bootable DOS file browser for FAT32

  • Thread starter Thread starter *a
  • Start date Start date
* (e-mail address removed) Wrote in alt.comp.freeware, on 11 Oct 2003 14:16:48 GMT:
On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 21:10:18 GMT, SINNER
<99nesorjd@gates_of_hell.INVALID> took a very strange color crayon and
scribbled:
Click to expand...
No it does NOT. I used Win3.1 for a long time and I should know! Fat32
came in with Windows 9x. (Win95, IIRC) DOS 6.22 predates Win9x.
Click to expand...

Incorrect. Go grab a dos 6.2 boot disk and run fdisk. You will be
prompted with the question regarding HD's over 512 megs, if you say yes,
you get fat32.

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
 
See the FileManger pages at <http://members.cox.net/dos/>
A section dedicated to FMs that can handle Long-File-Names (LFNs)
under Win9x <http://members.cox.net/dos/fileman.htm#fmwin9x>.
If some of the download/homepage links are broken on that site,
google <http://www.google.com> for the program name and/or author.

Create your own bootdisk and put the FM of your choice on it.
Click to expand...

My mistake, as others have already pointed out; Win9x DOS does not
support LFN natively from the dos-only command prompt - not even with
a LFN compatible File Manager for DOS as I assumed. LFN natively
supported only in DOS box under Windows 9x.
For a short explanation, see
<http://google.com/groups?&[email protected]>

Links to LFN emulators here: <http://sta.c64.org/lfnemu.html>.

All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen
 
Bjorn Simonsen said:
[...]
My mistake, as others have already pointed out; Win9x DOS does not
support LFN natively from the dos-only command prompt - not even with
a LFN compatible File Manager for DOS as I assumed. LFN natively
supported only in DOS box under Windows 9x.
For a short explanation, see
<http://google.com/groups?&[email protected]>

Links to LFN emulators here: <http://sta.c64.org/lfnemu.html>.
Click to expand...

There is a way to load the Windows LFN drivers without running
the whole GUI. It uses a very small amount of memory and leaves
a DOS prompt functionally equivalent to plain DOS. I've posted
it here before, but it's not too long so here it is again:

- Boot to a command prompt in plain DOS
- Change to your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory
- Rename KRNL386.EXE to KRNL386.SAV
- Do a DIR to be *sure* KRNL386 is renamed to .SAV - you do not
want to lose it!
- Copy COMMAND.COM to \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KRNL386.EXE
- At the prompt, enter the command WIN

WIN.COM will dutifully load all the drivers needed to start the
Win95/98 GUI, including the protected-mode file system (VFAT)
which supports LFNs. Then it will load the Windows kernel code,
KRNL386.EXE. But this is now just a copy of COMMAND.COM, so you
get a DOS prompt with full LFN support.

To reverse, simply copy KRNL386.SAV back to KRNL386.EXE and
reboot. I have simple batch files that automate this.

There is one minor problem with this process. The command prompt
you get does not have any of the environment (PATH and SET
commands) that was in place before loading the Windows drivers.
You'll need to copy these commands from autoexec.bat into a
separate batch file which you run to reload the environment.

Use at your own risk, your mileage may vary, etc. I do it
occasionally and have suffered no undesirable side effects, but
one never knows for sure with Windows and all the different
system configurations out there.

--
 
Thanks for all the suggestions...seems to be a lot of people willing to lend
a hand in this group. I have looked at a lot of the resources and I did
find some very good sites with some very useful apps. However, I did not
find a dos file browser with LFN capability when it is running in pure dos.

Maybe I should not limit the field to DOS. Would a boot disk for another OS
(like Linux) allow me to view, move and copy files on a win98 drive ?
 
*a said:
Thanks for all the suggestions...seems to be a lot of people willing to lend
a hand in this group. I have looked at a lot of the resources and I did
find some very good sites with some very useful apps. However, I did not
find a dos file browser with LFN capability when it is running in pure dos.

Maybe I should not limit the field to DOS. Would a boot disk for another OS
(like Linux) allow me to view, move and copy files on a win98 drive ?
Click to expand...

I suggest that first you need to make a "startup" disk (floppy) from
win98 or me. This will boot to a command line interface that will deal
with long file names. You can make such a boot disk from win98 or me
itself. XP will make one as well. Look up "Startup disk" in help.

Or go to http://www.bootdisk.com. You can download boot disks there
for various versions of windows. And get more info.

Once you have an underlying OS that recognizes the LFN's, I think you
will find browsers that show them.

Why don't you tell us what you really want to do? Why do you need a
DOS-mode LFN enabled browser? Is this a one-time thing to recover
files from a hard drive, or you need to do it all the time? Can you
make do with "dir" from the command line? Do you have other computers
available? Can you network the computer to some other computer and use
the browser there? Or move the hard drive to another computer? Etc.

Terry
 
Shakib Otaqui wrote in said:
There is a way to load the Windows LFN drivers without running
the whole GUI.
Click to expand...

Nice tip - thanks - must try it someday (mostly work with w2k now, but
do have win98 available - so when I get around to it... :)

All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen
 
*a wrote in said:
Would a boot disk for another OS
(like Linux) allow me to view, move and copy files on a win98 drive ?
Click to expand...

I think so yes, most (all?) Linux distros can mount FAT/FAT2
partitions. I would look for a ready to go bootdisk that auto-mounts
FAT/FAT32 volumes on boot, and comes with a good file manager - I
think "Midnight Commander" is such a beast (Norton Commander clone I
think).

I can not think of any particular disk/distro right now, but below are
some links to various you could look at to see if the qualify (some of
the links copied from recent posts in this group).

Hopefully someone here will have first hand experience with any of
these or similar - and can recommend one for the tasks at hand. But if
you can not find a CD or floppy linux bootdisk that auto-mounts FAT32
and offers a decent file manager to go, mounting FAT32 from the Linux
interface (CLI or GUI) should be pretty straightforward if you search
the linux how-to documentation for the mount command - or ask in a
linux group if you need help.

Trinity Rescue Kit <http://trinityhome.org/trk/>

Recovery Is Possible! <http://freshmeat.net/~robotti/>
<http://freshmeat.net/projects/recoveryispossible/>

BasicLinux
<http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/>

(Linux) Crash Recovery Kit
<http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html>
<http://crashrecovery.org/download.html> .

Phlak 0.1 <http://freshmeat.net/projects/phlak/>
<http://www.phlak.org/modules/news/>

TopologiLinux
<http://freshmeat.net/projects/topologilinux/>

BG-Rescue Linux
<http://freshmeat.net/projects/bgrescue/>

All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen
 
Maybe I should not limit the field to DOS. Would a boot disk for another OS
(like Linux) allow me to view, move and copy files on a win98 drive ?
Click to expand...

Knoppix boots from CD to a full GUI linux, with KDE etc. its nice.
the default boot mounts the partitions read only, though as its linux
im sure thats not too difficult to sort. i never tried the mount
command, just used the GUI, but id guess a command line mount with the
right syntax should do RWX.
what is a weed?
a really scrawny human.
marijuana.
a plant in the wrong place.
a judgement.
 
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