Windows XP supports, among other formats, an NTFS file system...not just the DOS compatible ones.

Simply booting from a DOS floppy is not always a viable option -- doing that on my Win2K machine (same NTFS file system) results in an inability to recognize my hard drive as containing valid data. It's literally an incompatible file format.

The more Micro$oft moves away from its DOS roots, the harder it will be to boot into DOS. Since Windows, in any form, is not a real-time operating system, any version of Windows will remain an iffy platform from which to run a CNC system.

Thankfully DOS was real time, as is LINUX, and so are several other options. DOS is just the most obvious RT OS to run if your files are on a Windows partition.

-- Chuck Knight