# DOS to Windows 3.11



## promwall (Jul 21, 2002)

I have a 10 year old Packard Bell in my teenaged son's room that he "messes around" with and he sure has! Over the years it has evolved that when we rebooted we got the DOS screen, typed in "win" and went to Windows 3.11. Now, when we try that we get the "bad command or file" message. Any suggestions on how we can access the Windows operating system again? Thanks.


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## Yankee Rose (Jul 14, 1999)

Hi there - Welcome to the site!

Your win.com file may have become corrupted. Try running a scandisk from your C:\>. At the prompt, type SCANDISK then hit enter.

Hope that helps.


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## promwall (Jul 21, 2002)

Thanks, Jody. I guess I should have mentioned that I already tried Scandisk and it didn't report any problems or fix the Windows command. I thought about restoring the original configuration by using the recovery disk but I don't have the master CD and the CD-ROM is disabled anyway. The floppy that did come with the CD Master disk gave me the option of trying Scandisk, which is what I did. Any other ideas?...I hope.
Peter


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## MacFromOK (Mar 19, 2001)

_______________________________________________
You might try this command (exactly as shown):

set path=c:\dos;c:\windows;c:\windows\system;c:

and press ENTER.

This will allow command.com to look in all these
places when you type in a command (the path
should be set in your autoexec.bat file).

Then try your *win* command and press ENTER.

Cheers, Mac


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## promwall (Jul 21, 2002)

Thanks for the effort, Mac. Unfortunately, I'm getting the same response from my computer. I tried your suggestion four times to make sure I got it exactly but no luck.
Thanks again.
Peter


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## cybertech (Apr 16, 2002)

promwall, 
Do you still have a windows directory?


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## Lurker1 (Jan 30, 2001)

Hi promwall

You can check to see if you still have win.com on your computer with the following command run from the root C:> prompt.
dir win.com /s

If win.com doesn't show then you will need to get a copy of it and save it in the windows directory. If there is no windows directory you will probably need to reinstall windows with the 5 or 6 floppy disks that windows 3.11 comes on. BOL


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## promwall (Jul 21, 2002)

Thanks, Cybertech and Lurker. I did check for the Windows directory following Lurker's directions. It came up "No path found". That means I don't have it right? I have to buy Windows 3.1 and install it, right? I liked the suggestion to re-install from the back up disks I made in 1994 but after three moves those things are long gone. Thanks again for trying to help me.


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## MacFromOK (Mar 19, 2001)

_______________________________________________
Lurker's suggestion only looks for the "win.com"
file. To see if you have a "WINDOWS" directory,
type:

*cd\*

and press ENTER.

then type:

*dir/p*

and press ENTER.

The "cd\" puts you at the root of drive C, and the
"dir/p" will show a list of directories and files there.
Directories will also show "&ltDIR>", and one of
these should be "WINDOWS".

If there's more than a screen full of listings, the "/p"
switch shows them one page at a time, and prompts
you to "hit any key to continue...".

Cheers, Mac


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## promwall (Jul 21, 2002)

Thanks, Mac. I followed your instructions and this is what the screen says:

Directory of C:/

COMMAND COM
DOS 
AUTOEXEC BAT
CONFIG SYS
4 File(s)

Peter


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## MacFromOK (Mar 19, 2001)

_______________________________________________

Well, apparently Windows and all other programs
are history. You barely have enough stuff left to boot
and run the computer.

You might try this command:

*unformat c:*

and press ENTER. If prompted for a response, agree
with whatever the computer asks you to do. At this
point you don't have much choice... 

Cheers, Mac


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## Lurker1 (Jan 30, 2001)

Hi Promwell

Well its worth a shot using Macs command but I kind of doubt if it will work. You still have an autoexec.bat and config.sys file which would be gone if the drive had been formatted. You might try an undelete command. If this command is still availabe you would need to know the first letter of each filename. Probably your best bet is to buy windows 3.1 and install it fresh.

There is some advice about buying windows 3.1 here.
http://forums.techguy.org/t86954/sa31fc36eb83373c310b24804841d3925.html


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## MacFromOK (Mar 19, 2001)

_______________________________________________
Hey Lurker,

The *unformat* command can also restore some
other stuff (such as a corrupted partition table)
even if the "format" command hasn't been used. I
agree that chances of success are slim though...

Cheers, Mac


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## Lurker1 (Jan 30, 2001)

Hi Mac
Thanks for the information. Thats one DOS command I have never used. I just looked it up in my DOS 5 book and it looks interesting. But I also wanted to point out that if the partition table is bad, scandisk should have found and fixed it. I have even seen scandisk copy the second fat table over to a corrupted first fat table to fix it. I will have to try your unformat command on a formatted drive sometime. I wonder if it would work on a 98 system?


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## promwall (Jul 21, 2002)

Wow! Thank you both for trying so hard to help me. It is really nice of you. I tried the unformat command and the search couldn't find the MIRROR file. I'll put it to rest for awhile and try to find a cheap copy of Windows 3.1. Thanks again!


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## promwall (Jul 21, 2002)

O.K., Mac & Lurker.
The *unformat c* command restored 26 subdirectories named subdirectory 1, subdirectory 2, etc. While I was watching I saw a lot of files being put back in "truncated" form. How do I check to see if any of these "subdirectories" is Windows?
Thanks again.
Peter


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## MacFromOK (Mar 19, 2001)

Well, it don't look too good at this point... 










Cheers, Mac


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## MacFromOK (Mar 19, 2001)

________________________________________________
There's one more thing you might try...

Use the command Lurker suggested earlier:

*cd\*

and press ENTER.

*dir/s win.com*

and press ENTER.

If it finds the file, rename the directory it's found
in to WINDOWS like this (don't use parenthesis):

*move (directory found in) C:\WINDOWS*

Good luck, Mac


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## promwall (Jul 21, 2002)

Mac. When I turn on the computer now it doesn't get past the "Starting MS-DOS" message.
Peter


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## MacFromOK (Mar 19, 2001)

______________________________________________
Well, sounds like the last paragraph of the DOS
help file (JPG pic) I posted applies in your case:

"In these cases, your only recourse is to restore
the files from your original floppy disks or backup
files."

Check your PM messages.

Cheers, Mac


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## promwall (Jul 21, 2002)

O.K. Thanks again.


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