Download DR DOS 9.0

Current Release: DR DOS® 9.0 Revision 921 (Released July 11, 2026)

BETA SOFTWARE: DR DOS 9.0 is in active development. This software may cause data loss. Back up your data and avoid using on production systems.
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2 Disk Image
Download DR DOS 9.0 Revision 921

Selected file: boot16_en.img.7z

By downloading, you agree to our license terms: non-commercial use only, provided without warranty. See full license for details.

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Quick Installation Guide

DR DOS ships in two formats — pick the one that matches the disk image you downloaded above. Both are available in English and German.

Hard Disk Image — boot16 (recommended)

A ready-to-run disk with DR DOS pre-installed. The fastest way to get started.

  1. Download boot16_en.img.7z (or _de for German) using the button above
  2. Extract the archive to get boot16_en.img (approximately 120 MB): 7z x boot16_en.img.7z
  3. Write the image to a CompactFlash card, USB drive, or virtual disk with dd or a similar imaging tool: dd if=boot16_en.img of=/dev/sdX bs=4M (double-check the target device — writing to the wrong one destroys its data)
  4. Configure your computer or emulator to boot from that media
  5. DR DOS loads automatically and presents the command prompt — no installation needed!

Floppy Image — floppy144

A bootable 1.44 MB floppy with an installer for setting up DR DOS on a hard disk. Use this on real hardware with a floppy drive, or to install onto a new/empty disk.

  1. Download floppy144_en.img.7z (or _de for German) and extract it: 7z x floppy144_en.img.7z
  2. Write floppy144_en.img to a diskette (dd if=floppy144_en.img of=/dev/fdX bs=512), or attach it as a floppy drive in your virtual machine
  3. Boot from the floppy — DR DOS loads to an A:\> prompt
  4. If your hard disk has no DOS partition yet, run FDISK to create a primary DOS partition, then reboot
  5. Run INSTALL to format drive C:, transfer the system files, and copy the DOS utilities (this erases all data on drive C:)
  6. Remove the floppy and reboot — DR DOS now starts from the hard disk
Testing in QEMU? For the hard disk image: qemu-system-i386 -m 16m -cpu 486 -drive file=boot16_en.img,format=raw,if=ide. Full QEMU and VirtualBox/VMware setup, plus troubleshooting, is covered in the software manual.

System Requirements

DR DOS 9.0 runs on a wide variety of x86 hardware, both real and virtual:

DR DOS 9.0 works on both real vintage hardware and modern virtual machines including QEMU, VirtualBox, VMware, and others.

Previous Releases

Previous beta builds are available in our releases archive. Check our release notes to see what's been added in each revision.