The “Para Dos Park project” is here

 Dos is never dead, it just go’s dormant from time to time. It is a good chance that  you can run many of your old favorite DOS files on the computer that you are using now . Run Dos-1, to Dos-7, Freedos and more. The "Para Dos Park” kits makes it possible. (called “PDP” for short) Coupled with the new “Flopper 2” program you can run and boot non-dos programs like Micro_Dos, the “Dinkit Project”. Also by adding emulator(s) you can run “TRS-DOS” ,”New_Dos” ”L_dos” “Apple Dos”  and many more. Some very old games can be make to run out of PDP.
Most of today computers do not have a floppy drives. So the answer is to use a  CD ROM drive for the boot disk and a USB memory pin stick for the hard drive. The CD ROM drive can be made look like a bootable A: drive. The A drive then can jump start the USB memory pin stick . ( E drive  harddrive)
PDP is moving to a new home.

A plug and play version of “Para Dos Park” has been put together into a single CD.   Easy to use.  No build or assembling necessary. Take a look see at http://paradospark.com

What you will need to build PDP.

1. Your  computer can be most any PC type computer using windows  95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. The main idea to get as many computers to run older software as we can.
2. Must have at least 1 usb port ver 2.0 is ok. ( USB ver01 is to slow and fails to many thing.) Not all of the 5 USB drivers that I use can handle USB ver 1.0 and I am told that some USB memory pin sticks don’t like USB ver1.0.   Add on PCI card with USB ports may work,  as long as one of the 5 USB drivers that is included with the PDP kit  will except the add on card.
3. A standard IDE a read/write CD ROM drive.
4. A Windows read/writer program for the CD-ROM drive. (I am using roxio ver 6)
5. A memory USB memory pin stick(s). any size (I am using a 1 gig cruzer drive.)
6. The "PDP CD ROM” kit below.
7. Some kind of windows unzip program.
8. A CD-RW disk or several CD-R disks

Pre-check for your USB memory pin stick(s). This Pre-check should not be here, but USB memory pin stick(s) are not all the same. While in windows format the USB memory pin stick  that you have selected for the PSP project. Open mycomputer,  right click on the removable drive Icon. Select the format option.
Setup up the fallowing paramenters.
       Capasity                (do not change)
       File system             FAT
       Alication unit size   Default alacation size
       Volume label          ParaDdosParkk
       Format option         Quick format
If the format falls use a different pin stick. A copy or link to the HP. formatter will be included in PDP. I am told this works with all most all “pin stick”. The “pin stick” is read for “PDP”, now do the CD below

The “Para Dos Park” CD ROM kit . How to.

Basic steps to setup the “PDP kit”

1. Build a basic bare bones bootable CD boot disk. Run and test it. To make sure that your computer is setup correctly.
2. Add drivers (5-7 driver files) to link up the USB memory  pin drive(S) and CD ROM(S).
3. Start adding DOS files to the USB memory pin stick (PDP runs off of the USB pin stick)
At this time there is no quick build for the bootable CD disk because of the many difference device drivers out there. (no one single standard device driver that works all CD ROM drive)  But we are working on selecting the best of one or two drivers. A (best of) Pre built read to go bootable CD  with drivers and assistance to help you is available for $19.00. To inquire, send me an E-mail at
 SOS@Micro-Dos.com There is no obligation to inquire.
For now, you get to build one out of windows. It is free.
 

note: This basic setup as explained below can also be used for Many other projects that needs a bootable CD
note:  Your hard drive is not used while the "Para Dos Park" project is running off of your USB Memory Pin Stick.  The hard drive is only used to do the downloads and the building of the boot image file for the CD disk.

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 Making the image file for the bootable CD.

 We will Start by making a 1440k bootable image file. We use this  image file to create bootable CD ROM or a bootable Floppy disk, or a bootable USB memory pin stick. (Thumb drive) To keep things less complicated we are only go to explain the setup for the CD ROM disk. Because  this is the most common  method. (doing bootable Floppy disk and bootable USB memory  pin stick will be add as soon as we can get to it)
We are going to something special, build a bootable 1440k image file with out the use of the floppy drive. This step can be a little tricky and is  the most difficult task.  As things change and get more standard, this special build will not be necessary. You should be able to do this step If you are one that tinker around a little with computers. This step is not so technical as it is different that using a mouse. I think that the is a good place as any to get use to changes as this project is vary much about changes. As you know Dos tends to be mouse shy. How ever many new Dos programs do use the mouse.
 (At some point we will have a master bootable image file so the you will not have to build one. )
 Start by Reading these instructions carefully and I think you will do O.K.. You will do the building of the 1440k image file in  windows. This build is a one time thing once you get it  working, there will be very little changes if any.

