Uninstalling After Deleting the OLD_DOS.1 Directory (77626)


The information in this article applies to:
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0a
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22
This article was previously published under Q77626

SYMPTOMS

If you delete your OLD_DOS.1 directory and then use your MS-DOS version 5.0 or later Uninstall disk to attempt to return to your previous version of MS- DOS, you may receive the following message:

Uninstalling MS-DOS n.n is no longer possible

The information needed to restore your original version of DOS is no longer present on your hard disk. Please remove the Uninstall disk from your drive and press the ENTER key to restart your system.

WORKAROUND

To recreate the OLD_DOS.1 directory and complete the uninstall process, you need to have the following:
    • Your previous version of MS-DOS on floppy disks
    • Your MS-DOS 5.0 or later Uninstall disk
(NOTE: The Uninstall disk can only be used ONCE to uninstall back to your previous version of MS-DOS. If you've already used it to uninstall before, the following procedure cannot work.)

The Uninstall program works if you have an OLD_DOS.1 directory with a file named README.NOW in it. If you don't have this file, do the following:
    • Type MD OLD_DOS.1 and press ENTER at the command prompt to create the OLD_DOS.1 directory in your root directory.
    • Type CD \OLD_DOS.1 and press ENTER to go into the OLD_DOS.1 directory.
    • Type COPY CON README.NOW and press ENTER twice.
    • Press CTRL+Z, then press ENTER. The message should appear.

    1 file(s) copied


    • Put the disk with your previous MS-DOS version into drive A.
    • Type COPY A:*.* C:\OLD_DOS.1 to copy the files from the disk(s) into the OLD_DOS.1 directory. (Make sure the COMMAND.COM file gets copied there.)
    • Remove the DOS disk, insert the Uninstall disk in drive A, and reboot your machine. You should now be able to uninstall MS-DOS 5.0.
NOTE: Make sure that you do steps 5-7 if you want all of the utilities from your previous version of MS-DOS. Without these steps, Uninstall only removes your MS-DOS system files. Furthermore, you may run into problems booting up if your COMSPEC variable is set to your DOS sub-directory and you didn't copy your COMMAND.COM to that subdirectory.
Modification Type: Major Last Reviewed: 5/12/2003
Keywords: KB77626
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.