WARNING **********  ON TOPIC QUESTION  ********** WARNING

Hi all,
       I hate to ask an on-topic, but I need your help.

 I run three Operating Systems on this computer: DOS6.22-Win311,
DOS7-Win98, and Linux. Linux never causes any problems, but
occasionally, Win98 writes a long file name into my DOS6 FAT file
system where I run Win311.

 I usually fix it in Win98, but yesterday I ran SCANDISK under DOS6
and it gave a message "You are using a beta version of DOS6, upgrade
to an official release."

 Now, as it happens, I do *not* run a beta release of DOS6. It's
actually DOS6.22 (the one with the disc-compression thaty Gates
stole), and I *bought* the bloody thing!

 So, I looked at the system files and scandsik.exe, and they're all
the same datestamp... so I booted the old computer (from whence came
the DOS6 and Win311 originally) and scandisk ran okay.

 "Fuk'n'ell!" thinks I. "Bloody Win98 has corrumpted
command.com!"

 So I made a system floppy on the old computer, copied scandisk as
well, booted the new computer off the floppy... and it gave the same
message! Beta Version. I went back to the old computer, booted on the
flopppy, and scandisk worked perfectly okay.

 I am confused. Defrag works okay... it's just scandisk.

 The *difference* must be in the computer bios! When I boot from
floppy, anything on the hard drive is not involved, it must be in the
BIOS. Whatever is misidentifying an illegal DOS version is only in the
new computer. Bloody Microsoft has built somethign norty into my
computer! And stuffed it! Typical M$... they never get it right.

 I specifically bought an AMD system because I knew that M$ was in
bed with Intel (okay, I'm paranoid) but it seems that AMD has tweaked
their BIOS too... and got it wrong. My DOS 6.22 is a bought-and-paid
for genuine Microsoft DOS. I've still got the original box (batteries
not included). The old 486 is an AMD too.

 What th' hell?

... [later]

 I just hunted up my original DOS6 (it's on 5" floppies), and it
seems there was a real history with this bloody thing. There were were
*two* free upgrades (DOS6.2 and DOS6.22) because Gates was caught out
stealing someone else's compression algorithm, and I vaguely remember 
deciding to use 6.22 in order to be safe. 

 When I boot this new computer on DOS6 or DOS6.2, SCANDISK works
okay. It barfs on 6.22 and tells me to load an "official" version,
even though my original 6.22 upgrade disc came from Microsoft!

 In those days, you could ring up M$ and as soon as you turned nasty
they sent you a disc with extra free stuff on it, besides the bug fix.
Now all you get is a computer voice and the run-around... which is
fair enough I suppose, seeing DOS6 was the last time I ever gave
M$ money. The only *LEGAL* program on this computer is the only one
that doesn't work! ROFL! 

 I *still* don't know what the hell is happening. Messages usually go
at the end of EXE files as constant strings, but there's nothing in
io.sys, msdos.sys, or command.com (or scandisk.exe) with "beta" or
"oficial" in it, so where the hell is the message coming from?

 If it works in the old 486 computer and won't work here, even booted
from a floppy, then doesn't it *have* to be in the BIOS? Actually,
what I mean by that is that something in the DOS6.22 O/S accesses
something that only exists in the Pentium (actually an AMD Athlon).

 And BTW, it's a while since I used this computer in Win311 to write
mail. Compared to Win98, is like lightning here in Win311. Win98 is so
slooooowww...

Regards,
Bob

--- BQWK Alpha 0.5