Download PDP and create the Image file

setup_1.   Go to the download page and download "pdp cdrom_kit.zip" and place it into a folder called “para_dos”. Then unzip the kit in the para_dos folder. Go to the “SETUP_1”  folder and unzip the rramdisk.zip file in to the “SETUP_1” folder. Right click on the ramdisk.exe Icon select create short cut. Then drag the short cut off on to the desk top and where ever you can find it easily.  Double click on the short cut Icon to open it. A box appears with most everything gray out. Click the install button to install.
1. Setup up the following parameters.
       Disksize(bytes) to 1440k.
       Drive letter to          R:
       Media type             Ram dive
       click apply to initialize the ram drive wait for the initialization to take hold.
     Soon a box will popup with a message “ramdisk   success”
       Click the OK box. Finally click the X to close.

2. Now Double click MYcomputer icon. You should see an icon called
 RanDisk (R:). Double click to open it. you will see a temp folder. Delete the temp folder. The ramdisk  will show to be completely empty. (zero bytes used) Not so. There are hidden files and structures in the ramdisk.

OK here comes the tricky part

setup_2.   Tricky?? I use the word “tricky” because the steps below are not standard Window Dos commands. Do the step(s) blow one at time and it should become clear to you what this step dose. Yes all volumes have a boot sector whether they use it or not. This space is  set aside for some kind of standard boot file. (Normaly Ms-dos or windows)  This is where the boot file lives (in this case a windows boot file system) and  this space will get changed to a ”Dos-7 file system with a file call BOOT.SYS.  Normally this would be a simple windows click and drag command or a Dos move or copy command.  But not this time.  No normal windows or dos command can make this change. We will use a special tool (file) called “DD” to do this.
 Go to your “para_dos” folder. Find and open the setup_2 folder. Unzip file if they are zipped
Note: Do not click on any of the 4 icons in side this folder until instructed to do so. Check to see that  dd.exe is in the folder. Dd.exe is a very powerful program that can move files the windows can’t do. So you need to treat it with respect. Rd.bat and pd.bat are batch file to controls what dd.exe dose. Go slow and read the steps carefully. Do not skip over anything on the first time that you do this.

Launch rd.bat  There will be b/w print on a blue screen. First thing is to put the mouse down while in this blue screen. You will have to use the key board. There may be times when you start the BAT file and then you may not want to continue and just bail out. So let us make sure that you understand how to bail out of a BAT file with out doing  the listed command. It is easy do a “CTL-C “to bail. (Hold the control key down and strike the c key.) Try it one time. you will see "terminate batch job (y/n)" Press the 'y' key to terminate.
Re launch rd.bat and press any key to continue. What you will see. The third or forth  line down looks like non stop chicken scratch. You will see things  like "MSwin4.0” "RamDisk" "FAT12". and near the bottom you see 1+0 records in and 1+0 records out. It is not necessary  to get to involved. For now just Press any key to exit this batch job. OK stay tuned and you will see what I an up to. Once you do this above and complete the install below you can skip this practice step if you do this build at a different time.

 Next step format the ramdrive drive.

Double click MYcomputer icon. then go Right click the ramdisk (R:) Icon and select format to Format the drive.
 Setup up the fallowing paramenters.
       Capasity                3.5, 1.44mb, 512bytes/sector
       File system             FAT
       Alication unit size   Default alacation size
       Volume label          RamDisk
       Format option         Quick format

       look up to the top of the format box in blue to make sure that it
       READS "FORMAT R:\"
       Then click the "start button" to do the format.
       NOTE: this ramdisk (R:) will be the shell to build our 1440k  *.iso /img file.
 
Rre launch rd.bat and press any key to continue. The third or forth  line down looks like non stop chicken scratch. This time you will see things  like "MS DOS" "NO NAME" "FAT12" "NTLR is missing". And near the bottom you see 1+0 records  in  and 1+0 records out. It is not necessary to get to involved. Press any key to exit this batch job. Note: The ramdisk has been changed to a  Ms-dos 5 file system.

