# Getting DOS to recognise SATA HDDs



## Aviator19 (Dec 9, 2006)

Hello, Does anyone still know how to use DOS? I haven't really played with it that much in over 10 years. Now all I just remember are simple directory navigation, copy, and FTP commands.

I tryed making a boot up disk from Windows XP, but in the autoexec and config files there is nothing. I remember seing a long list of commands in these files, which configures the CDROM and other devices.

I would like to learn more about it again since I still have and use some old computers but specifically, I need to see if I can access a SATA Hard drive via DOS. It's the only other method I can think of at the time for trying to access the hard drive since Windows install program and a different PC when plugged into, reveals the same error message.

I posted more about it at:


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http://www.techsupportforum.com/f16/solved-hard-drive-failure-corruption-or-something-264530.html
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Thanks.


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## wmorri (May 29, 2008)

DOS was a wonderful OS but it is pretty outdated at this point in time. I would recommend that you take a look at something like FreeBSD, or one of the other Unix core OS's. They can all be run from command line similar to DOS but with many more commands. Also, you can install a gui to have it run from. 

I am not sure what this has to do with the other post other than you are trying to access the data from the other hdd. But, I would recommend FreeBSD, if I was going to learn or relearn an OS.

Cheers!


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## blah789 (Aug 25, 2008)

Since you want to re-learn DOS, may I suggest using a Virtual Machine? (unless you have an old PC that still works; rather trouble-some to maintain IMHO)

I didn't try it with DOS, but VirtualBox from Sun MicroSystems specifically supports DOS, so you can try that.
I was able to install DOS on Microsoft Virtual PC using some DOS floppies, but had some trouble using Windows 3.1. If you're only going to use the DOS command-line that should work though.
Finally the mother of all virtual machines: VMWare. Can't recall if it's pay or not, but that's another option.

You can also try some DOS alternatives. FreeDOS and FreeDOS32. They have limited support for newer hardware, but are better suited than MS-DOS since they're newer.

One more I'd like toss in there: DOSBox is very popular with vintage gamers. You can even install Windows 3.1 on it. However I don't think it supports the whole set of DOS commands - it's mostly geared towards getting old DOS games to run. There's a similar, program for Linux called DOSEMU (DOSBox also works on Linux), a tad faster than DOSBox, because it uses certain optimizations (compatibility layer? hardware virtualization? i got lost in the mumbo-jumbo).

Have fun!


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