An odd question regarding XP and DOS

[Llorrac]

I know a person that while doing a full restore on a pc running XP, also installed DOS (6.0 I think) onto the computer (she made the DOS disk on a different machine, if that matters). Now the computer won't run.
I was just wondering if that is why it won't run and also why that is the problem. I was under the impression that DOS was integrated into all Windows OS, am I correct?
This is just to answer my curiosity, as the person thinks she can recover the computer from dos applications, as opposed to a new clean install.
Thanks.

[ZYFER]

Windows 2000 or XP have no kind of DOS support, only a slight emulation thereof, within the operating system, there are applications which will boot the pc before Windows loads, but these do not operate with the Windows operating system.

Windows 98 was the last OS with real-mode DOS support by default, you had to tweak WIndows ME for you to get it, both of these are not suggested to be used today for any newer pc, year 2000+

[stylin19]

You may get some clues here.....

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...e/meandxp.mspx

not much....good luck

[=Maverick=]

Originally Posted by Llorrac I know a person that while doing a full restore on a pc running XP, also installed DOS (6.0 I think) onto the computer (she made the DOS disk on a different machine, if that matters). Now the computer won't run. I was just wondering if that is why it won't run and also why that is the problem. I was under the impression that DOS was integrated into all Windows OS, am I correct? This is just to answer my curiosity, as the person thinks she can recover the computer from dos applications, as opposed to a new clean install. Thanks.

As Zyfer has alredy said, there is no DOS in XP. DOS is pretty much dead as an operating system and there no such "integration" as you say in XP (or any NT based operating system for that matter). The black CMD window you see in XP is purely an emulation shell that mimics DOS like commands. But trust, me XP does NOT run on DOS.

Your friend is completely clueless about what XP & DOS 6.1 is.

Originally Posted by Llorrac Now the computer won't run.

Does the PC boot up to the C:\ > prompt or not?

[ZYFER]

wait... also installed DOS... that would be very hard to do, since XP restore would make a NTFS parition or in many rare occasions a Fat32 parition, DOS only supports Fat16, to install DOS, one would have to wipe the partition with Windows XP on it and create a new one... you would have to be nuts to do that and not know what is going on.

[Llorrac]

Your friend is completely clueless about what XP & DOS 6.1 is.

That's what I keep telling her, but she's the kind of person who knows everything and won't be corrected.

you would have to be nuts to do that and not know what is going on.

That's the sum of it!

Thanks all for your replys. Based on what I've learned recently about DOS and XP from the replys and further research, my diagnosis was right, a full reinstallation of XP is needed. But my reasons were wrong, DOS didn't write over part of XP, it repartitioned the hard drive.
Well I guess this means I get to tell her "I told you so!"