Installing new stuff is fun. Tinkering with your system is fun. But by all means, BACKUP YOUR FILES FIRST!

The two key files you need to worry about are your config.sys and autoexec.bat files. Here’s how to make a copy of them before you start messing around:

From the C:\> root directory, make a copy of the files under a different name:

copy autoexec.bat autoexec.bup

copy config.sys config.bup

To make certain you did it correctly, look for errors and from the c:\> prompt type: DIR<ENTER>. This will print the directory to the screen. Check and make sure you have your original files and your new files. If your directory has so many files that it rolls off the top of the screen, type:

DIR /p

This will pause after a screenful so you can look for the files. You will be looking for:

autoexec.bat
config.sys
autoexec.bup
config.bup

If you don’t have the backups then you need to run the commands above again.

In order to recover those backups once you mess things up, delete the temporary files and rename the  backups:

del autoexec.bat
del config.sys
rename autoexec.bup autoexec.bat
rename config.bup config.sys

If you can’t get into your system to do anything, either use your startup boot disk, or reboot and skip your startup files.

Modified: 02/11/99