Yeah, as you noticed - Compaq Dos is a bit slower. On my V20 i have had the same issue with DR-DOS and Compaq DOS, especially at stuff like the DIR command you could literally read every line while it was slowly scrolling down while in MS-DOS it was too fast to read. Compared to MS-DOS 3 the compaq DOS was pretty much 100% compatible and as you noticed has FAT16 support (For HDD larger than 32 MB) whichw as nice back in the days, But MS-DOS 5 would have been my choice. The V20 is much faster than an Intel 8088, so the processor is actually pretty nice.

MS-DOS 4 was short lived since it had loads of bugs and compatibility problems. So pretty much noone sane would recommend using MS-DOS 4.

when I finish my 8086 it will have ibm dos 5.01 ^.^ Personally I think 5.0 was the best dos, has every feature you could want, before it started getting bloated with version 6.

Robin4 wrote:

- When using the `dir` command it doesnt show me the actually directory (then often you dont know in which directory iam sitting in.) (dont like it if iam using this OS often)

Try adding PROMPT $P$G on your autoexec.bat file and check again.

Even though DOS 5 was a big leap over DOS 3.3, I passed over it. I went from 3.3 to the little known 4.01 and used that until DOS 6 came out.

My first PC came with DOS 4.01 and I used that until DOS 6 also. 😀

DOS 4.x is pretty uncommon. Most OEMs stayed with 3.3 since 4.0 was found to be very buggy. Accessing UMBs on a XT usually require additional hardware or chipset support. I wouldn't be surprised if the SCA hard drive isn't being detected due to a hardware issue, not a software one. Wide SCSI (16bit) drives are very picky about adapters when used on narrow (8bit) SCSI buses.

Markk wrote:

Robin4 wrote:

- When using the `dir` command it doesnt show me the actually directory (then often you dont know in which directory iam sitting in.) (dont like it if iam using this OS often)

Try adding PROMPT $P$G on your autoexec.bat file and check again.

Ok, thats one solution.. I think it should work for that compaq dos 3.31..

NJRoadfan wrote:

DOS 4.x is pretty uncommon. Most OEMs stayed with 3.3 since 4.0 was found to be very buggy. Accessing UMBs on a XT usually require additional hardware or chipset support. I wouldn't be surprised if the SCA hard drive isn't being detected due to a hardware issue, not a software one. Wide SCSI (16bit) drives are very picky about adapters when used on narrow (8bit) SCSI buses.

That could be the problem, that is SCSI controller relayted.

So nobody from your dont using an older MS-DOS then version 5.0?

sliderider wrote:

Even though DOS 5 was a big leap over DOS 3.3, I passed over it. I went from 3.3 to the little known 4.01 and used that until DOS 6 came out.

I mean for my vintage build for now, not then in 1989..

luckybob wrote:

when I finish my 8086 it will have ibm dos 5.01 ^.^ Personally I think 5.0 was the best dos, has every feature you could want, before it started getting bloated with version 6.

Ok thanks for the input.. Should it faster then compaq dos 3.31?

fronzel wrote:

Yeah, as you noticed - Compaq Dos is a bit slower. On my V20 i have had the same issue with DR-DOS and Compaq DOS, especially at stuff like the DIR command you could literally read every line while it was slowly scrolling down while in MS-DOS it was too fast to read. Compared to MS-DOS 3 the compaq DOS was pretty much 100% compatible and as you noticed has FAT16 support (For HDD larger than 32 MB) whichw as nice back in the days, But MS-DOS 5 would have been my choice. The V20 is much faster than an Intel 8088, so the processor is actually pretty nice.

MS-DOS 4 was short lived since it had loads of bugs and compatibility problems. So pretty much noone sane would recommend using MS-DOS 4.

With tekst scrolling down isnt a big problem for me..

But when i using DIR command on a very big harddisk it takes very long to allocate the drives information.. Should this go faster with dos 5.0?

I think to going to try it on my NEC V20 computer.
I think i wont going to regret it.. But first try it and will see.