The . entry within a directory is a link to the containing directory, and .. is a link to its parent.
These appear in every directory except the root, possibly because DOS started without support for subdirectories.

I know I'm all over the place, and I appreciate you folks.

I ended up purchasing floppies and pre-installed software on a DOM from a repair center for these machines.

I'm going to still try and get it working myself a few more times... but it was peace of mind buying this.

Now my question, I still need to grab a file off my original DOM... atleast try to.

The instructions I received from new software (included pic) has <> symbols.

It's telling me to exit out of software by pressing 9. That will put me in the C: drive.

I need to copy this parameter file.

This command has me confused.

<C:>copy bmdcprms.sys a:>

Why or what is the purpose of the <> in this command? And the > after a: ?

its just telling you to backup that bmdcprms.sys from the C: onto the floppy disk A:
im not sure why it puts <> in the command, but

1copy bmdcprms.sys a:

does what it asks for
cause the rest of the process is likely going to overwrite it and it could be the file is calibrated to the hardware or has something specific to your machine.

It's just a bad choice of formatting

Good news!

I have it booted and running from a SD card for hard drive. DOS 6.22 and the Bridgeport software running.

I did a couple things at once. Changed from a 32GB card to a 8GB card... and I did run fdisk /mbr.

There's a couple things I'm going to try now that I think I'll be able to do this again if I screw something up.

There are some Bridgeport system files I need to replace, and I would like to be able to clone the SD card.... so if I replace card I don't have to go through the steps of loading from the floppy.

Can someone give me the DOS commands for this please?

I have file name Bmdcprms.sys on drive F:

I want to move that file to drive E: . It already exists on drive E: , I want to replace it with the one from drive F: .

delete or rename the old file first.

[These are implied to be run in the context of where the file you want to overwrite is. Change to that directory before running them.]

delete:
del bmdcprms.sys

rename:
ren bmdcprms.sys bmdcprms.old

then the copy operation will succeed, because there will not be a file there with that name already.

I strongly encourage rename.

Ok, I did change file name to .old

So can you please type out exactly what I should type in my command prompt to copy bmdcprms.sys from F: to E: . And does it matter what drive letter I am on when I type the command?

Nevermind, I got it I think

I get this when I try and copy the file to my sd card?

Is there another way?

I think I got it.

I was trying to pull that sys file from the old DOM that didn't work.

Way back when I started this thread I was able to copy that complete DOM to my desktop in W10. I transferred that whole backup to a USB stick. I had purchased a working W98 computer, put that USB stick in W98... Dos prompt.... then I was able to copy that single file to my SD card.

Put the SD card into my Bridgeport CNC... and it seems to be working with the correct sys file for this machine now!

I have some testing to do... but it does seem to work.

That was an effort. Wow. Thank you guys. I have another question.

I would like to make multiple copies of this SD card now.... so they are plug and play. What would be the best way to do this? Is there one single command to copy that will accomplish that?

Look into win32 disk imager

Since I have 1 working SD card HDD, I decided to make another one. This time with a micro ultra SD.

I couldn't get Fdisk to work. I deleted non DOS partitions, then deleted the DOS partitions.

Ran Fdisk /mbr... then Fdisk... and it worked.

Got the rest of stuff loaded and running.

Learned a lot from you guys! Thank you so much!!!

I'm planning on leaving the Micro SD in place as the HDD.

If I have to put in the other SD card in as the HDD, will it be plug and play?

Will I have to go into BIOS and change the cylinder head sectors and other HDD info before using?

I did write down that info for both cards. They are slightly different.

JonnyQuest wrote on 2025-05-10, 06:55:

Will I have to go into BIOS and change the cylinder head sectors and other HDD info before using?

I did write down that info for both cards. They are slightly different.

yes

JonnyQuest wrote on 2025-05-10, 06:55:

If I have to put in the other SD card in as the HDD, will it be plug and play?

i thought you were using a isa card with XT-BIOS on it?

Procedure if I wanted to put in a different hard drive that I previously had working. BIOS is set to boot A: then C:.

With computer off, put in previous SD card HDD. Install DOS boot floppy in A:.

Turn on computer.

It will then try and boot from C:, won't recognize it.. then boot A: .

Ctrl alt delete to get into BIOS.

Change written down SD HDD CHS sectors and other parameters.

Remove DOS boot disk from A:, and restart computer.

It should boot from C: drive SD HDD now? Is this correct procedure?

Pickle wrote on 2025-05-10, 14:26:

JonnyQuest wrote on 2025-05-10, 06:55:

If I have to put in the other SD card in as the HDD, will it be plug and play?

i thought you were using a isa card with XT-BIOS on it?

After I got A: drive working... I went back to square one... and did everything the old school way, 🤣.

I currently have a SD card adapter plugged directly into IDE port.

I just typed another message before seeing yours Pickle. The XTIDE didn't automatically boot one of my old DOMs... so I decided to try without.

I re created another SD card for a backup, but I want to know that I'm not going to have too much headache if I have to use it.

I went to fire up the machine after a week of it being dormant. HDD not found.

Ok, maybe SD card wasn't in place fully. Re seated, still no HDD found. Granted this was the Micro SD setup... so I switch to my back up SD card, go into BIOS, change settings for this card. No HDD found.

Luckily, something caught my eye. The IDE SD card adapters LED lights were on... but dim.

I had been powering it from the smaller 4 pin power lead. I unplugged that (seemed loose at solder joints on board) and plugged in the larger 4 pin power lead. Everything is good again.

Without wanting to test this... I confirmed swapping HDD SD cards and changing BIOS settings worked perfectly. Write down these BIOS numbers when setting up multiple HDD's!