I need to get some data out of an old machine and hope someone can help me with the right commands.

I hooked it up, plugged it in and on the glowing green screen it says:

COMPAQ Personal Computer DOS Version 3.31

C:>

While I may be almost older than dirt, over the years I've become a Windows addict, and have forgotten what little I knew about using DOS.

The only thing I could remember was dir/w for a directory. It shows the 31 files. including the program I need to access, but I can't remember the syntax or format to start the program. I remember that the commands have to have the spaces, slashes, etc. in exactly the right sequence or you get nowhere.......just the "invalid command" message and the C prompt again and again..... tried typing C:> stupiddamncomputer but that doesn't work no matter where you put the backslash.

Hoping that someone can point me in the right direction with this issue.

Thanks

If typing the DIR command with no other switch than /w displays the file you are needing to run, then it is located in the root directory. In most cases you can run it directly by simply typing its name.

If the program is one that needs to be given information from the command prompt, such as the name or location of a data file, this can vary from program to program as to the exact syntax.

At the very least, typing the program's filename should run it. Taking their cue from DOS's own utilities, some programs will respond to name /?[i] or [i]name /help with command syntax information.

If you click on commands here
http://www.computerhope.com/msdos.htm
they do show the syntax. Have fun

If you are needing to copy data from the machine to another HDD or floppy, you can use the 'copy' command.

You should be able to type 'copy /h' to get the correct syntax.

If you are copying to a floppy it should look something like this : c:>copy c:/myprog/*.* a:/
The above command will copy everything in the 'myprog' folder to the a: drive. Just replace 'myprog' with the name of the folder.

boot up with Knoppix CD. Then you can look at the hard drive and see what you have.