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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Clarence Dodge who wrote (4204)	12/14/1998 12:37:00 PM
From: Spots	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 14778

>>As a general question, the above would indicate one could not have a triple-boot system..DOS, Win95/98 and NT. Just wondering if there were any exceptions to the NT + one OS rule.. No (that is, incorrect) and not without a boot manager. NT can boot versions of NT and one other OS. The "one other" restriction is simply that it either boots an NT version or executes the code in the saved boot sector (bootsect.dos), which boots whatever it boots. (Though I've sometimes wondered if one might put boot sectors on other drives and boot them with D:\="xxx", etc. Never had the guts to try it, though. Anyhow, the NT docs say "one other".) However, it's easy enough to boot (one of) 95/98 as the "one other", and both of these OSs can boot themselves or a "previous version of MS Dos". That is, a separate DOS from the real DOS that is built into these OSs. I have to say here I'm guessing about 98. I haven't played with it, but I haven't heard or read different, so I think it's a good bet it works like 95 in this respect. On my own system I do exactly that. In fact, I can go it one step further and boot Win 3.11 from the "previous Dos". So, e.g., to boot Win 3.11 I reboot; select Win 95 from the NT boot menu; hit (I think) F8 as 95 boots to get the 95 boot menu; choose "Previous version of MS DOS", which boots dos, and, finally, Win 3.11 (windows for workgroups, actually). In my case I keep the old guys around because I still support a creaky old product on Win 3.11 (though I don't think it has any customers left). For virtually any other use, if you had 95 or 98 installed, you wouldn't need a second "previous version" of DOS, because both these OSs include a "real" DOS subsystem. That is, you can boot to a DOS prompt and do anything you can do with a stand alone DOS (unless you just HAVE to run Win 3.11 for some reason). >>By all this you mean having a separate install of real DOS bootable from BIOS by any of the methods you mentioned or the creation of the bootable floppies or having both which is currently my objective? By "all this" I meant all the trouble it takes to get a bootable real DOS after installing NT, however one goes about it. >>If I do have to install DOS after NT, which of the methods you and ZP outlined should I use ZP's method is by far the safest. Install DOS on the other HD, since you can make it bootable from the bios. You then have no need to disturb NT at all, as you would be writing boot sectors on different drives. You wouldn't see DOS in the NT boot sequence; you would have to select it from the bios. I don't think of such things myself because I don't have such a bios option. I have done exactly that by recabling and/or rejumpering disks, but since I would then have to recable to boot, it isn't very practical. As far as I know, though, DOS must be installed on and boot from the c: drive. I don't know what kind of lettering scheme the bios assigns if you tell it "boot from d:" or whatever the equivalent is in the bios selection. Presumably the boot hard drive becomes c: and other drives get d:, etc. (I'm assuming one partition per drive; it's more complicated if there are more.) Now here's an important question. Suppose you tell the bios "boot from d:" but then boot from a floppy. Which drive gets letter c? If it's the second hard drive, you're in business, because now you can install DOS on it (you have to boot from the floppy to install DOS). If it's the first hard drive (with NT on it), you're back where you started. In the latter case, just rejumper or recable the disks and make the second drive drive C temporarily (you could leave the NT drive unconnected -- the safest of all), then install DOS, then put the disks back as before. Now you should be able to boot DOS or NT from the bios. Once you have DOS, you can build bootable DOS floppies. Spots

To: Clarence Dodge who wrote (4204)	12/14/1998 12:46:00 PM
From: Sean W. Smith	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14778

Clarence, Two things. 1. Only a moron would use the NT boot manager when there are other free and more robust choices available. Hope I don't offend anyone but I have no idea of any technical reason why anyone would use MS's multiboot features. 2. I have setup three different NT's on their multboot with no problems. never tried anything else because of #1. (Nevermind saw spots reply). Why BIOS??? I keep seeing advice and concerns about boot managers here from people who have never used them. Understanding the BIOS is also important for the really bad disaster situations but using a BM will handle 95% of all situations. I guess some of participants need to get up to date on 10 year old technology for managing multiple OS's:) Sean