentium I computer. I formatted the HDD and loaded Windows 98 2nd. edition without any problems. Then he wanted to load an old DOS program. I couldn't load it from Start / Run etc, so I had the computer restart in DOS mode. When it loaded, I saw the usual "C" Prompt etc, but the rest of the screen was filled with letters and symbols. What is that all about, and can I fix it ? Many thanks, Mike

[GaryRouth]

You mention that the screen filled with gibberish after "it loaded" - do you mean 1) when you 1st restarted the computer in MS-DOS mode, or 2) when you 1st started the DOS program in MS-DOS mode?

If it's 1) ---how exactly did you try the Start/Run load of the DOS program? Did you try the run the setup.exe or install.exe or perhaps install.bat for the DOS program? Or did you just try to run the game's executable ("gamename".exe)? If you tried to run the installer from the Windows prompt & it started a few things, it may have altered some files for your regular DOS mode setup. Check to see if the installer copied the older system files with a .old or .bak or ."gameabbreviation" extension. Rename the older versions to their original extensions (rename the non-working versions to anything you'd like - you can delete them later if all is well)

If instead it's 2) ---some older DOS programs need a particular version of DOS. What DOS program is it? The DOS version in Win98se is DOS 7.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[mike12]

I first put the floppy in drive "A" and hit Start / Run/ and then typed A:/install (which is what was written on the floppy) and then hit OK. Windows added (.exe) to what I typed but could not find (install.exe) on the floppy.
I then had the computer restart in DOS mode. That is when I saw the usual C promt, but the rest of the screen was filled with letters and numbers. I had formatted the HDD beforre I loaded Windows 98 2nd. edition for him.
The program I was trying to load for him was an old Quattro Pro version #4 program. He refused to learn Excel, and just wants to play with the old programs he used to use when he was working.
Going away for the weekend, will check back Monday or Tuesday.