I have a friend in an A+ class, where one of the activities is that they are handed:
A MoBo with a preinstalled CPU
RAM
HDD
Optical Drive
FDD
Video Card


The task is to assemble the components (not in a case) and install an operating system (either DOS or Linux) in the shortest possible time. The OS must be able to use the HDD, ODD and FDD.

The current record is something like 2 min 30 sec, and my friend is intending to beat it.

What OS would you recommend, keeping in mind that he has never used Linux and isn't interested in learning anything more than the most basic principles (if that)?

Why would he try to use Linux then? MS-DOS is a much simpler operating system than any Linux distribution. It has been awhile, but I think a full DOS install doesn't take more than 5 MB. MS-DOS also requires almost zero hardware-specific configuration.

In other words, it would be much faster to install DOS than Linux.

The only issue is the read time on floppies. But that is only if the rules say he has to use the official installers. If not, then there are CD-based DOS installers, and he could even just copy the entire DOS directory structure to a blank FAT32 drive and write the MBR. That would only take like 4 seconds to do from a LiveCD.

I don't know if they're required to stick to standard installs, however I do know that they are allowed to use .bat files or equivalent.

How do you manually write an MBR, and can you automate that easily?

For those that haven't figured it out yet, while I can make XP do almost anything I want, and can do some odd things with Fedora, I don't do hardware. (Yet)

The easiest way is to simply use a DOS boot floppy/CD and run the command "fdisk /mbr". That will get an appropriate MBR written for booting either DOS or Windows.

You could also write LILO/GRUB into the MBR and boot DOS that way, but again, that is just another level of complication that is going to add time to the installation.

'fdisk /mbr' seems like a BASH command rather than a DOS one. Would 'format c: /q' do the trick? Either way, is there something better?

No, it is definitely a DOS command...

That format command would only do a quick FAT32 format to the "C" drive, it wouldn't do anything to the MBR.

Provided the drive is already partitioned..
format c: /s

Otherwise you will be using the DOS utility FDISK to partition the drive.

the /s means to copy the DOS System files to the formatted drive so that it can boot.

You would then need to load the driver for the CDROM in config.sys. Of course CDROM technology has come a long way since I last installed DOS, but I believe you will still need MSCDEX and a line in config.sys to load it and a reference line in autoexec.bat.

I wonder how long it would take to restore a ghost image of a DOS system.. you could burn ghost and the DOS image with autoexec.bat and config.sys all on a single CDROM.. hrm..


wow that brings back memories...

a great place to find bootable DOS disks is http://www.bootdisk.com a real handy site in a pinch when you need a floppy.

Thanks, I'll pass that along.