Dual boot and boot.ini problems

[Guest]

Hi everyone! I know very little about computers etc. so I apologise in
advance.
I have Windows XP Home Edition on my pc, I have two hard drives. I also
have software that runs on DOS only. I was able to reboot in DOS with my old
OS, I can't in XP. I thought if I put a dual boot system in place I could
achieve this goal. I read up on how to put this in place on this info site.
I tried to alter my boot.ini and found I didn't have one! (the errormessage
on bootup about "boot.ini error" was ignored because my machine still worked).

How do I get a boot.ini and then how do I put Win95 dual system in place?
Sorry for so many problems, but I really am stuck.
Thanks.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Simply manufacturing a BOOT.INI file will not resolve your issue. For dual boot setups using Win9X systems, your 9x installation and the boot drive must be FAT32. XP can be on an NTFS drive or partition, but the boot drive must be FAT32. This is required as the Win95 boot files don't know how to deal with NTFS.

For your situation, a 3rd party boot manager such as BootIt Next Generation, www.bootitng.com, will fit the bill nicely.

 

[peterk]

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm
peterk