Operation Manual

Particularities of Operating System Function

117

• MSDOS.SYS (for MS-DOS 7.x/8.0)

• WINBOOT.INI (alternative MSDOS.SYS)

• CONFIG.SYS (for all DOS versions)

• AUTOEXEC.BAT (for all DOS versions)

B.1.4 Limitations

Different DOS versions have the following limitations:

• Only MS-DOS 7.1/8.0 supports FAT32 along with the FAT16 file system

• Only MS-DOS 7.1/8.0 supports extended BIOS and hard disks larger than 8 GB

– but only with FAT16 LBA, FAT32 LBA and EXTENDED LBA partitions. This

can cause conflicts with other DOS versions that are installed on the same

computer

• For MS-DOS, the boot partition should be the partition to which drive letter C:

is assigned; otherwise the operating system’s booting will not finish

• MS-DOS and PC-DOS have trouble accessing multiple primary partitions if the

hard disk contains logical partitions that were not recognized by DOS

Due to the limitation of boot code in most DOS–like operatin

systems, their boot

partitions should be located in the first 2 gigabytes of a hard disk.

B.2 Windows 95/98/Me

Under Windows 95/98/Me, booting always starts with MS-DOS, thus everything

concerning MS-DOS 7.x/8.0 booting applies to Windows 95/98/Me as well.

B.2.1 Supported Versions

Acronis Disk Director Suite supports Windows 95 and Windows 95OSR2/98/Me

and can detect their language version.

B.2.2 Booting Details and Limitations

Windows booting starts when MS-DOS executes the WIN.COM file. This program

loads the Windows kernel that loads drivers, arranges memory allocation and

starts the shell program (EXPLORER.EXE).

Drivers that were loaded rescan the partition structure and assign letters to

partitions that were not visible from MS-DOS.

There are several differences between Windows 95/98/Me versions:

• Windows 95 contains MS-DOS 7.0, does not support FAT32 and due to

MS-DOS 7.0 limitations, it cannot be booted from partitions that are located

beyond the 1024th cylinder

• Windows 95 OSR2/98 contains MS-DOS 7.1 and supports FAT32