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Solve : Multiboot with different file systems & OS? |
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Answer» Hi everyone, ... if you want to multi boot then one of the boot managers should be able to do it. This is a good Multiple Boot Loader. It's called OSL2000 Boot Manager. http://www.osloader.com/Thanks guys for all these ideas. I will try virtual PC at the weekend. I'm not sure why SATA drivers was mentioned. I have already partitioned 2GB with a FAT16 file system, formatted it and installed DOS 6.22. This was just as a test. My motherboard is actually a SBC - Single Board Computer - (a Robo 8779 AR2) in an industrial rack mounted system because I need to use a number of legacy 16 bit ISA cards simultaneously. The backplane in the rack is AT/ATX compatible and has 8 ISA slots and 6 PCI slots that are actively driven. Slot addressing is automatically set in BIOS. The SBC has the necessary SATA sockets and the hard drive, with DOS 6.22 installed, boots fine. I guess the SATA drivers were all loaded succesfully when I setup the chipset driver, audio, video etc with the manufacturer's supplied CD. My other main issue now, which has nothing to do with the partitioning question I asked about earlier, is communication with one of my 16 bit ISA interface cards that I want to install. This particular card is used to operate a spectrograph (Oriel MS125 with InstaSpec IV) under proprietary DOS software. When I installed the card, using default jumper settings (300H) and other defaults, the PC hung. I couldn't even get into BIOS ! I'm getting no support from the manufacturers Oriel Instruments (now Newport Instruments which became Thermo Corp. afew years ago) since it is a very old card and no longer supported. What I don't understand is why I can't even get into BIOS after pressing DELETE ?! Thanks Steve Steve .... just saw that this is related to your other ISA post for help. Knowing now the additional info, you might run into issues addressing those ISA cards with Virtual PC running a DOS environment. Reason why i say this is because the hardware in the virtual computer is mostly virtual, and I have used this environment successfully for running older software, BUT to address real physical hardware such as a real card in an ISA slot, that is all new territory and might not work out too well. In the past I have had to use redirection to get a virtual LPT1 printer port to PRINT over the network etc, and the stuff your working with is beyond redirection. You will need direct access to the cards in a real DOS environment I am guessing. I tried for example to run Ghost 2003 from within Virtual PC to address my Intel Pro 100 NIC in a PCI slot and it wasnt able to find the hardware, because Ghost with NDIS2 drivers was not able to connect with the hardware address of the physical NIC, so to the Virtual System running Windows XP Pro in which Ghost was running at the DOS level after a shutdown of windows and boot to Ghost, it was not able to see the real hardware of the computer and only its virtual hardware. ( most would wonder...why run Ghost within a virtual environment when you can SIMPLY just save a copy of the virtual machine as a backup for quick restoration. I was just bored one day had some time and was wondering if it would work, and it didnt. So I learned then that within the Virtual PC environment, it see's virtual hardware and the software bends it to work with whatever real hardware exists, but it cant bend it to address a NIC directly according to my experience at the DOS level. ) * If anything its good to get familiar with Virtual PC in case you need to run older software side by side windows, but when it comes to interfacing with real hardware, that is a weakness of Virtual PC unfortunately. Quote My other main issue now, which has nothing to do with the partitioning question I asked about earlier, is communication with one of my 16 bit ISA interface cards that I want to install. This particular card is used to operate a spectrograph (Oriel MS125 with InstaSpec IV) under proprietary DOS software. When I installed the card, using default jumper settings (300H) and other defaults, the PC hung. I couldn't even get into BIOS ! *Its best to keep the QUESTIONS located in the correct location. It was great though that you mentioned that this is related to the ISA issue post though since now I have additional info I didnt have when answering you earlier. If I would have known you had to address older cards, I wouldnt have suggested Virtual PC.Thanks Dave, I will bear in mind your advice in future regarding the location of posts - I am still quite new to the forum. I didn't get around to trying Virtual PC and actually I didn't believe it would solve my problem, which you have now confirmed. As you can see from the other post in the Hardware section, I have a tough problem to solve with this old ISA card. Computer_Commando and Lisa_Maree are helping me out with several suggestions and I will try their ideas at the weekend since I'm away from home and the problem PC right now. [ It's interesting in reading some of the comments how many people think that 16-bit ISA cards are obsolete dinosaurs that are gone forever. When you consider the mass consumer market these folks are absolutely right, of course. But what they do not realize is that there is a large secondary market for these cards, principally from industrial users but there are also private individuals like me, who still need support for these outdated interfaces. Brand new ISA cards are actually still manufactured today by several specialist companies who support industrial users who need these cards to keep their older industrial process control equipment and other machinery running. And dozens of these cards are available on sites such as eBay. ] Steve Quote It's interesting in reading some of the comments how many people think that 16-bit ISA cards are obsolete dinosaurs that are gone forever. From my background in service dept and manufacturing support as an ET in industrial controls with Allen-Bradley/Rockwell Automation/ Creonics as well as my current job with the USPS, while the majority of home computer users have left the older technology in the past in favor for faster computers with more bells and whistles. There are many businesses out there with older controls and systems etc that are running 15+ year old electronics. Reason being why fix what is not broken, as well as some businesses can not afford the money it would cost to upgrade to a newer PIECE of machinery. Usually you can update some of the older electronic components with newer ones such as when dealing with PLC's etc, but in some cases there are no replacement to the original electronics or the replacement to the original electronics to become modernized is too costly, so you end up running older hardware and either servicing it in house or sending it out for service as well as buying used parts/systems to keep your equipment going. At the USPS where I currently work we still use VMS OS and old DEC ALPHA systems as an example of using old hardware for modern day mission critical application. Sure this could be replaced with new, but what they are using is still working so it makes sense to keep running it vs spending millions of dollars to bring the system forward among all post offices and still end up with the same setup and nothing to gain. There is no advantage to moving the hardware forward for this application, the hardware is still running almost flawlessly on a daily basis, and because there is nothing to gain why replace it. About 75% of the machines out there that cancel your mail with wavy bars, ID Tag it, and take a snapshot of the send to address, are using 8 and 16 bit ISA cards with a mix of newer systems, newest being a DUAL CPU AthlonXP 2200+ CPUs running RedHat 6, and another system running also dual 10+ year old AMD CPU's with NT4, and then another system that is running Windows XP for the operator control interface. And the flat sorter that sorts BUBBLE mailers and magazines is run off of a Pentium III 866Mhz computer with 16bit ISA card used for the OCR and is running QNX OS. * BUT ... Fact of the matter is that most assume that problems and questions discussed here are home users, and standard home computers, unless information provided states otherwise. |
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