Obscure DOS question

[Jim Leonard]

Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
> MS-DOS 3.3 has a limit of 512 entries in the root directory.  I have a
> need to put more than this.

I seem to remember that the limit is actually 224.

> Was there ever a way to put more than 512 files in the root directory?
> Some sort of patch or utility?

Nope.  But 224 isn't an unreasonable limit because even on a 1.44MB each file 
would be limited to no more than about 6K-7K apiece.

> Another question:
> 
> When using the SUBST command in MS-DOS, you cannot aparently substitute
> the C: drive.  I seem to recall that MS-DOS 6.0 allowed this, although I
> might be confusing that with the ability of LANtastic to redirect the C:
> drive to a network drive.

Checking 6.22 right here...   works fine (I did "subst d: c:\").  So yes, you can.

> At any rate, what I'm trying to do is overcome the limit of 512 file
> entries in an MS-DOS 3.3 root directory.

SUBST won't help you do this unless you don't use a floppy at all, like:

	subst a: c:\temp

...which works fine.

My question is:  Why?
-- 
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org)                    http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project?             http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at             http://www.mindcandydvd.com/