Bill D - history is great, and you can never discount what can be done with the "old stuff."

Believe it or not, I still very frequently resort to DOS - for those things you "jist cain't do" in Windows. In fact though, I think I'm about due for a "DOS training session" to catch up.

Through several versions of Windows, the "embedded DOS" has been something of a mystery. You knew it was "a little different flavor" than the old "numbered versions" but it was pretty hard to get any details - so I've been just using the old stuff that I already knew - when it was convenient.

In WinXP, you're not supposed to call it DOS. It's "Command Mode" now, but the help files actually have some useful information - and it looks like there's some very potent stuff there. "New" - and documented (well, sort of) - commands I hadn't heard of, or had forgotten. I'm gonna hafta start over - someday.

I kept a couple of old machines running just for the 5.25 drives for quite a while, but with infrequent use I found it very difficult to keep them (the drives) clean enough to work reliably. I also found that old 5.25 disks die all by themselves, and a whole lot of the ones I was keeping "in case I ever needed them" were - for all practical purposes - blank disks. This was despite careful storage in reasonably controlled environs.

I wonder if we'll ever have clubs for people who restore antique computers like the do antique autos. We could all take them for drive on Sundays(?)...

John