DOS Error Code Descriptions
DOS was designed to run on computers with far less processing power than is currently available today. To keep memory to a minimum, errors were reported by displaying an error number rather than a descriptive message. The following is a list of what the error messages would have been if space for a translation table had been available. Error numbers are shown in bold.
- 1 Invalid Function Code
- 2 File Not Found
- 3 Path Not Found
- 4 No Handles Available, Too Many Open Files
- 5 Access Denied
- 6 Invalid File Handle
- 7 Memory Control Blocks Destroyed
- 8 Insufficient Memory
- 9 Invalid Memory Block Address
- 10 Invalid Environment
- 11 Invalid Format
- 12 Invalid Access Code
- 13 Invalid Data
- 14
- 15 Invalid Drive
- 16 Attempt to Remove the Current Directory
- 17 Not Same Device
- 18 No More Files
- 19 Disk is Write-Protected
- 20 Bad Disk Unit
- 21 Drive Not Ready
- 22 Invalid Disk Command
- 23 Cyclic Redundancy Check Error
- 24 Invalid Length for Disk Operation
- 25 Seek Error
- 26 Unknown Media Type, Not a DOS Disk
- 27 Sector Not Found
- 28 Out of Paper
- 29 Write Fault
- 30 Read Fault
- 31 General Failure
- 32 Sharing Violation
- 33 Lock Violation
- 34 Wrong Disk, Invalid Disk Change
- 35 File Control Block Unavailable
- 36-49 Reserved for Future Use
- 50 Network Request Not Supported
- 51 Remote Computer Not Listening
- 52 Duplicate Name on Network
- 53 Network Name Not Found
- 54 Network Busy
- 55 Network Device no longer Exists
- 56 Net BIOS Command Limit Exceeded
- 57 Network Adapter Hardware Error
- 58 Incorrect Response from Network
- 59 Unexpected Network Error
- 60 Incompatible Remote Adapter
- 61 Print Queue Full
- 62 Queue Not Full
- 63 Not Enough Space for Print File
- 64 Network Name was Deleted
- 65 Access Denied
- 66 Network Device Type Incorrect
- 67 Network Name Not Found
- 68 Network Name Limit Exceeded
- 69 Net BIOS Session Limit Exceeded
- 70 Temporarily Paused
- 71 Network Request Not Accepted
- 72 Print or Disk Redirection is Paused
- 73-79 Reserved for Future Use
- 80 File Already Exists
- 81
- 82 Cannot Create Directory Entry
- 83 Interrupt 24 Failure
- 84 Out of Structures
- 85 Already Assigned
- 86 Invalid Password
- 87 Invalid Parameter
- 88 Net Write Fault
I don't know what error codes 14 and 81 were for. Those error codes which translate to the same error message in the above list are presumably triggered by different problems. I don't have any more detailed explanation of what some of these error messages actually mean and what the real causes of the errors are but presumably most of the ones that are not obvious would normally only show up during program testing of a newly written program.
