DOS Error Codes
| Error Code | Meaning |
|---|
|
Abort, Retry, Fail? | Usually you
will get this error message if you are trying to read a
disk that is not readable or if there is not a disk present. |
| Access denied | Usually meaning
the file has a attribute on it (R,A,S or H). |
| Bad command or file name | Usually
this is when you type a command incorrectly or if DOS does not
know the command. |
| Bad or missing command interpreter
| DOS cannot locate the Command.com an important file that
holds all of DOS's needed information, you will need to
recopy it also there is a chance you could possible have
a virus |
| Divide overflow | Program has
attempted to divide a number by 0. |
| Drive not ready error | Disk in
the drive is not readable or a disk is not in
the disk drive. |
| Duplicate file name or file not found
| When attempting to rename a file, the file does not
exist or there is already a file with that name. |
| File cannot be copied onto itself
| An attempt to copy a file could not be completed
because the file already exists or you are giving the same source and
destination. |
| File creation error | Directory
could be full because of the DOS limitation of files in
one directory the file could also already exist or the
file was not copied correctly |
| File not found | Meaning that in
the directory that you searched does not have that
certain file or there are no files in the directory. |
| General Failure | Something bad
has occurred and DOS not know what to do. If this error message is given when trying to read
the hard drive, you may have a loose cable or power plug to the hard drive. you may need to format the hard drive, try to reload the system files (command.com, IO.sys and MSDOS.sys) first. If these efforts fail, you may have a bad hard drive. |
| Insufficient disk space | Disk is
full or if you are trying to copy a file to a disk the
file is too big to fit on the disk. |
| Internal stack overflow | DOS's
internal storage areas are full. You may need to go into
your config.sys and increase the STACKS=X , Y line. |
| Invalid directory | Directory is
invalid or does not exist in the directory you are
currently in. |
| Invalid drive specification |
Drive does not exist on the computer or cannot be found. |
| Invalid file name or file not found
| DOS cannot find the file specified in the current
directory or the file has a invalid character in it. |
| Invalid media, track 0 bad or unusable
| Format command cannot format
the specified disk, the disk capacity is invalid, or a
bad disk. |
| Invalid number of parameters |
When the command was typed, either a parameter was left out that
DOS needed or the syntax was incorrect |
| Invalid parameter | Typed a
command correctly but specified an incorrect parameter
|
| Invalid Switch | The wrong slash
was typed such as dir \w when it should be dir /w or the switch does not exist for that command. |
| Non-System disk or disk error |
When booting up the computer, this error will usually
occur when there is a floppy disk in the disk drive that is
not bootable. If there is not a disk in the disk drive, this
could be an indication of an unrecognized hard drive, or hard drive with missing system files. |
| Not ready, reading drive X |
Attempted to read a disk that is not readable or there is
no disk in that drive. |
| Write fault error | Tried to
write to a device that is not connected or is not valid. Could also be a disk that is write protected. |
| Write protect | Tried to write to
a disk that is write protected |