Time to change the ramdrive to DOS 7

Still being careful, Next launch dp.bat press a key to continue. This move a new boot.sys file  to the ramdisk. See 1+0 records in 1+0 records out. Your done. Press any key to exit batch job. Ok you have finally made the needed change. let us confirm that the file has been move.
note: Technically this is the only step that needs to be done in this tricky part
Now verify the change. Re launch rd.bat and press any key to contenue. the third or forth  line down looks like non stop chicken scratch.  This time you will see things   "PARA DOS", "FAT12", "KERNEL.SYS". your done. Press any key to exit batch job. The boot.sys file is installed into the ramdisk. For safety I recommend the you delete the “bat” and “exe” file in set up_2 and leave the “zip” file and unzip it when you need it.

Setup_3. Three easy steps to do

Open your ramddrive(R:). There is no files in it and reads 1.38mz in sizes. Go to the “Para_Dos filder ond open it. Then to setup_3. Click and copy kernel.sys into the ramdrive(R:). Do not make a mistake  and drag the wrong file in to the ram disk. This one must be the first file and start on the first FAT allocation unit. So that boot.sys will know where to fine it. (if you make a mistake, you will have to start over. ) Next Click and copy command.com into the ramdrive. This one should  be the second file. Lastly Click and copy autoexec.bat into the ramdrive. (You can copy this one or not. Also safe to remove it and copy it back in if you make a mistake) If you shut your computer off, You will losses all of you work . So time to save the ramdisk image.  Open ramdisk.exe (not ramdisk (R:) ) Click the “save image” navigate to the “Para_dos” folder as “para_dos_01.iso”

Setup_4 Burn the CD and test it

Time to burn the file “para_dos_01.iso” to a CD and it should boot up and give you a  a:drive prompt, it will look very mush like a floppy drive. But there is no files to play with as yet. Also you can’t save any changes that you make make to CD. So this is dose not make for a very good floppy drive. The complete step by step is in the “setup_4” folder in the Para dos file that you downloaded.

Setup_5 Starting up your USB memory  pin drive

OK you have Dos 7 up and running on you bootable CD. Tme to add a some drivers so the Dos 7 can see other devices like USB memory pin drive, and CD ROM, printers etc. The complete step by step is in the “setup_5” folder  in the Para dos file that you downloaded.

Start moving some favorite files and utilities to the “para dos”  USB memory  pin drive,

Vary old IBM type with a 8088 CPU computers will not need anything. Because most of the software (at that time) was designed to run on this type of computer.

Older IBM type with a 80286 CPU computers will need some kind of speed control for some software (mostly games)

IBM type with a 80386 CPU computers may need the "PDP floppy kit"
installed. ( Your computer has a floppy disk drive) and speed control. program

If you are running Windows 95/98/ME you will need the "PDP floppy kit" to do the installed. ( Your computer has a floppy disk drive)

If you are running windows NT/2000/XP and you have a floppy disk drive installed
you will need the "PDP floppy kit" If you do not have a floppy drive you will need the "PDP CD ROM kit".

In step 1 you will be building 1440k image file for your CD disk or floppy disk. So here is a little back ground to start with.. Going back to the old original design of the IBM type computers, they used floppy drives to store and run your files. If for an example you wanted to do text editing, you would get a floppy disk that had a text editor on it. If you wanted to do a spread sheet, you would get a disk with a spread sheet  program on it. There was no hard drives for your computer. As for the matter of fact floppy drives where add on extras that you didn't  really need. You would use cassette tapes for your selection. As time went on it got more important to share some of your data files with different programs so you could have 2 floppy drives. 1 for your data files and the other for your system file and program(s). Then came the hard drive that  could hold all of you stuff. But you still needed at least one floppy drive to load up your hard drive. There was no internet or routers to connect up all of your computer. Yep! Your floppy disk was your router. You would copy something from one machine, remove the floppy and place it into another. Today’s memory USB memory pin stick works much like the old floppy disk, Carrying files from computer to computer. So for backward compatibly we will keep the 1440k floppy and/or its image files. Also as an add on there will be the 360k, 160k, 130k floppy and/or image file capability. Let me make thing a little more clear. You won’t need any of the floppy drive(s), You just need the image files that some else makes  for you. If you don't like the color the text or what ever you can change it, but you will need the floppy drive to remake a new image file. I think that the most of us will be quite contented with just using the image files as they are. There are many image files all ready out there ready to go, and many more can be make very quickly. a more detailed information about the image is not necessary at this time