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Solve : Dual booting with multiple versions of DOS and Win98se? |
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Answer» Does anyone know how or know where to learn how to setup a dual boot with MS-DOS 1.1, MS-DOS 2.2, MS-DOS 4.1, MS-DOS 6.22 and Win 1.1, Win 3.1, and Win 98se? Thanks for replying! Check out: http://oldfiles.org.uk/powerload/bootdisk.htm You might also like to browse: http://oldfiles.org.uk/powerload/msdos.htm After you decide on how many/which versions you want to install we can better advise...Thank-you to WillyW, I actually have that site bookmarked on my browser but hadn't thought to look there. To patio, Thank-you for the support, I haven't got a definite list yet but I will get back to you with in the next week or two. As the main man would say...we'll leave the light on.I'm not sure about 98, but I know Windows 2000 and XP and so forth automatically enable dual-booting when installed on separate PARTITIONS. Right now my C:\ hosts DOS 7.1 and a WfWg 3.11 installation and F:\ has W2k. But if the computer is too old to even install these at all then that solution won't work... There is another problem, at least for certain DOS versions. Unfortunately, DOS 1.1 does not support hard disks at all. That is, the DRIVE letter for any HD's likely will not appear. DOS 2.0 was the first one to support HD's, with HUGE drives up to 10 or 20MB . So if you do a dual-booting, or, tri-booting, etc... scenario, DOS 1.0 might not me applicable. DOS 2.0 will just need to reside on a teensy partition, keeping in mind that partitions larger then 10 or 20 Megs might not be visible. a Example Partitioning scheme might look like this: let's say you have say a, err, 4GB drive. 20MB C:\ with DOS 2.0 32MB D:\ with DOS 3.11 (I think that is the highest amount that version supports...) <4.0 omitted due to possible drive corruption....> 2GB E: with DOS 6.0. This can serve as a base in which you can install the versions of windows you desire, just make sure to put them in separate directories. Also, to ensure you get a selection screen with this config you will need either Win2K, WinXP, or one of those Linux CDs. I wouldn't be able to help with that last one, but I know of an easy way you can get the boot loader portion on the disk without necessarily installing (well, keeping it installed) the OS: the config could take a while, but here's a quick run-down. First make sure you have EVERYTHING you need. at once. some of these steps are necessary, and installing stuff out of sequence could be messy. -First, you need to repartition the drive of course. DOn't use the DOS 2.0 Fdisk.com, use a newer version. DOS 6.0 or DOS 7.1 (if you can find it...) version would be best. Make a primary partition, (for DOS 2 in this case), and then an extended partition that consumes all the rest of the space (trust me on this one....) -then, select the option to create logical drive letters in the extended partition. Go nuts here, make one for each OS you wish to install. If you have a big enough drive, make sure to leave room for whatever OS you will use to provide the boot screen.(W2k, XP) -once you have them partitioned, ready your newer DOS boot disk (not 2.0, at least not yet...) -format each partition. when formatting, you could plop a /s on the command for the drive that will contain DOS 6 and windows and so forth. not necessary though. -now reboot again, with the older dos disk. you could try to prove me wrong about DOS 1.1 not seeing drives, but I'm not holding my breath . Anyway, get say DOS 2 up with the floppy, and then SYS C: with it. Remember to Copy Command.com over there to. Older versions don't take the liberty for you. -now, for each DOS version you want to put each drive, use a boot disk from that particular DOS to SYS (or format /s) the drive in question. Note that using this method, if you need to (read, DOS 5 and 6) the DOS version, you can, but it is tricky: See, the Installer will probably rewrite the boot code on C:\. That would be the DOS 2.0 code there. so then when you reboot onto C:\, you'll be in the newer dos again! even though you say E:\DOS as the folder! So you need to do this- Reboot onto C:\ (now DOS 5, 6 or whatever new ver). do a quick SYS of the drive that ACTUALLY contains this version of DOS. make sure to specify for example E:\DOS\SYS.COM so you run the right version. reboot AGAIN onto the DOS 2 boot disk, and then reformat the C:\ drive AGAIN with /s (if DOS 2.0 has sys.com though, do that. I'm not sure if it does though....) you'll need to repeat this Install->Sys the right drive->re-sys first drive for each DOS installer you run. major pain. but what do you expect ? once (if ever) you finally get these all sysed (at the moment you cannot boot into any of them but C:\, but watch and learn. If you are using W2K or XP as the boot loader, your free. Just install the OS onto a unused drive, and presto! you have a dual boot between DOS 2 and XP. hey! where are the others? to get the others to work, you'll need to fiddle with boot.ini- it might look like this, and will be a hidden file in C:\. [boot loader] timeout=30 default=C:\ [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(5)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect C:\="Previous Version of MS-DOS" notice the exclusion of any reference to D:\,E:\ or F:\. or whatever other drives you defined. the trick is simple! assuming you sysed them right, just add another line for each Drive as shown with "Previous version of MS-DOS" After your done, it might look like this: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=C:\ [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(5)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect C:\="MS-DOS 2.0" D:\="MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows" E:\="MS-DOS 6.0 and Windows" F:\="please tell me you get the idea" and that should do it. If you didn't want Windows 2K or XP at this point, you could simply delete the partition it was on and remove the line from boot.ini that references it. Woops. I guess I got a bit verbose there. Guess I wanted to make sure to myself I understood the semantics involved. Also can't be sure it would work, since this is just off the top of my head. (I SWEAR!) |
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